Human narcotic use emulator.

Last year the author extended his modular, open-systems, computerized human nervous system function emulator (HNSFE) by adding simulated hormone action. This year he extends the HNSFE with a related capability: emulation of the effects of therapeutic and non-therapeutic drug use. The opioid narcotic drug model was chosen because of its importance in medicine and because of its potential for misuse. For this research the author utilized a frequency-to-voltage converter (FVC) as an analog calculational element to simulate the effects of drug binding to neural cell membrane receptors. The resulting voltages are utilized in this human narcotic use emulator (HNUE) to represent the level of opioid drug activity at the cellular level which initiates high level somatic and behavioral responses in the HNSFE artificial intelligence system. The HNUE is compatible with the computerized postoperative pain / narcotic dosing model of Liu and Northrop. Some effects of long-term drug use (the development of tolerance, physical and psychological dependence, addiction and the withdrawal syndrome) are emulated.