Background: Chronic heroin use is associated with executive functioning deficits.However, it is unclear about the relationships between long time heroin dependence and changes in different aspects of executive functions, partly due to the small samples and/or polysubstance misuse status of subjects in previous studies.We investigated the time-dependent effects of long time heroin use on deficits of "hot" and "cold" executive functions (affective decision making and working memory) in a relatively large sample of "pure" heroin-dependent individuals.Methods: A total of 122 heroin addicts with a lifetime history of drug use from three months to twenty-one years,classified into five subgroups based on duration, and 21 control subjects underwent neuropsychological assessments using the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and the Self-ordered Pointing Test (SOPT).Results: Heroin addicts performed significantly impaired on the measure of affective decision making, worse with more years of heroin use, while they did not perform significantly severe on the working memory task.