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Question about drugs.....

myway

Banned
Ever met someone that can't get high on coke? Seriously, good coke. Everyone high from the same batch...... but one person(says he has never even tried coke) feels nothing from it? Heard a story about it about someone I know. Ever heard of such a thing?
 
my fantasy sandwich of me,myway and ms willow gets better and better
I need to do some preparatory cardio
 
Seriously. I heard it from SEVERAL people about someone I know. I wasn't there. They all said he only complained about a numb nostril.....
 
The probably have Adhd.
 
Cal_21 said:
Musta been coke zero.
i dont think you understand how much Im laughing at this. Right fucking now. Its crazy how funny this is. Im not even kidding for one second.
 
My friend was like that. I met him when I entered the big house. He doesnt feel shit. He's a frickin mummy.
 
what nimbus said
 
myway said:
Ever met someone that can't get high on coke? Seriously, good coke. Everyone high from the same batch...... but one person(says he has never even tried coke) feels nothing from it? Heard a story about it about someone I know. Ever heard of such a thing?
Coke is a hell of a drug!
 
the_alcatraz said:
My friend was like that. I met him when I entered the big house. He doesnt feel shit. He's a frickin mummy.
what you get sent up for holmes?
 
all the whey said:
The probably have Adhd.
I tried coke once. I sniffed about 3 lines and felt nothing at all. I have adhd. Is this true? Every one elce was getting high and I was like wtf is so great about this shit. It sucks I am not getting a thing.
 
needtogetaas said:
I tried coke once. I sniffed about 3 lines and felt nothing at all. I have adhd. Is this true? Every one elce was getting high and I was like wtf is so great about this shit. It sucks I am not getting a thing.

I have adhd. But, I never tried coke. However, I have heard a lot of others with it get little reaction from coke.
 
needtogetaas said:
I tried coke once. I sniffed about 3 lines and felt nothing at all. I have adhd. Is this true? Every one elce was getting high and I was like wtf is so great about this shit. It sucks I am not getting a thing.

That's what i'm talking about. Sounds kinda like the same thing. They said they kept giving him more lines but he was like, "wtf, not doing shit to me".
 
needtogetaas said:
I tried coke once. I sniffed about 3 lines and felt nothing at all. I have adhd. Is this true? Every one elce was getting high and I was like wtf is so great about this shit. It sucks I am not getting a thing.

Adhd = Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder?
 
needtogetaas said:
yes and I have add to.

It's the same thing. Adhd and ADD are basically the same thing. One main difference is an adult can be diagnosed with one but u gotta be a kid to get called the other.
 
myway said:
Ever met someone that can't get high on coke? Seriously, good coke. Everyone high from the same batch...... but one person(says he has never even tried coke) feels nothing from it? Heard a story about it about someone I know. Ever heard of such a thing?
severe chemical imbalace in the brain?

prolly makes them feel normal

kind of like stems work for add?
 
how do I fake a test for adhd?

I`m getting tested april 14th
I want adderal
 
Spartacus said:
how do I fake a test for adhd?

I`m getting tested april 14th
I want adderal

act like you can't concentrate on shit...like you dnt have enough analytical skillz and like you can do smthg for so long, then you need to change into doing something else.
 
Spartacus said:
how do I fake a test for adhd?

I`m getting tested april 14th
I want adderal
Look up the symptoms and mimic them...you can google it. If the 1st Doc doesn't give it to you then find another that will. :)
 
Coke never did shit for me. Just make nasty shit run down the back of my throat and numb whatever it touches. Complete waste!
 
Spartacus said:
how do I fake a test for adhd?

I`m getting tested april 14th
I want adderal
dont mess with that stuff bro, its not worth it. judging from what i know you dont need it anyhow.
 
javaguru said:
Look up the symptoms and mimic them...you can google it. If the 1st Doc doesn't give it to you then find another that will. :)
this is what I plan to do
this doc is my third attempt
and she`s got me to take th test
so far then it`s a go

this is what I want for an anti-depressant
it`s probably the best for depression
but doctors are skittish to prescibe because of the abuse potential
because the damn rats in the tests keep pulling the lever to self administer
well no shit
it works

it`s frustrating because I`ve been through around a dozn anti-depressants and they all have bad sides,esp. sexual retardation

I take wellbutrin,but it only partially works
amphetamine works
I don`t even want to take it daily
just on down days
 
One of the strippers I use to date is asking me for adderal, said something about dieting. wtf is that stuff?
 
PuddleMonkey said:
One of the strippers I use to date is asking me for adderal, said something about dieting. wtf is that stuff?

It is a stim that will kill appetite.

A lot of Strippers do use them.lol
 
all the whey said:
It is a stim that will kill appetite.

A lot of Strippers do use them.lol


Weird, I use to get them all ephedra for the longest time but then started keeping it all for me once supply got slim.
 
the_alcatraz said:
act like you can't concentrate on shit...like you dnt have enough analytical skillz and like you can do smthg for so long, then you need to change into doing something else.
that`s fairly accurate too.I`ve changed from say a decade ago. I used to play highly complex military strategy games..some requiring around 3 hours of caculations and ploting before you advanced to the next turn
hours and hours a night
pissed the wife off

now I constantly shift fom posting on the net..reading a magazine or paper for a few..and then watching TV...back and forth and back and forth
 
PuddleMonkey said:
One of the strippers I use to date is asking me for adderal, said something about dieting. wtf is that stuff?
Dood...you actually "dated" a stripper....I hope you were really young or "dated" means "fucked."
 
Spartacus said:
that`s fairly accurate too.I`ve changed from say a decade ago. I used to play highly complex military strategy games..some requiring around 3 hours of caculations and ploting before you advanced to the next turn
hours and hours a night
pissed the wife off

now I constantly shift fom posting on the net..reading a magazine or paper for a few..and then watching TV...back and forth and back and forth

decreased concentration is usually a first symptom of ADHD.
 
Spartacus said:
this is what I plan to do
this doc is my third attempt
and she`s got me to take th test
so far then it`s a go

this is what I want for an anti-depressant
it`s probably the best for depression
but doctors are skittish to prescibe because of the abuse potential
because the damn rats in the tests keep pulling the lever to self administer
well no shit
it works

it`s frustrating because I`ve been through around a dozn anti-depressants and they all have bad sides,esp. sexual retardation

I take wellbutrin,but it only partially works
amphetamine works
I don`t even want to take it daily
just on down days
The only advice I can give is to give the party line.

For example, just call all the Nazi camps "death camps" and don't try to explain the difference between a work camp and a "death camp." :)
 
javaguru said:
The only advice I can give is to give the party line.

For example, just call all the Nazi camps "death camps" and don't try to explain the difference between a work camp and a "death camp." :)

olololoololololololo
 
Spartacus said:
what?

she`s Jewish
the doc
I have no idea, I was just giving an example..tell her what she wants to hear. Telling someone what they want to hear and being good looking will get you elected POTUS. :)
 
javaguru said:
The only advice I can give is to give the party line.

For example, just call all the Nazi camps "death camps" and don't try to explain the difference between a work camp and a "death camp." :)
yesterday I cremated the daughter of a pair of concentration camp survivors
the minister just told me that when I noticed she was from Germany
the irony
 
MY SIS's doc perscribed her adderal a couple weeks ago for her adhd

but her insurance wouldnt cover adderal, made her switch to ritalin or whatever that is.

she was pissed!

i wanted in on some of that too
 
all the whey said:
The probably have Adhd.


Exactly. One of my "friends" from when I used to rage could rail it out all night as he sat at his laptop getting work done. He could fall asleep at any time. I could look at it and I'd pace the carpet bare.
 
cindylou said:
MY SIS's doc perscribed her adderal a couple weeks ago for her adhd

but her insurance wouldnt cover adderal, made her switch to ritalin or whatever that is.

she was pissed!

i wanted in on some of that too


Pud can hook you and your sis up.

Just tell him what club you dance at.
 
PuddleMonkey said:
One of the strippers I use to date is asking me for adderal, said something about dieting. wtf is that stuff?

Basically it's amphetamines (speed).
 
Some people may have a high tolerance (or just dont feel shit at all) from certain medication. It's very uncommon with coke but possible. That's why they switch to other local anaesthetics if cocaine doesnt work (benzocaine....).
 
cindylou said:
MY SIS's doc perscribed her adderal a couple weeks ago for her adhd

but her insurance wouldnt cover adderal, made her switch to ritalin or whatever that is.

she was pissed!

i wanted in on some of that too
for adderal i wouldn't mind paying out of pocket
I got a scrip for meridia once
$160 for 30 and insurance didn't cover it
that hurt
 
all the whey said:
The probably have Adhd.

<<< add w/o the h, it takes more to feel the same way as others, with just a few lines or so, it'll usually make you sleepy or very relaxed. If you keep doing it, way past when your friends are bouncing off the walls, you will eventually get there. I've never seen someone who could never get a buzz no matter how much they took....
 
myway said:
Ever met someone that can't get high on coke? Seriously, good coke. Everyone high from the same batch...... but one person(says he has never even tried coke) feels nothing from it? Heard a story about it about someone I know. Ever heard of such a thing?


He might be a terminator.
 
I know a few people who cannot get high on coke. It is a receptor issue in the brain.

I read a while back they found something related to cocaine (and nicotine) and they are working on a vaccine that will inhibit its uptake to the brain.

Imagine being immunized to cocaine or nicotine. It would solve a lot of social issues.

I've never use the stuff, no weed or anything else. Alcohol kicked my ass once or twice. I could just imagine what cocaine would do. I would be a junkie.
 
Spartacus said:
for adderal i wouldn't mind paying out of pocket
I got a scrip for meridia once
$160 for 30 and insurance didn't cover it
that hurt

Most companies will pay for the adderall. If not, they usually give amphetamine salts instead.
 
maybe the asshole just doesn't know how to have fun. . .there's lots of peeps out there like that. . .like my pops for instance. . .muh-fugger ain't happy unless he's pissed off about something. . .i'll bet coke wouldn't do shit for him either. . .
 
myway said:
Most companies will pay for the adderall. If not, they usually give amphetamine salts instead.

The generic sucks compared to adderall. It's the only generic I've heard of that is actually missing one of the ingredients.
 
your buddy just needs to hit the pipe or start freebasing That oughta do the trick. I could pound lines but it always wore off rather quickly withing a half hour. I could fall asleep within an hr of my last line.
 
myway said:
Most companies will pay for the adderall. If not, they usually give amphetamine salts instead.
I understand adderal to be 'mixed amphetamine salts' anyhow
 
Spartacus said:
I understand adderal to be 'mixed amphetamine salts' anyhow

True. It's just a matter of generic vs. not generic. Plus, the adderall is usually given out in an extended release formula..... but it's the same chemical. Adderall='s amphetamine. Either way.
 
myway said:
True. It's just a matter of generic vs. not generic. Plus, the adderall is usually given out in an extended release formula..... but it's the same chemical. Adderall='s amphetamine. Either way.
I needthe amphetiamine for the rest of my body
wtf myway
I can talk until I die
 
Spartacus said:
I needthe amphetiamine for the rest of my body
wtf myway
I can talk until I die

The junkies like the amphetamine salts better than they adderall because they can be crushed and snorted.
......I talk more than most.
 
myway said:
Ever met someone that can't get high on coke? Seriously, good coke. Everyone high from the same batch...... but one person(says he has never even tried coke) feels nothing from it? Heard a story about it about someone I know. Ever heard of such a thing?


i have adhd so coke mellowed me out. up to a point, made me feel "normal"

this is the paradoxical phenomenon of stimulants and adhd.

but no effect? impossible with quality cocaine.
 
i posted just what layinback posted when this thread began

im sure ppl will listen to him though
 
Jon79 said:
i posted just what layinback posted when this thread began

im sure ppl will listen to him though


no one in their right mind listens to me.

i have lead many a man to an early grave.

women writhe in misery in my wake.

people are better off to have never heard my name.
 
layinback said:
no one in their right mind listens to me.

i have lead many a man to an early grave.

women writhe in misery in my wake.

people are better off to have never heard my name.
if u plan on killin yourself dont do it

just call me and ill talk you thorough it
 
layinback said:
i have adhd so coke mellowed me out. up to a point, made me feel "normal"

this is the paradoxical phenomenon of stimulants and adhd.

but no effect? impossible with quality cocaine.

I'm kinda the same. LOVED coke in high school.... buy didn't seem to make me feel like the ppl doing it with me. I have adhd.
 
Jon79 said:
if u plan on killin yourself dont do it

just call me and ill talk you thorough it


i can't kill myself.

i would be killing the man i love the most.


i told kathy, we fell in love with the same guy.

me.
 
myway said:
I'm kinda the same. LOVED coke in high school.... buy didn't seem to make me feel like the ppl doing it with me. I have adhd.
lmao, you are a total KC girl... My dad and his whole family live out bruce springsteen songs, all from Raytown area.
 
Spartacus said:
this is what I plan to do
this doc is my third attempt
and she`s got me to take th test
so far then it`s a go

this is what I want for an anti-depressant
it`s probably the best for depression
but doctors are skittish to prescibe because of the abuse potential
because the damn rats in the tests keep pulling the lever to self administer
well no shit
it works

it`s frustrating because I`ve been through around a dozn anti-depressants and they all have bad sides,esp. sexual retardation

I take wellbutrin,but it only partially works
amphetamine works
I don`t even want to take it daily
just on down days

Check out zyban. It is stop smoking drug, but off prescription anti-D

You do have to take it continuously.

As far as drugs working or not working on people, this is quite well documented with a number of pharmaceuticals.

The few I remember, anti-depressants only work on 40-60% of people (depending on which type).

I think it is ACE inhibitors (it is some high blood pressure drug) do not work on people of African descent.

There are people who are hyper-metabolisers of codeine, so no pain relief from this drug, similarily for even the common aspirin.

It is all down to our biochemical individuality. We all have the same enzymes and enzyme systems to process drugs, but they function with different efficiencies.
 
Army Vet said:
I know a few people who cannot get high on coke. It is a receptor issue in the brain.

I read a while back they found something related to cocaine (and nicotine) and they are working on a vaccine that will inhibit its uptake to the brain.

Imagine being immunized to cocaine or nicotine. It would solve a lot of social issues.

I've never use the stuff, no weed or anything else. Alcohol kicked my ass once or twice. I could just imagine what cocaine would do. I would be a junkie.

Looks like cholinergenic receptors play a role.


Neuroscience. 2005;132(4):1159-71.
Blunted response to cocaine in the Flinders hypercholinergic animal model of depression.

Fagergren P, Overstreet DH, Goiny M, Hurd YL.
Karolinska Institute, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Psychiatry section, Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. [email protected]

The Flinders sensitive line (FSL) rat is a proposed genetic hypercholinergic animal model of human depression. Considering the strong comorbidity between depression and cocaine dependence we investigated the well-documented behavioral and molecular effects of cocaine in the FSL and their control Flinders resistant line (FRL) rats. First, we found no difference between the two lines to establish cocaine self-administration; both lines reached stable responding within 10 days of training at a fixed ratio-1 schedule of reinforcement (1.5 mg/kg/injection). However, the FSL rats exhibited reduced cocaine intake at a dose of 0.09 mg/kg/injection in a within-session dose-response curve (0.02, 0.09, 0.38, 1.5 mg/kg/injection). Second, we examined the effects of repeated cocaine administration on locomotor activity, dopamine overflow and striatal prodynorphin mRNA expression. We found the FSL rats to be low responders to novelty and to exhibit less locomotor activation after repeated cocaine administration (30 mg/kg, i.p., daily injections for 10 days) than their controls. Microdialysis sampling from the nucleus accumbens shell revealed no significant difference in the dopamine overflow between the rat lines, neither during baseline nor after cocaine stimulation. Postmortem analyses of striatal prodynorphin mRNA expression (using in situ hybridization histochemistry) revealed a differentiated response to the cocaine exposure. In contrast to control FRL rats, the FSL rats showed no typical cocaine-evoked elevation of prodynorphin mRNA levels in rostral subregions of the striatum whereas both strains expressed increased prodynorphin mRNA levels in the caudal striatum after cocaine administration. In conclusion, the FSL animal model of depression demonstrates marked blunting of the locomotor and dynorphin neuroadaptative responses to cocaine in accordance with its enhanced cholinergic sensitivity.
 
Also found this which looked quite interesting


http://www.cocaine.org/reward/pleasure.html

Source: University Of Michigan Health System
Date: 2003-01-01

Cocaine Harms Brain's "Pleasure Center", Addict Study Finds; Drug Attacks The Very Cells That Allow Users To Feel Its Effects
ANN ARBOR, MI -- New research results strongly suggest that cocaine bites the hand that feeds it, in essence, by harming or even killing the very brain cells that trigger the "high" that cocaine users feel.

This first-ever direct finding of cocaine-induced damage to key cells in the human brain's dopamine "pleasure center" may help explain many aspects of cocaine addiction, and perhaps aid the development of anti-addiction drugs. It also could help scientists understand other disorders involving the same brain cells, including depression.

The results are the latest from research involving postmortem brain tissue samples from cocaine abusers and control subjects, performed at the University of Michigan Health System and the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System. The paper will appear in the January issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry. "This is the clearest evidence to date that the specific neurons cocaine interacts with don't like it and are disturbed by the drug's effects," says Karley Little, M.D., associate professor of psychiatry at the U-M Medical School and chief of the VAHS Affective Neuropharmacology Laboratory. "The questions we now face are: Are the cells dormant or damaged, is the effect reversible or permanent, and is it preventable?"

Little and his colleagues report results from 35 known cocaine abusers and 35 non-drug users of about the same age, sex, race and causes of death. Using brain samples normally removed during autopsy, the researchers measured several indicators of the health of the subjects' dopamine brain cells, which release a pleasure-signaling chemical called dopamine. The cells interact directly with cocaine.

The team looked at levels of a protein called VMAT2, as well as VMAT2's binding to a selective radiotracer molecule, and overall dopamine level.

In all three, cocaine users' levels were significantly lower than control subjects. Levels tended to be lowest in cocaine users with depression.

The paper gives the most conclusive evidence yet that dopamine neurons are harmed by cocaine use, because it uses three molecular measures that provide a trustworthy assessment of dopamine neuron health.

Dopamine, Little explains, triggers the actions required to repeat previous pleasures. It's not only involved in drug users' "high" - it helps drive us to eat, work, feel emotions, and reproduce. Normally, when something pleasurable happens, dopamine neurons pump the chemical into the gaps between themselves and related brain cells. Dopamine finds its way to receptors on neighboring cells, triggering signals that help set off pathways to different feelings or sensations.

Then, the dopamine is normally brought back into its home cell, entering through a gateway in the membrane called a transporter. While our brain waits for another pleasurable stimulus - a good meal, a smile from a friend, a kiss - dopamine lies waiting inside the neuron, sequestered in tiny packets called vesicles. VMAT2 acts as a pump to pull returning dopamine into vesicles.

When it comes time for another dopamine release, the vesicles merge with the cell membrane, dumping their contents into the gap, or synapse, and the pleasure signaling process begins again.

Dopamine neurons in the brain's pleasure center die off at a steady rate over a person's lifetime. Severe damage is a hallmark of Parkinson's disease, causing its loss of movement control. "As the words themselves suggest, there's an intimate connection between motion and emotion," says Little. "Emotion puts you in motion -- they're pre-activity preparations. It's not surprising that the basal ganglia, where these dopamine neurons are, is very active in 'emotional states.'"

When first taken, cocaine has a disruptive effect on the brain's dopamine system: It blocks the transporters that return dopamine to its home cell once its signaling job is done. With nowhere to go, dopamine builds up in the synapse and keeps binding with other cells' receptors, sending pleasure signals over and over again. This helps cause the intense "high" cocaine users feel.

Since the dopamine system helps us recognize pleasurable experiences and seek to repeat them, cocaine's long-term dopamine effects likely contribute to the craving addicts feel, and the decreased motivation, stunted emotion and uncomfortable withdrawal they face.

In recent years, many researchers have come to suspect that chronic cocaine use causes the brain to adapt to the drug's presence by altering the molecules involved in dopamine release and reuptake, and in the genetic instructions needed to make those molecules. Little and his colleagues are studying the effects of long-term cocaine use on the brain at a molecular level, in an attempt to explain the effects seen in cocaine users and addicts.

In several studies, including the current one, they've used postmortem samples of brain tissue from known cocaine users who were using the drug at the time of their deaths, and from well-matched control subjects. They focused in on the striatum, an area of the brain with the highest concentration of dopamine neurons.

With approval from the U-M Institutional Review Board and appropriate consent, they interviewed relatives and friends of the subjects, and asked about the subjects' alcohol use, mental illness and other characteristics.

The team previously showed that cocaine users have higher numbers of dopamine transporters, suggesting that the cells tried to make more return gateways to compensate for blocked ones. Recently, they showed in cell cultures that cocaine causes more dopamine transporters to travel from the interior of a cell to the membrane, increasing the overall dopamine uptake level.

The data provide support for the idea that chronic cocaine abuse leads to a phenomenon seen in animals, called allostasis of reward. With extended use of cocaine, the brain's response to the drug is "reset", and drug-taking once pursued for the pleasure it caused becomes drug-taking to avoid the negative feelings associated with the absence of cocaine.

The new data suggest this same phenomenon occurs in human cocaine users, and is quite pronounced at the neurochemical level. The experiment sheds light on the molecular mechanisms involved as dopamine-producing brain cells try to adapt to a cocaine-drenched environment.

VMAT2 protein levels, measured through the use of specific antibodies that bind to the protein, are not as affected by other factors as dopamine transporters are. VMAT2 binding availability, measured through a unique radioactive tracer developed by U-M nuclear medicine specialists, is another assessment of VMAT2 presence and activity. And the overall dopamine level, measured through liquid chromatography, shows how much of the chemical was available at the time of death.

On the whole, all three were significantly lower in cocaine users than in non-drug users. A history of alcohol abuse in cocaine users or controls did not affect the difference significantly.

Levels of VMAT2 protein were lowest in the seven cocaine users with mood disorders that may have been caused by cocaine use. Researchers have found that depressed cocaine users have more severe addiction and mental health problems than non-depressed users. Little hypothesizes that the decreased dopamine vesicles and increased transporters may contribute to cocaine-induced depression and other depressive disorders. This may explain why depressed cocaine users are less likely to respond to some depression treatments.

In all, Little says, "We could be seeing the result of the brain's attempt to regulate the dopamine system in response to cocaine use, to try to reduce the amount of dopamine that's released by reducing the ability to collect it in vesicles. But we could also be seeing real damage or death to dopamine neurons. Either way, this highlights the fragility of these neurons and shows the vicious cycle that cocaine use can create." New treatments will have to break that cycle, he adds, and the new findings may help steer clinical researchers.

He also emphasizes that the vulnerable nature of dopamine neurons is important in understanding the moods and actions of normal adults as they age and lose dopamine neurons naturally. Considerable evidence suggests that uncontained dopamine may be mildly toxic over time.

In future research, Little and his colleagues hope to look for differences in the number of dopamine neurons in the subjects' brain samples, and to study gene activity in the cells of cocaine users and control subjects. They also hope their results will help other researchers study living cocaine users and look for signs of decreased VMAT2 levels.


In addition to Little, the study's authors are David Krolewski, M.S.; Lian Zhang, Ph.D.; and Bader Cassin, M.D. U-M nuclear medicine researcher Kirk Frey, M.D., led the team that developed the radioactive tracer used to measure VMAT2 binding levels. The study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health, and by a VA Merit Award. Reference: American Journal of Psychiatry 160:1-9, January 2003.
 
Tatyana said:
Also found this which looked quite interesting


http://www.cocaine.org/reward/pleasure.html

Source: University Of Michigan Health System
Date: 2003-01-01

Cocaine Harms Brain's "Pleasure Center", Addict Study Finds; Drug Attacks The Very Cells That Allow Users To Feel Its Effects
ANN ARBOR, MI -- New research results strongly suggest that cocaine bites the hand that feeds it, in essence, by harming or even killing the very brain cells that trigger the "high" that cocaine users feel.

This first-ever direct finding of cocaine-induced damage to key cells in the human brain's dopamine "pleasure center" may help explain many aspects of cocaine addiction, and perhaps aid the development of anti-addiction drugs. It also could help scientists understand other disorders involving the same brain cells, including depression.

The results are the latest from research involving postmortem brain tissue samples from cocaine abusers and control subjects, performed at the University of Michigan Health System and the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System. The paper will appear in the January issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry. "This is the clearest evidence to date that the specific neurons cocaine interacts with don't like it and are disturbed by the drug's effects," says Karley Little, M.D., associate professor of psychiatry at the U-M Medical School and chief of the VAHS Affective Neuropharmacology Laboratory. "The questions we now face are: Are the cells dormant or damaged, is the effect reversible or permanent, and is it preventable?"

Little and his colleagues report results from 35 known cocaine abusers and 35 non-drug users of about the same age, sex, race and causes of death. Using brain samples normally removed during autopsy, the researchers measured several indicators of the health of the subjects' dopamine brain cells, which release a pleasure-signaling chemical called dopamine. The cells interact directly with cocaine.

The team looked at levels of a protein called VMAT2, as well as VMAT2's binding to a selective radiotracer molecule, and overall dopamine level.

In all three, cocaine users' levels were significantly lower than control subjects. Levels tended to be lowest in cocaine users with depression.

The paper gives the most conclusive evidence yet that dopamine neurons are harmed by cocaine use, because it uses three molecular measures that provide a trustworthy assessment of dopamine neuron health.

Dopamine, Little explains, triggers the actions required to repeat previous pleasures. It's not only involved in drug users' "high" - it helps drive us to eat, work, feel emotions, and reproduce. Normally, when something pleasurable happens, dopamine neurons pump the chemical into the gaps between themselves and related brain cells. Dopamine finds its way to receptors on neighboring cells, triggering signals that help set off pathways to different feelings or sensations.

Then, the dopamine is normally brought back into its home cell, entering through a gateway in the membrane called a transporter. While our brain waits for another pleasurable stimulus - a good meal, a smile from a friend, a kiss - dopamine lies waiting inside the neuron, sequestered in tiny packets called vesicles. VMAT2 acts as a pump to pull returning dopamine into vesicles.

When it comes time for another dopamine release, the vesicles merge with the cell membrane, dumping their contents into the gap, or synapse, and the pleasure signaling process begins again.

Dopamine neurons in the brain's pleasure center die off at a steady rate over a person's lifetime. Severe damage is a hallmark of Parkinson's disease, causing its loss of movement control. "As the words themselves suggest, there's an intimate connection between motion and emotion," says Little. "Emotion puts you in motion -- they're pre-activity preparations. It's not surprising that the basal ganglia, where these dopamine neurons are, is very active in 'emotional states.'"

When first taken, cocaine has a disruptive effect on the brain's dopamine system: It blocks the transporters that return dopamine to its home cell once its signaling job is done. With nowhere to go, dopamine builds up in the synapse and keeps binding with other cells' receptors, sending pleasure signals over and over again. This helps cause the intense "high" cocaine users feel.

Since the dopamine system helps us recognize pleasurable experiences and seek to repeat them, cocaine's long-term dopamine effects likely contribute to the craving addicts feel, and the decreased motivation, stunted emotion and uncomfortable withdrawal they face.

In recent years, many researchers have come to suspect that chronic cocaine use causes the brain to adapt to the drug's presence by altering the molecules involved in dopamine release and reuptake, and in the genetic instructions needed to make those molecules. Little and his colleagues are studying the effects of long-term cocaine use on the brain at a molecular level, in an attempt to explain the effects seen in cocaine users and addicts.

In several studies, including the current one, they've used postmortem samples of brain tissue from known cocaine users who were using the drug at the time of their deaths, and from well-matched control subjects. They focused in on the striatum, an area of the brain with the highest concentration of dopamine neurons.

With approval from the U-M Institutional Review Board and appropriate consent, they interviewed relatives and friends of the subjects, and asked about the subjects' alcohol use, mental illness and other characteristics.

The team previously showed that cocaine users have higher numbers of dopamine transporters, suggesting that the cells tried to make more return gateways to compensate for blocked ones. Recently, they showed in cell cultures that cocaine causes more dopamine transporters to travel from the interior of a cell to the membrane, increasing the overall dopamine uptake level.

The data provide support for the idea that chronic cocaine abuse leads to a phenomenon seen in animals, called allostasis of reward. With extended use of cocaine, the brain's response to the drug is "reset", and drug-taking once pursued for the pleasure it caused becomes drug-taking to avoid the negative feelings associated with the absence of cocaine.

The new data suggest this same phenomenon occurs in human cocaine users, and is quite pronounced at the neurochemical level. The experiment sheds light on the molecular mechanisms involved as dopamine-producing brain cells try to adapt to a cocaine-drenched environment.

VMAT2 protein levels, measured through the use of specific antibodies that bind to the protein, are not as affected by other factors as dopamine transporters are. VMAT2 binding availability, measured through a unique radioactive tracer developed by U-M nuclear medicine specialists, is another assessment of VMAT2 presence and activity. And the overall dopamine level, measured through liquid chromatography, shows how much of the chemical was available at the time of death.

On the whole, all three were significantly lower in cocaine users than in non-drug users. A history of alcohol abuse in cocaine users or controls did not affect the difference significantly.

Levels of VMAT2 protein were lowest in the seven cocaine users with mood disorders that may have been caused by cocaine use. Researchers have found that depressed cocaine users have more severe addiction and mental health problems than non-depressed users. Little hypothesizes that the decreased dopamine vesicles and increased transporters may contribute to cocaine-induced depression and other depressive disorders. This may explain why depressed cocaine users are less likely to respond to some depression treatments.

In all, Little says, "We could be seeing the result of the brain's attempt to regulate the dopamine system in response to cocaine use, to try to reduce the amount of dopamine that's released by reducing the ability to collect it in vesicles. But we could also be seeing real damage or death to dopamine neurons. Either way, this highlights the fragility of these neurons and shows the vicious cycle that cocaine use can create." New treatments will have to break that cycle, he adds, and the new findings may help steer clinical researchers.

He also emphasizes that the vulnerable nature of dopamine neurons is important in understanding the moods and actions of normal adults as they age and lose dopamine neurons naturally. Considerable evidence suggests that uncontained dopamine may be mildly toxic over time.

In future research, Little and his colleagues hope to look for differences in the number of dopamine neurons in the subjects' brain samples, and to study gene activity in the cells of cocaine users and control subjects. They also hope their results will help other researchers study living cocaine users and look for signs of decreased VMAT2 levels.


In addition to Little, the study's authors are David Krolewski, M.S.; Lian Zhang, Ph.D.; and Bader Cassin, M.D. U-M nuclear medicine researcher Kirk Frey, M.D., led the team that developed the radioactive tracer used to measure VMAT2 binding levels. The study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health, and by a VA Merit Award. Reference: American Journal of Psychiatry 160:1-9, January 2003.

WOW! Thanx for all the info!
 
Tatyana said:
Check out zyban. It is stop smoking drug, but off prescription anti-D

You do have to take it continuously.

As far as drugs working or not working on people, this is quite well documented with a number of pharmaceuticals.

The few I remember, anti-depressants only work on 40-60% of people (depending on which type).

I think it is ACE inhibitors (it is some high blood pressure drug) do not work on people of African descent.

There are people who are hyper-metabolisers of codeine, so no pain relief from this drug, similarily for even the common aspirin.

It is all down to our biochemical individuality. We all have the same enzymes and enzyme systems to process drugs, but they function with different efficiencies.
Zyban = Wellbutrin = buproprion
 
Smurfy said:
Zyban = Wellbutrin = buproprion

My bad not checking pharma names.

I have also come across a lot of studies that show that St. John's Wort is as effective as the most commonly used anti-D's.

The dose has to be 1500 mg/day from a well sourced/pure herb though.
 
Smurfy said:
Zyban = Wellbutrin = buproprion

+1

My mum smoked 20-30 a day for 30-35 years and went cold turkey using Zyban about 5 years ago. She said the night sweats were bad initially but was worth it long term.
 
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