Meth Damages The Brain Permanently
For 20 years, scientific evidence has shown that long-term use of meth depletes supplies of dopamine by damaging dopamine receptors in the brain.24 Studies indicate that this brain damage can be permanent. Long-term meth users may develop life-long problems with verbal skills, memory, and may even develop Parkinson's disease, an incurable nervous disorder with symptoms of trembling hands and extreme muscle stiffness.6, 11
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), animal studies show as much as 50 percent of the dopamine-producing cells in the brain can be damaged after long-term exposure to relatively low levels of methamphet-amine. In other animal studies, a single high dose of the drug has been shown to damage nerve endings in the dopamine-containing regions of the brain. The nerve endings do not die, but do not grow back to their original sizes. Researchers also have found that serotonin (another neurotransmitter) and norepinephrine-containing nerve cells may be damaged as extensively.7, 8 9 17, 24, 29
It is often difficult to compare animal studies to humans because very high doses of drugs are used in animal studies. However, scientists using brain-imaging techniques have studied the brains of human meth users. They have discovered that
- Figure 5.2 Brain damage due to methamphetamine can be long-lasting or even permanent. © Paul Thompson, Kiralee Hayashi, Arthur Toga, Edythe London/UCLA
even three years after long-term meth users had quit using the drug, their dopamine neurons remained damaged.7
Dr. Nora Volkow, director of NIDA, studied brain scans taken of meth users who had been drug free for more than 14 months. The meth users had memory loss and other psychological and physical side effects. The results showed that although most of the damaged dopamine receptors had grown back, the sober meth users still did not show much improvement in their cognitive abilities—their memory, judgment, ability to think clearly, or motor coordination skills—even after a year of being off the drug. Additional brain studies show that the damaged brain cells may never completely grow back to their original size. 17, 29
A 2004 study led by Dr. Paul Thompson, an expert on brain mapping at the University of California, Los Angeles, showed how the brain's center for making new memories, the hippocampus, lost 8 percent of its tissue in meth users. This is comparable to the brain losses seen in early Alzheimer's patients. The study compared 22 people in their 30s who had been using methamphetamine for 10 years, mostly by smoking it with 21 non-drug taking people of the same age. On average, the meth users smoked an average of four grams a week and said they had been high on 19 of the 30 days before the study began. The meth abusers fared significantly worse on memory tests than did healthy people the same age.30 In 2005, the average street price of four grams of meth was about $200 to $250, which means these meth users were smoking about $800 to $1,000 of meth each month.10, 25, 26
Although more studies are needed to clarify what long-term effects are seen at specific dosage levels and with different routes of exposure, these results offer a strong connection between damage to dopamine nerve endings and negative long-term physical and psychological effects experienced by meth users.
Continue reading here: The Heart Lungs And Body Temperature
Was this article helpful?
Readers' Questions
-
louis10 months ago
- Reply
-
fiyori haile10 months ago
- Reply
-
sointu ahonen10 months ago
- Reply
-
samsa1 year ago
- Reply
-
danyl1 year ago
- Reply
-
asmara nuguse1 year ago
- Reply
-
nicol1 year ago
- Reply
-
Ulrich1 year ago
- Reply
-
sabrina1 year ago
- Reply
-
Sophia1 year ago
- Reply
-
Petros1 year ago
- Reply
-
imelda1 year ago
- Reply
-
DIAMOND1 year ago
- Reply
-
reeta gallen-kallela1 year ago
- Reply
-
demi wright1 year ago
- Reply
-
tanta1 year ago
- Reply
-
Prudenzia1 year ago
- Reply
-
alessio1 year ago
- Reply
-
amina1 year ago
- Reply
-
Donata Padovano1 year ago
- Reply
-
Angelico1 year ago
- Reply
-
Asmarina1 year ago
- Reply
-
lobelia1 year ago
- Reply
-
pasi r1 year ago
- Reply
-
Marja1 year ago
- Reply
-
gorbulas1 year ago
- Reply
-
calvin1 year ago
- Reply
-
primo1 year ago
- Reply
-
Jonas1 year ago
- Reply
-
Matti Tiisanoja1 year ago
- Reply
-
Mara1 year ago
- Reply
-
terrance1 year ago
- Reply
-
nora1 year ago
- Reply
-
Kirk1 year ago
- Reply
-
marcus1 year ago
- Reply
-
Harri1 year ago
- Reply
-
Samuel1 year ago
- Reply
-
JULIANE1 year ago
- Reply
-
Aleksi1 year ago
- Reply
-
Juliane1 year ago
- Reply
-
Smeralda1 year ago
- Reply
-
kenneth1 year ago
- Reply
-
maxine1 year ago
- Reply
-
amanuel alem1 year ago
- Reply
-
Melanie1 year ago
- Reply
-
murdo1 year ago
- Reply
-
delmina1 year ago
- Reply
-
lucie mclean1 year ago
- Reply
-
senay1 year ago
- Reply
-
eveliina1 year ago
- Reply
-
daniel1 year ago
- Reply
-
nuguse1 year ago
- Reply
-
Kevin1 year ago
- Reply
-
samuel selam1 year ago
- Reply
-
primrose lothran1 year ago
- Reply
-
helen1 year ago
- Reply
-
bonifacio baresi1 year ago
- Reply
-
Mirella1 year ago
- Reply
-
topi mattila1 year ago
- Reply
-
savanna clayhanger1 year ago
- Reply
-
zewdi1 year ago
- Reply
-
donna1 year ago
- Reply
-
Folco1 year ago
- Reply
-
PRIMROSE1 year ago
- Reply
-
mikey miller1 year ago
- Reply
-
michelle1 year ago
- Reply
-
patrick1 year ago
- Reply
-
Mike1 year ago
- Reply
-
Tito1 year ago
- Reply
-
manuel1 year ago
- Reply
-
Emaan1 year ago
- Reply
-
tewolde daniel1 year ago
- Reply
-
Tara1 year ago
- Reply
-
sophia haylom1 year ago
- Reply
-
leonie1 year ago
- Reply
-
Donato1 year ago
- Reply
-
Erik1 year ago
- Reply
-
carlos1 year ago
- Reply
-
Futsum1 year ago
- Reply
-
Peter1 year ago
- Reply
-
Venera1 year ago
- Reply
-
alfreda1 year ago
- Reply
-
Marvin1 year ago
- Reply
-
biniam1 year ago
- Reply
-
aulis1 year ago
- Reply
-
savanna1 year ago
- Reply
-
bethany fleming1 year ago
- Reply
-
silke1 year ago
- Reply
-
MIKA1 year ago
- Reply
-
matthew1 year ago
- Reply
-
savanna1 year ago
- Reply
-
Roxy Hunter1 year ago
- Reply
-
jolanda1 year ago
- Reply
-
aedan jamieson1 year ago
- Reply
-
niklas1 year ago
- Reply
-
giona1 year ago
- Reply
-
renee1 year ago
- Reply
-
Allie Kerr1 year ago
- Reply
-
christin1 year ago
- Reply
-
Sauli1 year ago
- Reply
-
karoliina1 year ago
- Reply
-
RALF1 year ago
- Reply
-
hessu1 year ago
- Reply
-
amaranto1 year ago
- Reply
-
Aristide1 year ago
- Reply
-
habte1 year ago
- Reply
-
stephanie1 year ago
- Reply
-
Maxwell1 year ago
- Reply
-
Bryan Pugh1 year ago
- Reply
-
PATRICIA POINDEXTER1 year ago
- Reply
-
lori1 year ago
- Reply
-
Angelica1 year ago
- Reply
-
Beverly1 year ago
- Reply
-
kathrin1 year ago
- Reply
-
fre-qalsi1 year ago
- Reply
-
Laurence Grant1 year ago
- Reply
-
mackenzie1 year ago
- Reply
-
Lemlem1 year ago
- Reply
-
ULLA MARILA1 year ago
- Reply
-
kerri1 year ago
- Reply
-
NOLAN POLK1 year ago
- Reply
-
ulrike1 year ago
- Reply
-
Zac1 year ago
- Reply
-
nebay1 year ago
- Reply

