The Meth High Dopamine

Methamphetamine's powerful effects come from its impact on the brain's reward, or pleasure, center. Meth does not directly release dopamine. It attaches itself to dopamine receptor sites and fools neurons into releasing large quantities of dopamine. This accounts for the intense rush a user experiences from meth.
In addition, meth prevents dopamine from being recycled. Instead, dopamine is active in the body for much longer, explaining the extra long duration of the meth high. The drug does this by blocking (inhibiting) the dopamine transporter involved in its reabsorption (reuptake) into the original neuron that sent it. Transporters are places on neurons that reabsorb the dopamine after it has completed its job. As a result, more dopamine becomes available to the brain. This extra dopamine, in turn, activates an even greater number of dopamine receptors. This increased release of dopamine is primarily responsible for the intensity and duration of meth-amphetamine's effects.
In lab animal experiments conducted by Dr. Richard Rawson, director of UCLA's Integrated Substance Abuse Program, sex caused dopamine levels to increase to 200 units and cocaine caused levels to rise to 350 units. With metham-phetamine, dopamine levels jumped to about 1,250 units. Overall, this study showed that meth causes about 12 times as much feelings of pleasure as sex, food, and other activities, including the use of other illegal stimulant drugs. Rawson noted that all illegal drugs of abuse release dopamine, but that methamphetamine "produces the mother of all dopamine releases."
The Neurotransmitter Dopamine
"At a purely chemical level, every experience humans find enjoyable—whether listening to music, embracing a lover, or savoring chocolate—amounts to little more than an explosion of dopamine in the brain, as exhilarating and short-lived as a firecracker."
Dopamine is the chemical in our body most fundamental to promoting the experience of pleasure. This neurotransmitter comes from the reward center of the brain (rewarding the person with high levels of positive, loving, pleasurable feelings). It is responsible for creating euphoria and uplifting emotions and mood. Dopamine helps control the limbic system, a part of the brain associated with basic needs and emotions, for example hunger, pain, pleasure, satisfaction, sex, and instinctive motivation. Dopamine is also responsible for many of the body's activities, including motor coordination.
Eventually, this sense of well-being from dopamine wears off. The "key"—dopamine—that was "locked" in the receptors is released and sent back to the neuron that sent it in the first place. This neuron stores the dopamine for future use, a kind of recycling. Basically, this is how all receptors and neurotransmitters work in the body.
Continue reading here: Tolerance
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