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Scientists Find Why Methamphetamine is So Addictive and Damaging to Brain
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory used positron emission tomography (PET) to track tracer doses of methamphetamine in humans' brains, and found that the addictive and long-lasting effects of the drug were partially due to its pharmacokinetics, the rate at which it enters and clears the brain, and its distribution.
The study involved 19 healthy, non-drug-abusing volunteers, and included a comparison with cocaine.
The study, published in the journal Neuroimage, also looked for differences by race.
"Methamphetamine is one of the most addictive and neurotoxic drugs of abuse. It produces large increases in dopamine, a brain chemical associated with feelings of pleasure and reward - both by increasing dopamine's release from nerve cells and by blocking its reuptake," said Brookhaven chemist Joanna Fowler, lead author on the study.
While it is known that drugs that produce greater elevations in brain dopamine tend to be more addictive, other factors-like the speed with which a drug enters and clears the brain, and its distribution within the brain-can also be important in determining its addictive and toxic potential.
The researchers said that they also wanted to determine whether there were any differences between Caucasians and African Americans.
"Reports that the rate of methamphetamine abuse among African Americans is lower than for Caucasians led us to question whether biological or pharmacokinetic differences might explain this difference," Fowler said.
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