Dopamine
The first generation of antipsychotic drugs created a drug-induced brain
pathology by blocking the neurotransmitter dopamine and essentially shutting
down many higher brain functions This is the key thing everyone needs to understand. It really is the answer
that unlocks this mystery of why the drugs would have this long-term problematic
effect. Start with schizophrenia. They hypothesize that these drugs work by
correcting an imbalance of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain.
The antipsychotics profoundly block dopamine receptors. They block 70-90
percent of the dopamine receptors in the brain. In return, the brain sprouts
about 50 percent extra dopamine receptors. It tries to become extra sensitive.
So in essence you've created an imbalance in the dopamine system in the
brain. It's almost like, on one hand, you've got the accelerator down -- that's
the extra dopamine receptors. And the drug is the brake trying to block this.
But if you release that brake, if you abruptly go off the drugs, you now do have
a dopamine system that's overactive. You have too many dopamine receptors. And
what happens? People that go abruptly off of the drug, do tend to have severe
relapses.
And by the way, we sort of understood that if you muck with the
dopamine system, that you could cause some symptoms of psychosis with
amphetamines. So if you give someone amphetamines enough, they're at increased
risk of psychosis. This is well known. And what do amphetamines do? They release
dopamine. So there is a biological reason why, if you're mucking up the dopamine
system, you're increasing the risk of psychosis. That's in essence what these
antipsychotic drugs do, they muck up the dopamine system.
Ritalin is methylphenidate. Now methylphenidate affects the brain in exactly
the same way as cocaine. They both block a molecule that is involved in the
reuptake of dopamine.
[2005] Psychiatric Drugs:
An Assault on the Human Condition Street
---Robert Whitaker
Let's talk about bipolar disorder among kids. As one doctor said, that
used to be so rare as to be almost nonexistent. Now we're seeing it all
over. Bipolar is exploding among kids. Well, partly you could say that we're
just slapping that label on kids more often; but in fact, there is something
real going on. Here's what's happening. You take kids and put them on an
antidepressant -- which we never used to do -- or you put them on a
stimulant like Ritalin. Stimulants can cause mania; stimulants can cause
psychosis.
so the kid ends up with a
drug-induced manic or psychotic episode. Once they have that, the doctor at
the emergency room doesn't say, "Oh, he's suffering from a drug-induced
episode." He says he's bipolar
they give him an antipsychotic
drug; and now he's on a cocktail of drugs, and he's on a path to becoming
disabled for life. That's an example of how we're absolutely making kids
sick.
Ritalin is methylphenidate. Now methylphenidate
affects the brain in exactly the same way as cocaine. They both block a
molecule that is involved in the reuptake of dopamine.
So methylphenidate is very
similar to cocaine. Now, one difference is whether you're snorting it or if
it's in a pill. That partly changes how quickly it's metabolized. But still,
it basically affects the brain in the same way. Now, methylphenidate was
used in research studies to deliberately stir psychosis in schizophrenics.
Because they knew that you could take a person with a tendency towards
psychosis, give them methylphenidate, and cause psychosis. We also knew that
amphetamines, like methylphenidate, could cause psychosis in people who had
never been psychotic before.
So think
about this. We're giving a drug to kids that is known to have the
possibility of stirring psychosis. Now, the odd thing about methylphenidate
and amphetamines is that, in kids, they sort of have a counterintuitive
effect. What does speed do in adults? It makes them more jittery and
hyperactive. For whatever reasons, in kids amphetamines will actually still
their movements; it will actually keep them in their chairs and make them
more focused. So you've got kids in boring schools. The boys are not paying
attention and they're diagnosed with ADHD and put on a drug that is known to
stir psychosis. The next thing you know, a fair number of them are not doing
well by the time they're 15, 16, 17. Some of those kids talk about how when
you're on these drugs for the long term, you start feeling like a zombie;
you don't feel like yourself.
Millions of kids! Think about what we're doing.
We're robbing kids of their right to be kids, their right to grow, their
right to experience their full range of emotions, and their right to
experience the world in its full hue of colors. That's what growing up is,
that's what being alive is! And we're robbing kids of their right to be.
It's so criminal. And we're talking about millions of kids who have been
affected this way. There are some colleges where something like 40 to 50
percent of the kids arrive with a psychiatric prescription.
Psychiatric Drugs:
An Assault on the Human Condition Street Spirit
Interview with Robert Whitaker
"The amphetamines are potent psychomotor stimulants. Their use
causes a release of the excitatory neurotransmitters dopamine and noradrenaline
(norepinephrine) from storage vesicles in the CNS. Amphetamines may be sniffed,
swallowed, snorted or injected. They induce exhilarating feelings of power,
strength, energy, self-assertion, focus and enhanced motivation. The need to
sleep or eat is diminished. The release of dopamine typically induces a sense of
aroused euphoria which may last several hours: unlike cocaine, amphetamine is
not readily broken down by the body. Feelings are intensified. The user may feel
he can take on the world.
The euphoria doesn't last. There follows an intense mental depression
and fatigue. Amphetamine depletes the neuronal stores of dopamine in the
mesolimbic pleasure centres of the brain.
More than any other illegal drug, speed is associated with violence and
anti-social behavior. Occasional light and infrequent use is probably relatively
harmless; but heavy chronic use can lead to stereotypies of behavior, depressive
disorders, "meth bugs" akin to cocaine-induced formication, strain on the
cardiovascular system, increasing behavioral disintegration, and outright
"amphetamine psychosis".
Amphetamine is structurally related
to ephedrine, a natural stimulant found in plants of the genus Ephedra. It is
also structurally related to adrenaline, the body's "fight or flight" hormone.
Amphetamine was first synthesised by Edeleano in Germany in 1887, but it only
entered clinical medicine in the late 1920s when its psychostimulant effect was
recognised. The US medical and pharmaceutical establishment was worried that
supplies of ephedra in faraway China would be exhausted. Amphetamine promised a
cheap and synthetic substitute. Like ephedrine, amphetamine dilates the
bronchial small sacs of the lungs, a great blessing for sufferers from breathing
disorders. So in 1932, Smith, Kline and French introduced the famous Benzedrine
Inhaler.
Amphetamine sulphate was aggressively marketed for asthmatics, hay-fever
sufferers and anyone with a cold. Amphetamine was soon available in pill form
too. "Pep pills" were sold over the counter for all manner of ailments. Doctors
prescribed amphetamine for depression, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy,
travel-sickness, night-blindness, hyperactive disorders of children, obesity,
narcolepsy, impotence, and apathy in old age.
Soldiers on both sides in World War
Two consumed millions of amphetamine tablets. This practice sometimes caused
states of quasi-psychotic aggression in the combatants.
From 1942, Hitler received daily methamphetamine injections from his
quack doctor Morell. This corrupted his judgement, undermined his health and
probably changed the course of the War."
http://amphetamines.com/