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Meth use linked to brain scarring
| According to a news
release by the Associated Press and reprinted in the San Diego Union-Tribune heavy users
of methamphetamine, a highly addictive stimulant that can be made at home in the kitchen
sink, are doing more damage to their brains than scientists had thought, according to the
first study that looked inside addicts' brains nearly a year after they stopped using the
drug. At least a quarter of a class of molecules that help people feel pleasure and
reward were knocked out by methamphetamine, the study found. Some of the addicts' brains
resembled those of people with early and mild Parkinson's disease. But the biggest
surprise is that another brain region responsible for spatial perception and sensation,
which has never before been linked to methamphetamine abuse, was hyperactive and showed
signs of scarring.
The study was led by Dr. Nora Volkow, associate director for life sciences at the
Brookhaven Haven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y. and appears in the March issue of
The American Journal of Psychiatry. |
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