Posted by mtdewcmu on March 27, 2011, at 17:16:43
In reply to Re: relevant diff betw MPH and AMP is the transporter, posted by linkadge on March 8, 2011, at 15:33:37
> >is theorised that this is what causes the >intractable apathy, and blown executive >function, proper inhibition/disinhibition in >those having dealt with sufficient AMP and meth->AMP addiction
>
> There is no evidence that use of amphetamine in theraputic doses causes these problems.
>Yes. The dose makes the poison.
> My personal thoughts are that amphetamine also has a window of theraputic effect. The study posted does not really focus on the theraputic use of amphetamines in ADHD. By not specifically studying ADHD, there really is no good control. I.e. in which cases was amphetamine abused vs. used? Also, isn't it possible that an individual with dopamine system dysfunction might be more prone to use amphetamines in the first place?
>Exactly. One of my personal hobbyhorses is the excessive attention paid to these sorts of observational epidemiological studies. This kind of observational study is fundamentally unable to distinguish cause from effect, and is prone to all kinds of spurious interpretations. You really need to follow up with a more rigorous experiment to prove any kind of causality. Unfortunately, it's hard to design studies to rigorously test for remote effects like Parkinsonism delayed by decades, so we will probably be in a position of ignorance for quite a while. But history is full of examples of observational studies producing spurious conclusions, so we shouldn't overreact. Parkinson's is caused by cell death, so you would expect that you ought to be able to see the damage occurring in real time if you can examine the brain, probably post-mortem, but the studies could be done in animals. In fact, one would expect that these kinds of studies have already been done.
poster:mtdewcmu
thread:979946
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20110321/msgs/981294.html