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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 4 of 4. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by guttersnipe on July 20, 2004, at 1:48:35
Scary new study on heavy tweak abuse and neurotoxicity offers yet more evidence (did anyone really need more evidence?) why this is not a substance to abuse:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/20/science/20meth.html?8hpib
This Is Your Brain on Meth: A 'Forest Fire' of Damage
By SANDRA BLAKESLEEPublished: July 20, 2004
People who do not want to wait for old age to shrink their brains and bring on memory loss now have a quicker alternative - abuse methamphetamine for a decade or so and watch the brain cells vanish into the night.
The first high-resolution M.R.I. study of methamphetamine addicts shows "a forest fire of brain damage," said Dr. Paul Thompson, an expert on brain mapping at the University of California, Los Angeles. "We expected some brain changes but didn't expect so much tissue to be destroyed."
The image, published in the June 30 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience, shows the brain's surface and deeper limbic system. Red areas show the greatest tissue loss.
The limbic region, involved in drug craving, reward, mood and emotion, lost 11 percent of its tissue. "The cells are dead and gone," Dr. Thompson said. Addicts were depressed, anxious and unable to concentrate.
The brain's center for making new memories, the hippocampus, lost 8 percent of its tissue, comparable to the brain deficits in early Alzheimer's. The methamphetamine addicts fared significantly worse on memory tests than healthy people the same age.
The study examined 22 people in their 30's who had used methamphetamine for 10 years, mostly by smoking it, and 21 controls matched for age. On average, the addicts used an average of four grams a week and said they had been high on 19 of the 30 days before the study began.
Methamphetamine is an addictive stimulant made in clandestine laboratories nationwide. When taken by mouth, snorted, injected or smoked, it produces intense pleasure by releasing the brain's reward chemical, dopamine. With chronic use, the brains that overstimulate dopamine and another brain chemical, serotonin, are permanently compromised.
The study held one other surprise, Dr. Thompson said: white matter, composed of nerve fibers that connect different areas, was severely inflamed, making the addicts' brains 10 percent larger than normal. "This was shocking," he said. But there was one piece of good news: the white matter was not dead. With abstinence, it might recover.
Posted by 2ndXround on July 20, 2004, at 3:21:39
In reply to meth brain damage - - latest news, posted by guttersnipe on July 20, 2004, at 1:48:35
Hi
I had to force myself to read it...I don't want to face the truth again. It is so much easier to pretend it doesn't exist.
Thank you for posting it. I NEED to keep it as a reality and be reminded of the horrors that meth is doing to me
Thanks
Posted by karlak13 on August 20, 2004, at 22:29:31
In reply to meth brain damage - - latest news, posted by guttersnipe on July 20, 2004, at 1:48:35
I was doing 1-2 grams a day of crystal meth for close to 5 years. Then got cleaned up. I was an honor student in HS and had no problems learning. Shortly after treatment and stop using I signed up for tech school to get an associate degree working with computers. I paid attention in class and participated. I took excellent notes. I wrote computer programs and got A's on them. But my tests I flunked. I couldn't comprehend what I was reading and what it was asking me. I got permission to take my tests untimed and to have someone read them to me. I went from F's to A's. Drugs-Meth definetly effected my brain cells. Now 13 years latter and clean the whole time I am back in college taking new computer programming classes and I am having no problems taking my tests and getting A's without assistance. So my brain did regrow cells or rejuvinate or what ever you want to call it. I am so glad it did. It really worried me.
Posted by 2ndXround on August 21, 2004, at 7:09:37
In reply to Re: meth brain damage - - latest news, posted by karlak13 on August 20, 2004, at 22:29:31
Hi
Hey, that's great news!
I went through some of the same stuff you did.
Honor roll HS, full scholership to College and Nursing School. Did meth all throughout Nursing School. Straight A's...no problem.
Went on to specialize in Cardiology...and got clean.
Worked full time and returned to school and found I actually had to pay attention in class to get A's! My retention and attention sucked. I thought it was from depression. Later, after taking antidep, I thought it was from the meds.
I have no idea.
One thing that I found interesting. The brain does not stop developing until about 25 years old. In the later teen years, the frontal lobe is is 'rewiring' itself and developing. This is the area devoted to critical thinking and problem solving. Definitely a part needed in school. The frontal lobe is also the part of the brain that is damaged from meth abuse. So....I wonder if you were lucky as h-ll....your brain was developing and rewiring the same area you were damaging....so the damage you did was replaced or repaired before it became permenent.
Sound crazy? Probably...it must be because of all those dead brain cells of mine.
Take care
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