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The Brain and Drugs
By Lucas Tha Intern on October 5, 2010

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Addiction: The Effects of Drugs on the Brain

The effects of drugs on the brain are similar to the effects of playing sports, eating, falling in love, or shopping in that they all release the same chemical in the brain called dopamine. “Dopamine has many functions in the brain, including important roles in behavior and cognition, voluntary movement, motivation and reward …sleep, mood, attention, and learning” (The Medical News, n.d.). The release of dopamine is part of the reward system because it gives a person a feeling of pleasure just like when you fall in love. Other neurons in the brain release another chemical called GABA. GABA helps to recycle the dopamine and prevents overstimulation by the dopamine. This overstimulation can be caused in a variety of ways by a variety of drugs, for example:

• Amphetamines promote the release of dopamine;

• Cocaine prevents the reuptake of dopamine;

• Heroine and morphine block the release of GABA (Time: Health & Science, 2010).

The feeling of euphoria that dopamine creates rewards the user for their actions. This chemically encourages repetition of the behaviour that provoked this euphoric response which has the potential to lead towards an addiction. Through repeat exposure to drugs, neurons in the brain have the uncanny ability to adapt to the intensifying surge of dopamine levels by diminishing production of dopamine in the brain. In turn, the user’s ability to experience euphoria is lessened by normal life and the addictive behaviour that provoked the release of dopamine is more frequently carried out just to maintain a normal dopamine level. A tolerance to the drug can accompany the decrease in dopamine production. This has the potential to incite an increase in quantity of the original drug being consumed dependant on the user’s willpower to defeat their addiction as well as metabolic and environmental factors (NIDA Info Facts, 2008).

References

NIDA Info Facts (2008), Understanding Drug Abuse and Addiction, Retrieved on October 5, 2010, from http://www.drugabuse.gov/PDF/InfoFacts/Understanding08.pdf

The Medical News (n.d.), Dopamine Functions, Retrieved on October 5, 2010, from http://www.news-medical.net/health/Dopamine-Functions.aspx

Time: Health & Science (2010), Addiction and the Brain, Retrieved on October 5, 2010, from http://www.time.com/time/interactive/0,31813,1640235,00.html