Cocaine and dopamine
Yesterday, I watched some show about cocaine and dopamine and how they are related. So, let us read a little about it and understand what happens in the brain when cocaine enters our body.
And yes, this is not the first time I watched something about this illicit drug. Maybe an year ago, I happened to watch a show where a proctologist injected himself with high dose of cocaine to find out its effects on his body. As this drug travelled into his body, he started scribbling on the wall what he felt at that time and so on. The main objective behind him injecting himself with that lethal dose was to make a discovery and note down his minute by minute observations for further developments into that subject. He, in fact, had put an antidote handy in case of need. Unfortunately, he died before he could save himself.
Yes, we will read about him as well. But, first lets understand something else.
We all know that cocaine is a psychoactive drug affecting the central nervous system. Now, we ain't interested in how it is injected into the body and all. We just don't care. So now let us jump to dopamine
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain's reward and pleasure centers, and deals with the mood of excitement
The dopamine is naturally produced in the brain and makes us feel good about some things.
Now, cocaine is an indirect dopamine agonist (engaged in conflict/struggle). That means it causes excitement but then, the body of a cocaine addict stops reacting to other pleasures of life, and the naturally production process of the dopamine stops and dopamine only gets produced by the intake of cocaine.. That means, the addict is excited only by cocaine intake and nothing else. Cocaine causes long term damage of dopamine neurons.
Lets look at the image below to see the difference in normal brain and a brain of a cocaine addict
Yesterday, I watched some show about cocaine and dopamine and how they are related. So, let us read a little about it and understand what happens in the brain when cocaine enters our body.
And yes, this is not the first time I watched something about this illicit drug. Maybe an year ago, I happened to watch a show where a proctologist injected himself with high dose of cocaine to find out its effects on his body. As this drug travelled into his body, he started scribbling on the wall what he felt at that time and so on. The main objective behind him injecting himself with that lethal dose was to make a discovery and note down his minute by minute observations for further developments into that subject. He, in fact, had put an antidote handy in case of need. Unfortunately, he died before he could save himself.
Yes, we will read about him as well. But, first lets understand something else.
We all know that cocaine is a psychoactive drug affecting the central nervous system. Now, we ain't interested in how it is injected into the body and all. We just don't care. So now let us jump to dopamine
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain's reward and pleasure centers, and deals with the mood of excitement
The dopamine is naturally produced in the brain and makes us feel good about some things.
Now, cocaine is an indirect dopamine agonist (engaged in conflict/struggle). That means it causes excitement but then, the body of a cocaine addict stops reacting to other pleasures of life, and the naturally production process of the dopamine stops and dopamine only gets produced by the intake of cocaine.. That means, the addict is excited only by cocaine intake and nothing else. Cocaine causes long term damage of dopamine neurons.
Lets look at the image below to see the difference in normal brain and a brain of a cocaine addict
Brain images showing decreased dopamine2 receptors in the brain of a person addicted to cocaine versus a nondrug user. The dopamine system is important for conditioning and motivation, and alterations such as this are likely responsible, in part, for the diminished sensitivity to natural rewards that develops with addiction.
PHOTO COURTESY NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH / http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-07-09/dr-nora-volkow
So now, what this proctologist, Edwin Katskee did was, he gave himself a large injection of cocaine. He recorded the clinical course of his symptoms in notes written on the wall of his office. But, the amount of cocaine he gave himself was very large and it proved fatal. The media described his note-filled wall as his "death diary".
Here, I found that wall note on http://www.madsciencemuseum.com/msm/pl/edwin_katskee
Let us give it a look:
