what does prolonged drug abuse do to brain cells?
107308
Actually it depends on many factors. Some people just rot their teeth, others lose much of their mental capacity. Had a friend that Sniff Glue when we were young, he a nice person never start trouble, but, he real slow on thinking now and if we not around him for awhile he forgets who we are. Never makes it to the punch line on a joke either, because he forgets what he is talking about if the sentence too long. As far as physical health he great. BUT, just knowing what may or may not happen will have no bearing on getting a person to quit, they have to want too first.
452163
It takes one time to screw up your whole brain. I don't know if you know this but it's side effects include rapid heart beat, muscle tension, insomnia and headache. Research has found that MDMA is neurotoxic, meaning it can cause damage to the nervous system which includes the brain. Ecstasy, in its pure form, does not contain heroin - though one never knows what street drugs really contain. Many tests have been done which show that MDMA damages certain neurons in the brain that release a chemical called seratonin (5 HT hydroxytryptamine). This chemical controls emotions, sleep, appetite, memory and reasoning. Brain scans were also done to people who had used Extacy 200 times in five years. The scans showed there to be major brain damage in these patients, and scans also showed that these damages got worse as the user took more Extacy.Also, a recent autopsy on a heavy user of \nExtacy found there to be 60-80% less seratonin in his brain.
1078548
The above answer is right, but to give an example, a psychotropic drug alters brain functions.  This can be done through recreational drugs, those used in religious ceremonies, or medications designed to treat neurological and psychiatric illnesses such as epilepsy or schizophrenia.
7211
Dopamine is not produced only in the brain. it is produced in a number of areas of the central and peripheral nervous systems -- chiefly in the hypothalamus, the arcuate nucleus, and the caudad.  \n \nDopamine plays a role in many different physiological processes, including skeletal movement to drug addiction. In addition dopamine's activities have been linked to cardiovascular, renal, hormonal, and central nervous systems.  \n \nBoth an excess of or deficiency of dopamine can cause disorders.  A deficiency in the striatum or substantia nigra results in Parkinson’s-like symptoms.  In this case, movement becomes slow and rigid, accompanied by muscle tremors. Drugs, such as L-DOPA, are used to alleviate these symptoms.  An excessive amount of dopamine is associated with schizophrenia.  Certain drugs, such as cocaine, block the return of dopamine into the brain, resulting in a build up of dopamine in the synapses, leading to drug-induced psychosis or schizophrenia.
393294
Drug Abuse and Addiction: Signs, Symptoms, Effects and Testing\n\nwww.helpguide.org/mental/drug_substance_ abuse_addiction_signs_effects_treatment.htm
36063
It depends which drug u r using... but nowdays almost all drugs r safe. long time intake can cause some problems but it is very rare. so take care  of ur heart ..and mind..ignorig medicine results heavy damage to body.
357638
It is extremely strong and will kill your brain cells ,if you're on it long. It is also very hard to kick. If you haven't used it don't.
729820
It increases the dopamine level of Seratonin(neurotransmitter) in your brain, and destroys many of your cells. Might not be the best idea to go out and get some X.
624578
toxins that attack your brain cells giving you feelings of euphoria and ease. Alcohol and drugs are pretty much just poison that have positive mental affects, causing people to enjoy poisoning themselves. All alcohol and drugs are doing is killing your brain cells, and since you h ave billions upon billions of these, it isnt so bad at first, but after excessive drinking and drugs, you poison yourself to cancer, or liver failure, or stupidity.
436256
*Shaking my shaggy skull* Noperz, smoking pot makes you no smarter or dumber than you started out to be in the first place.\n\nBut that said I must add a few things...\n\nContrary to the popular myth that smoking marijuana kills brain cells there is mounting evidence that is not only false, but the effects of THC could have the opposite effect.\n\nCannabinoids promote embryonic and adult hippocampus neurogenesis and produce anxiolytic- and antidepressant-like effects. http://66.218.69.11/search/cache?p=neurogenesis+and+marijuana&ei=UTF-8&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&fr=moz3&u=www.jci.org/cgi/reprint/115/11/3104.pdf&w=neurogenesis+marijuana&d=GGiVrm1aMbo9&icp=1&.intl=us\n\nPrevious research had suggested that neurogenesis happens only in select locations in the brain, such as the hippocampus, a region involved in learning and memory. Some studies have shown that this process is inhibited by most illicit drugs, such as cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine. However, says Xia Zhang of the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, marijuana's effect on neurogenesis has not been clear.\n\nHe and his colleagues started investigating this mystery by searching cell surfaces in live, cultured slices of rat hippocampus for receptors that respond to marijuana and a few other similar drugs, called cannabinoids. They reasoned that if marijuana affected neurogenesis in the hippocampus, then cells in that area must have a way to recognize the drug. Sure enough, 95 percent of hippocampus cells responsible for neurogenesis showed evidence of cannabinoid 1 ( CB1 ) receptors, one of two receptors that respond to cannabinoid drugs. http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1624/a06.html\n\nThe current study focused on a particular formulation of synthetic cannabinoid known as HU210 -- a compound which Zhang described as the most powerful cannabinoid in the world.\n\nThe authors explored both the short-term and long-term effects of exposure to HU210 in rats.\n\nTo measure the drug's short-term response, they gave adult rats a single injection of HU210. To study the same drug's effect over the longer term, the researchers gave a separate group of adult rats twice-daily injections of the cannabinoid over a two-week period.\n\nAutopsies revealed that by the end of the 10-day HU210 treatment regimen, new neurons had been generated and integrated into the circuitry of the hippocampus region of the rat's brains. This process, known as neurogenesis, was still in evidence a full month after treatment had been initiated.\n\nNeurogenesis was not triggered in response to brain cells being killed through cannabinoid exposure, the researchers add. In fact, HU210 injections did not appear to prompt any loss of neurons in the hippocampus. http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=54893\n\nMind you, the study is using a super-concentrated drug form and the verdict is still out on smoking it, but they do suggest THC is the only known drug that actually can reverse the loss of brain cells.\n\nFinally though once again, pot does not change your intelligence and different people react to different drugs differently. But it is possible THC will be a cure in time for certain brain affictions...
608787
Ironically, the drug that stays in the system longest is the most innocuous, marijuana. Ice (methamphetamine), cocaine, heroin will only test positive for a couple days after the last time they were taken. Marijuana can last up to 6 weeks. These times vary somewhat based on dosage and frequency of use before the test and the metabolism and body chemistry of the test subject.\n\nPS: Ice is an incredibly addictive drug that can cause permanent changes in brain structure with very limited use. It is still rising in popularity and is already causing more problems than heroin and cocaine combined. Just stay away from it. And I say this as a person who is generally pro-legalization when it comes to drugs. Meth makes cocaine seem like icing sugar.
194155
Both can cause damage to the brain with heavy use over long periods of time, although it's much, much worse with alcohol.  Prolonged alcohol abuse will also damage the liver, while heavy marijuana smoking can cause forms of lung damage also caused by cigarette smoking.  So irresponsible use of either carries some health risk.\n\nBut it's very clear that alcohol abuse is much more likely to cause severe, irreversible, often fatal health effects than even the heaviest use of marijuana.  In theory, marijuana smoking could cause lung cancer in some people, but this is certainly very rare if it happens at all.  In contrast, the number of people in the U.S. who develop dementing brain damage (sometimes called "wet brain") or fatal liver disease, as a direct pharmacological effect of years of heavy drinking, is in the thousands.  Indirect damage (i.e. not pharmacological) to the user or others is also much more frequent with alcohol abuse than with pot smoking, given that alcohol is involved in approximately half of all motor vehicle fatalities, small aircraft crash deaths, drownings, fatal burn injuries, falls, homicides, suicides, and non-fatal injuries as well.  Marijuana smoking may be associated with some number of fatal and nonfatal injuries, but that number is probably very small.  \n\nAs if all that didn't make for a vivid, persuasive comarison favorable to marijuana, its also certain that the amounts of social, psychological, and spiritual damage associated with alcohol vastly exceed those possibly linked to pot smoking. "Reefer Madness" turns out to have been just a bad movie, and I suspect that intelligent space aliens would be astounded to discover a supposedly rational society in which alcohol use is accepted and promoted while marijuana smokers fill up jail cells.  I'm not suggesting, of course, that  there aren't good reasons for discouraging irresponsible use of alcohol OR marijuana by anyone, and children and adolescents should, in my view, be discouraged from using them at all even if both were legal for adults.
1020643
It causes holes in the brain. The medically prescribed version is regulated by the FDA, so the amounts of certain chemicals are different. The uncontrolled, unmonitored version is the problem. There is nothing that will tell you if the batch that was made was made right, or without added chemicals.\n\nThe doses are higher in the street version and potentialy fatal. If you do a search online for CAT scans and ecstasy, you will find that they show actual holes in the brain. These holes can't be repaired by the brain, so the person is left with less brain matter then they started with. That in itself can cause problems. \n\nThere is also the added concern of overdose with street versions, and now they have added chemicals to give you that "extra" high. This is very unsafe and can cause instant death. \n\nA person who uses street grade ecstasy for long periods of time have been found to be slower with learning, dailey activities and speech then those who have never used. There is also the potential for other drugs to get involved, since you aren't thinking of your own free will when you are taking them. \n\nYou can have nerve damage from taking it, and it has been shown that people that take it all the time will develop a shortage of dopamine in the brain that can only be raised by taking the drug. \n\nDopamine is the chemical that causes you to be happy and content in life, esctasy bumps that chemical production up and then when you crash, it takes your brain a while to make that chemical again, so you are left with low dopamine that can cause severe depression, suicidal tendencies and lethergy. \n\nIf a person takes esctasy for long periods of time, the brain will stop making dopamine to make up for the large amounts of synthetic chemicals it is getting from the drug. The brain starts to think that it's producing too much and will stop making it, leaving the person in a perpetual state of depression. The only cure is medication, so it's a vicious cycle.
77821
Methamphetamines in general mimick the neurotransmitters Epinephrine and Norepinephrine. These are naturally produced in the body and regulated by other neurotransmitters. The meth will bind to the receptors for those neurotransmitters resulting in a stimulant effect of high magnitude. The more you use the drug the more tolerant the body becomes and the less natural epinephrine and norepinephrine are produced by the body to compensate for the excess(as it recognizes the drug as the neurotransmitter and will quit producing it over time). This results in a higher threshold to get "high" and therefore more of the drug required. At the same time the body is become dependant on the artificial supply being given to the body and the user becomes physically as well as psychologically dependant. The drug itself is extremely corrosive causing widespread damage to any and all tissue it comes in contact with, ultimately resulting in perferated septum, rotting teeth and gums, erroding esophagus, failing kidneys, etc, etc, etc. Dependant users get to the point that they will give up anything to get the drug, ultimately costing them their jobs, their relationships, their dignity and their life.
936070
Addiction is the resultant condition from altered structure of the Neurons in the brain as a result of continued use of certain drugs and the auto suggestion from the mind that these substances are welcome into the body because of the effects they give.
1051654
No, but it does effect the cells in your brain which can never be replaced.
412506
As a former long term user (10+ years) I haven't really noticed a whole lot of long term side affects.  All of the side affects that I noticed stopped after about 2 months of being clean.  Some of those were short term memory loss, lack of motivation to the point of procrastination, laziness/tiredness, and social anxiety problems.  It is also thought that a person who uses does not mature mentally or emotionally past the point they were at when they started using until after they stop using.  Never noticed any kind of paranoid/schizophrenic type of stuff.  Also smoking seeds is supposed to cause sterility.  There is the possibility that it causes cancer or other respiratory diseases although as far as I know it has not been proven.  Also, I can state that I have not had any lasting affects to my memory or attention.  I am currently enrolled in college and am maintaining a 3.76 GPA with a lot less studying than a lot of people.  In addition I smoked before taking my ACT (was high when took) and scored a 27 composite score.