Healthy And Addicted Brains, Pet Scans

by Science Source

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Healthy And Addicted Brains, Pet Scans

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Science Source

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Cocaine dependence (or addiction) is psychological dependency on the regular use of cocaine. Cocaine dependency can result in physiological damage, lethargy, psychosis, depression, akathisia, and fatal overdose. Common signs of snorting cocaine, the most popular method of ingestion, includeloss of the sense of smell, nosebleeds, difficulty swallowing, hoarseness, and a chronically runny nose. Methamphetamine is known to have a high potential for abuse and addiction. Recreational use of methamphetamine may result in psychosis or lead to post-withdrawal syndrome, a withdrawal syndrome that can persist for months beyond the typical withdrawal period. Unlike amphetamine, methamphetamine is neurotoxic to humans, damaging both dopamine and serotonin neurons in the CNS. There is evidence that methamphetamine causes brain damage from long term use in humans; this damage includes adverse changes in brain structure and function, such as reductions in gray matter volume in several brain regions and adverse changes in markers of metabolic integrity. The American Medical Association considers alcoholism as a disease and supports a classification that includes both physical and mental components. The biological mechanisms that cause alcoholism are not well understood. Social environment, stress, mental health, family history, age, ethnic group, and gender all influence the risk for the condition. Significant alcohol intake produces changes in the brain's structure and chemistry, though some alterations occur with minimal use of alcohol over a short term period, such as tolerance and physical dependence. Opioid dependence is a medical diagnosis characterized by an individual's inability to stop using opiates (morphine, heroin, codeine, oxycodone, hydrocodone, etc.) even when objectively it is in his or her best interest to do so. Positron emission tomography (PET) is a nuclear medicine, functional imaging technique that produces a three-dimensional image of functional processes i

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April 18th, 2016

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