Cocaine: Why Once Is Never Enough
Cocaine: Why Once Is Never Enough
May 30, 2001 -- After mice are given a single dose of cocaine, there are dramatic changes in brain regions crucial to drug addiction. These changes may help explain why even casual cocaine use can so easily mushroom into an all-consuming addiction, according to a research report in the May 31 issue of Nature.
"Just one dose of cocaine causes an enormous, very profound change in areas of the brain known to be important in addiction," study researcher Mark A. Ungless, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in neurology at the University of California, San Francisco, tells WebMD. "People think that after the 'high' wears off, their brain is back to normal -- but it's just not true."
After one dose of cocaine, the strength of connections doubled between brain cells that signal each other using a chemical called dopamine. Surprisingly, these types of changes are very similar to those involved in normal memory, but occur in different brain regions. Even more astonishing, they lasted for at least a week.
"Drugs like cocaine tap into normal mechanisms of memory in a very effective, but harmful way," Ungless says. "We have to learn more about the differences to develop treatments for addiction and for memory disorders."
"This is an animal model, not human research, so we want to be conservative," researcher Antonello Bonci, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco, tells WebMD. "But we're very excited about the implications for human addiction and relapse."
Other addictive behaviors like compulsive gambling and even marathon running may involve similar changes in related brain regions using dopamine, Ungless explains.
"Dopamine is involved in wanting things -- cravings increase when nerves using dopamine become more active," he says.
Why does cocaine use become addictive, often after a single dose? And why can addicts relapse into addiction after using again just once, even after long periods of staying sober? Ungless and Bonci still don't know for sure, but these brain changes involving dopamine give them some important clues.
"Every time you take the drug, you're in a vulnerable state, and the cravings and the brain response increase with each repeated exposure," Ungless says.
Cocaine: Why Once Is Never Enough
May 30, 2001 -- After mice are given a single dose of cocaine, there are dramatic changes in brain regions crucial to drug addiction. These changes may help explain why even casual cocaine use can so easily mushroom into an all-consuming addiction, according to a research report in the May 31 issue of Nature.
"Just one dose of cocaine causes an enormous, very profound change in areas of the brain known to be important in addiction," study researcher Mark A. Ungless, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in neurology at the University of California, San Francisco, tells WebMD. "People think that after the 'high' wears off, their brain is back to normal -- but it's just not true."
After one dose of cocaine, the strength of connections doubled between brain cells that signal each other using a chemical called dopamine. Surprisingly, these types of changes are very similar to those involved in normal memory, but occur in different brain regions. Even more astonishing, they lasted for at least a week.
"Drugs like cocaine tap into normal mechanisms of memory in a very effective, but harmful way," Ungless says. "We have to learn more about the differences to develop treatments for addiction and for memory disorders."
"This is an animal model, not human research, so we want to be conservative," researcher Antonello Bonci, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco, tells WebMD. "But we're very excited about the implications for human addiction and relapse."
Other addictive behaviors like compulsive gambling and even marathon running may involve similar changes in related brain regions using dopamine, Ungless explains.
"Dopamine is involved in wanting things -- cravings increase when nerves using dopamine become more active," he says.
Why does cocaine use become addictive, often after a single dose? And why can addicts relapse into addiction after using again just once, even after long periods of staying sober? Ungless and Bonci still don't know for sure, but these brain changes involving dopamine give them some important clues.
"Every time you take the drug, you're in a vulnerable state, and the cravings and the brain response increase with each repeated exposure," Ungless says.