Ritalin: Twice as Potent as Cocaine; Causes Comparable Changes in Dopamine Neurons

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> Sat, 9 Oct 2004 14:54:02 -0400

> Ritalin: Twice as Potent as

> Cocaine; Causes Comparable Changes in Dopamine

> Neurons

>

>

> Ritalin Twice As Potent As Cocaine

>

> Preventive Psychiatry # 67:

>

> Ritalin and Cocaine Cause Comparable Changes in

> Dopamine Neurons, But

> Ritalin is Twice as Potent

>

> Volkow, N. D. et. al., Synapse 31:59-66 (1999)

>

> Cocaine and Ritalin (methylphenidate) have similar

> " affinities " for - or

> capacities for " binding " of - the dopamine reuptake

> pump that prevents the

> normal clearance of dopamine from the synapse, thus

> causing an increase in

> the stimulating action of dopamine. Any drug capable

> of disabling the

> reuptake pumps (the primary explanation for how the

> so-called " selective "

> serotonin reuptake pump inhibitors - SSRIs - are

> supposed to help

> depression) increases, sometimes for extremely long

> periods of time, the

> concentration of neurotransmitters in the synapse to

> a point of actual

> hyperstimulation of the receptors. Inhibition of the

> dopamine reuptake

> pump's action is how most of the synthetic chemicals

> marketed by

> pharmaceutical companies as psychostimulant drugs

> actually do what they do

> (not to mention those illegally sold as

> high-inducing and addictive street

> drugs).

>

> Unfortunately, the brain recognizes those actions as

> overstimulation and

> soon shuts down, actually causing to disappear, some

> of the receptor sites,

> changing the anatomy of the brain in the process.

>

> And so the article by Volkow and colleagues, again

> warns us about the use of

> dependency-inducing drugs for kids whose brains

> aren't yet hardwired. This

> reality comes as no surprise for whistle-blower

> scientists and others -

> including concerned parents of active or

> occasionally inattentive children -

> who have been alarmed by the incautious prescribing

> of the amphetamine

> analog Ritalin by mainstream medicine for the last

> generation or two.

>

> Studies in lab animals have repeatedly shown the

> addicting qualities of both

> Ritalin and cocaine.

>

> The IV administration of Ritalin in drug abusers has

> been shown to induce a

> " high " similar to that of IV cocaine.

>

> And the overstimulation of dopamine receptor sites

> in the brain (dopamine is

> the most important neurotransmitter involved in

> feeling " high " ) is what

> causes people and animals to want that sensation

> again and again, especially

> when despair, loneliness or frustration is present.

>

> One of the amazing results of this study was that

> the affinity of Ritalin to

> the dopamine reuptake pumps was 65% higher than that

> of cocaine, a

> non-synthetic substance which therefore is more

> easily metabolized and has a

> shorter half-life.

>

> Summary of Volkow article by Gary G. Kohls, MD,

> Duluth, MN

>

>

>

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