science is my god

[dopaminergic]

Lex III: Actioni contrariam semper et æqualem esse reactionem: sive corporum duorum actiones in se mutuo semper esse æquales et in partes contrarias dirigi

Comments

[heykidzcomix]

Actually, if I'm remembering this right, MDMA burns out the 5HT receptors, which aren't used to dealing with tremendous qualities of stuff. Once that's done, you need to pump up serotonin production significantly to get back to where you were. It's been a while since I read those studies, though.

[dopaminergic]

I was speaking in terms of immediate effects. It destroys 5-HT producing neurons, not the receptors (unless I'm forgetting something, which I very well may be.) There was that study with the monkeys that made it into TIME magazine back when I was in high school, and I remember seeing the pictures of the brains stained before and after and not understanding it, but then after studying neuroscience I understood the implications. Granted, with the monkeys they gave them something like 10 "normal" doses of MDMA per day, which no human really does...but in theory the same amount of damage could be done if the drug is taken over a long period of time.

Wow, long response

[andyredrum]

The brain of a monkey would look pretty damaged if you overdosed it with coffee or alcohol or made it hang out at Mojo's everyday, no?

[dopaminergic]

I'm not sure about caffeine causing physical damage...it is possible to suffer from stimulant psychosis if you ingest a large enough quantity of caffeine all at once, but I'll have to get back to you on whether or not it kills neurons or fucks with receptors.

Alcohol, on the other hand, would indeed cause the primate brain to look pretty damaged. And I'm kicking myself now for saying monkeys when in fact that study was done on chimpanzees, which are not monkeys...they are apes...and people who fail to recognize the distinction make me violent.

And hanging out at MoJo's everyday? That's enough to cause neurons to commit suicide in any creature that has them.

lol, btw

[kkatee]

ecstasy is fun stuff but not great for doing very often, imho. although i don't think i've had after effects as strong as you, the next day isn't very awesome.