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        New Message Board Archives >> Medications, Treatments, Therapies 2004 >> Floridian (others welcome too)
        
(Message started by: ave on Jan 20^th, 2004, 4:02pm)

Title: Floridian (others welcome too)
Post by ave on Jan 20^th, 2004, 4:02pm

You do such a lot of research, could you find some stuff about endorphins?

There have been discussions on this board, or rather the "old board", where people maintained that a great many clusterheads are "addictive personalities".

Now I don't buy the addictive personality, (nor the "cancer" personality and that unproven rot).
I mean, I know the headache is in my head, but not "in my head" as the 70's tried to sell us - making each and every one of us responsible for our own pain - even saying we obviously didn't "want" to get rid of it. Okay, that was by the way).

I must admit, though, that many clusterheads that we know from this board, have had (or still have) addictions. Smoking, coffee, and for a number of us alcohol, despite the trigger-function.

As I understand it, endorphins keep up the addiction by strangling us in a feel good feedback-loop. But I also seem to remember the Hypothalamus has a lot to do with addictions.

Could you dig out some stuff. I don't have the means, nor do I know all the terms as used in the US.
I feel very strongly that ther IS a connection, but as I keep saying, feelings are not enough. We need proof.

Title: Re: Floridian (others welcome too)
Post by floridian on Jan 20^th, 2004, 4:10pm

An interesting challenge - any one else is welcome to join me. Dopamine is one chemical that comes to mind when thinking of addiction. I remember reading somewhere that alcohol, cocaine, nicotine, gambling and shopping all activate dopamine, which is pleasure related. Also, pachinko players (Japanese pinball game) have elevation in dopamine and endorphin when they get hardcore excited. I'll do some digging - won't have much until tommorow or the next day.

Title: Re: Floridian (others welcome too)
Post by ozzman on Jan 20^th, 2004, 4:48pm

Ave,

I ran across this article a while back, it is about serotonin and its role on addictions, mood, pain, etc:

http://nasw.org/users/twoharts/serotonin.htm

The relevant part about addictions:

Quote:

Drug Abuse
If "low" serotonin makes you feel "low," will "high" serotonin make you feel "high"? Well, in a way, yes, but it's temporary, dangerous and illegal! Several abused drugs are known to act on the serotonin system. MMDA (Ecstasy) is a very powerful serotonin-active drug. Although it may have effects on other neurochemical systems, it produces its feelings of euphoria and tranquility primarily through its action on serotonin receptors. Several hallucinogenic drugs, including LSD and psilocybin, resemble the serotonin molecule so closely that they are also believed to produce their psychedelic effects by acting on serotonin receptors.

Much evidence links serotonin abnormalities to alcoholism and other substance abuse. Substance abusers do have lower levels of serotonin activity, and serotonin-active drugs decrease alcohol and drug abuse both in humans and in rats--who are not so different from us after all! However, the degree of improvement varies greatly from individual to individual. It is thought that low serotonin may contribute to substance abuse through serotonin's effects on impulse control, food and fluid intake, and on mood. Anxiety, depression, and poor impulse control are often part of the profile and the problems underlying alcohol and drug abuse.

Ozzy

Title: Re: Floridian (others welcome too)
Post by CJohnson on Jan 21^st, 2004, 10:48am

In the mid-90s scientists created genetically altered mice missing a single serotonin receptor called 2C. These mice overate. Over time, as their metabolisms appeared to burn fewer calories, they became moderately obese. Moreover, the serotonin 2C receptor is significant not only because eating behavior is partially voluntary, but also because it may alter appetites for pleasurable experiences, whether they be eating or taking drugs of abuse.
This may suggest that serotonin receptor dysfunction is related to the kind of addictive behaviour you are talking about.

"Here's roughly how it works. Cells called neurons extend between different brain regions and affect one another by their release of neurotransmitters. One way that feelings of pleasure are generated is by the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the limbic system, a set of brain structures involved in the regulation of emotion. Some dopamine-generating neurons extend to the limbic system from a mid-brain region known as the ventral tegmental area or VTA.

Meanwhile, serotonin routinely released in the VTA activates 2C receptors on cells called inter-neurons. As a result, those cells release a transmitter called GABA which, in turn, reduces the dopamine released to the limbic system.

"If you have less dopamine, you might get less pleasure out of your food. Your drive to want to consume it, your pleasure pathway, may be turned down," Tecott explains.

Hypothetically then, the mice without 2C receptors lack that serotonin "brake" on their dopamine pleasure pathway. Food and drugs of abuse that increase dopamine, such as cocaine, will produce a "bigger pleasurable boost," increasing the appetite for them, Tecott says."

http://pub.ucsf.edu/missionbay/science/tecott.php

PFDANs
-Curtis

Title: Re: Floridian (others welcome too)
Post by CJohnson on Jan 21^st, 2004, 10:57am

"Neuroscientist René Hen of Columbia University and his colleagues used a standard test to gauge the animals' craving for cocaine. They trained the mice to press a lever to receive an injection of the drug and monitored how hard they were willing to work to receive a hit. The "knockout" mice lacking the serotonin-1B receptor pressed the lever far more often than normal mice--and eventually received twice as many injections. Moreover, the brains of the knockout mice resembled those of normal mice already "sensitized" to cocaine. After repeated exposure to the drug, mouse brains express higher amounts of certain long-lasting proteins, called chronic FRAs. Those proteins were abundant in knockout mice that had never been given cocaine. The animals--which are more aggressive and impulsive than normal mice, but have no other obvious developmental problems--will also drink twice as much alcohol as normal mice."

That from here:
http://bric.postech.ac.kr/science/97now/98_5now/980513c.html

PFDANs
-Curtis

Title: Re: Floridian (others welcome too)
Post by floridian on Jan 21^st, 2004, 11:09am

Ozzman is on to something with the serotonin. When I first started taking 5htp at moderate doses (2-3 50 mg caps per day), I had feelings of elation and euphoria - smiling every where I went, warm glow, pleasant tingling in the spine. It went away in a week or so. I understand that some people on SSRIs report the same feelings, temporarily.

Endorphins are definitely a part of most complex behaviors - and to a degree, all the neurotransmitters affect each other. I don't think there is a simple explanation of addiction or addictive personalities. There are definitely adrenaline junkies, wallflowers, bossy people, so the idea that there are 'addictive personalities' is not unreasonable to me. But it gets complicated quick. Here are a few selected quotes from the research on addictions, endorphin, dopamine, etc.

Quote:

The likelihood of developing an addictive disorder is a function of multiple simultaneous, pharmacologic, genetic, and environmental variables, such as the pharmacology of the drug, the route of administration, the personality of the individual, and the availability of the drug. There is increasing evidence that long-lasting changes in the brain result from the progression of casual user to addict. Moreover, the course of the progression of addiction is similar to that of other chronic diseases. In this paper, strategies for effective treatment of addiction, including long-term relapse management and new pharmacological therapies such as naltrexone and acamprosate, are discussed.

Quote:

... two types of alcoholic personalities: type 1 - later onset with feelings of anxiety, guilt, and high harm avoidance; and type 2 - early age of onset, usually men, impulsive, antisocial, and with low levels of brain serotonin. ... Of particular interest are the 'reward pathway' (serotonin, dopamine, GABA, glutamate, and beta endorphin) and the behavioral stress response system (corticotrophin-releasing factor and neuropeptide Y)

A link between genes and addiction?

Quote:

Impulsiveness as the intermediate link between the dopamine receptor D2 gene and alcohol dependence.

Quote:

beta-endorphin levels are not elevated by brain stimulation reward but do increase with extinction.
(end of reward - also noted in pachinko study.

No simple way to predict susceptibility to alcoholism from measuring brain chemicals:

Quote:

The CSF measures (of endorphins and neurotransmitters) did not predict the precue levels of craving, or the increase in craving after alcohol cue exposure.

Quote:

(there is) preliminary evidence to suggest that long-term exposure to cigarette smoke is associated with alterations in the responsivity of the endogenous opioid system and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis that may contribute to the development of nicotine dependence.

Quote:

Previous studies suggest that brain opioid activity decreases aggression in animal models.

Internet addiction?

Quote:

What kinds of psychological features do people have when they are overly involved in usage of the internet? Internet users in Korea were investigated in terms of internet over-use and related psychological profiles by the level of internet use. We used a modified Young's Internet Addiction Scale, and 13,588 users (7,878 males, 5,710 females), out of 20 million from a major portal site in Korea, participated in this study. Among the sample, 3.5% had been diagnosed as internet addicts (IA), while 18.4% of them were classified as possible internet addicts (PA). The Internet Addiction Scale showed a strong relationship with dysfunctional social behaviors. More IA tried to escape from reality than PA and Non-addicts (NA). When they got stressed out by work or were just depressed, IA showed a high tendency to access the internet. The IA group also reported the highest degree of loneliness, depressed mood, and compulsivity compared to the other groups. The IA group seemed to be more vulnerable to interpersonal dangers than others, showing an unusually close feeling for strangers. Further study is needed to investigate the direct relationship between psychological well-being and internet dependency.