Methamphetamine and Brain Function

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Methamphetamine and Brain Function
According to the Centers for Disease Control, methamphetamine, or meth as it is often referred to, is considered the fastest-growing illicit drug in the United States. The consequences of usage are detrimental to families and employers, not to mention the increasing law enforcement burden of having to find and disband labs making it illegally. (CDC, 2005) Aside from the far-reaching implications of methamphetamine use on these entities, this paper explores the effect methamphetamine has on the structure and function of the human brain.
A study by Nestor et al. (2011) explored prefrontal hypoactivation during cognitive control in early abstinent methamphetamine-dependent subjects. Cognitive control is the ability to process incoming information and respond with the appropriate behavior. The participants consisted of an 18 member control group who had not previously used meth and a 10 member experimental group who were 4 to 7 days removed from their last meth usage. The researchers utilized the Stroop test which focuses on one stimulus dimension while ignoring another dimension, in this case indicating the color of the letters the word was written in instead of naming the written color word as spelled, in an incongruent color. This task was performed by each individual while their brain activation was evaluated by functional MRI (fMRI). The fMRI works on the premise that the more active a brain area is, the more oxygen it will require, which results in increased blood flow to that area. Regarding the Stroop test alone, the meth-dependent group showed slower response times and made more errors than the control group. The fMRI results also showed the complementary result of significantly less ...

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...l and cognitive function after severe traumatic brain injury. Journal Of Trauma & Acute Care Surgery, 73(2 Suppl 1), S165-72. doi:10.1097/TA.0b013e318260896a

Salo, R., Ursu, S., Buonocore, M., Leamon, M., & Carter, C. (2009). Impaired Prefrontal Cortical Function and Disrupted Adaptive Cognitive Control in Methamphetamine Abusers: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study. Biological Psychiatry, 65(8), 706-709.

Salo, R., Fassbender, C., Buonocore, M. H., & Ursu, S. (2013). Behavioral regulation in methamphetamine abusers: An fMRI study. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging Section, 211(3), 234-238. doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2012.10.003

Wang, G., Smith, L., Volkow, N., Telang, F., Logan, J., Tomasi, D., & ... Fowler, J. (2012). Decreased dopamine activity predicts relapse in methamphetamine abusers. Molecular Psychiatry, 17(9), 918-925. doi:10.1038/mp.2011.86

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