– Nicotine is a tropane alkaloid, it has the ability to release dopamine in the reward pathways of the brain, why does it not produce consistent euphoria like cocaine; alkaloid or speed: amphetamine?

Question

EDIT – Something I forgot to mention which may add context is that after a period of abstinence I feel a sharp euphoric wave of dopamine which goes away within less than a few minutes and results in dysphoria, even with redosing.

Unlike cocaine, which I’m comparing since both are alkaloids, it seems to build a very unusually fast tolerance and any positive effects dissipate, unlike the latter.

In: 3379

Answer 1

If I understand your question right, the answer is evolution.

If we sat in a constant state of euphoria our species would have gone extinct long long ago. Euphoria and dopamine are reward signals, but they are used in our brain to reward actions that from an evolutionary perspective help both the individual and the species.

Find some honey and get a caloric hit of sugar, dopamine. Get laid and potentially reproduce, dopamine.

Go hungry because you haven’t hunter/foraged and are out of food, no dopamine, go find food first. No mate and thus no chance of reproduction, no dopamine, go find a mate first.

It is important to remember all these neurobiological and physiological systems evolved for life in the savannah and the woods. We did not evolve for modern life with constant food and easily accessible sexual pleasure. If we had a constant supply of dopamine we would just sit around smiling until we died and our species along side us.