I read an about the damage meth does to you and how it takes way too long to recover from it. How is Ritalin different even tho chemically they are cousins?
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Both amphetamine and methylphenidate are predominantly dopaminergic drugs, yet their mechanisms of action are distinct. Methylphenidate acts as a norepinephrine–dopamine reuptake inhibitor, while amphetamine is both a releasing agent and reuptake inhibitor of dopamine and norepinephrine. Also at doses people are given Ritalin is not high enough to cause euphoria if taken properly and does not appear to cause addiction. Amphetamine’s including meth are also dopamine releasing agents as well. More likely to cause euphoria and addiction. That said amphetamines can be used safely at low doses, but people using meth are taking high doses. I don’t know if we know what the actual damage meth causes in the brain, but it causes excitation in the neurons which at those levels I believe can cause neuron death leading to impairment even if a person stops taking it.
In the short term the brain tries to bring the stimulation by dopamine down to the normal level and does so by removing dopamine receptors from the cell surface. This is why people taking meth inevitably end up taking more to get the same effect. The brain is trying to get dopamine stimulation back to normal, and the meth user is taking more to force the brain to be stimulated by the dopamine. Also in the short term, if a meth user stops using, their brain now has down regulated dopamine receptors that will take a bit to return to normal (assume short term meth use). As a result they will feel quite bad for a while as their dopaminergic system has been disrupted from normal.
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