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Drug Abuse

5K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  anoop_1198 
#1 ·
A 28-year-old woman presents to a court-ordered drug treatment center because of methamphetamine abuse. She tells the drug counselors that she initially started taking methamphetamine because she was trying to work two jobs and needed to try to stay awake and remain productive. She found that she liked the euphoric effects of the drug and kept taking methamphetamine to reexperience the "high." Which of the following mechanisms of action is most likely responsible for the reinforcing effects of methamphetamine?

A. Blocks the metabolism of both dopamine and norepinephrine
B. Directly stimulates dopamine receptors
C. Directly stimulates adrenergic receptors
D. Induces dopamine release
E. Induces norepinephrine release
 
#2 ·
A 28-year-old woman presents to a court-ordered drug treatment center because of methamphetamine abuse. She tells the drug counselors that she initially started taking methamphetamine because she was trying to work two jobs and needed to try to stay awake and remain productive. She found that she liked the euphoric effects of the drug and kept taking methamphetamine to reexperience the "high." Which of the following mechanisms of action is most likely responsible for the reinforcing effects of methamphetamine?

A. Blocks the metabolism of both dopamine and norepinephrine
B. Directly stimulates dopamine receptors
C. Directly stimulates adrenergic receptors
D. Induces dopamine release
E. Induces norepinephrine release
it s d as metamph.. block s reuptake of ne and da
 
#4 ·
Yup right....here's the explanation -
The correct answer is D. Methamphetamine (and amphetamine) acts by gaining entrance to dopamine and norepinephrine (and serotonin) nerve terminals, causing the release of these neurotransmitters via the uptake carriers. Dopamine is believed to play an important role in the reward system of the brain, and is thought to be a significant factor in the reinforcing effects of stimulants. One area of the brain that is thought to be involved in this reward system is the dopaminergic projection from the ventral tegmental area of the midbrain to the nucleus accumbens of the forebrain.

Although methamphetamine is a weak inhibitor of monoamine oxidase (MAO), and would therefore weakly block the metabolism of catecholamines (choice A), this is not the primary mechanism of action of this drug.

Methamphetamine acts as an indirect-acting agonist, via the release of neurotransmitter, not as a direct agonist (choices B and C).

Methamphetamine does induce norepinephrine release (choice E), but this plays a role in the production of systemic side effects (e.g., hypertension), rather than in the central effect of reinforcement.
 
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