"Coffee leads men to trifle away their time, scald their chops, and spend their money, all for a little base, black, thick, nasty, bitter, stinking nauseous puddle water."
— The Women’s Petition Against Coffee, 1674
Morphine Sulfate Injection, USP
5 milligrams per milliliter (5mg/mL or 5mg/cc.) For subcutaneous, intramuscular, or slow intravenous use. Schedule II controlled substance.
(Source: -lykalios, via u------------------------------u)
The first European cocaine addict:
Many are aware of Sigmund Freud’s contributions to psychology, but you may not know that he basically glorified cocaine at one point in his lifetime. When cocaine makes contact with the peripheral nervous system, it prevents neural firing, which is the reason for numbing. Cocaine was first used as an anesthetic and revolutionized surgery.
Freud was mistaken by suggesting cocaine use for various problems. The effects from cocaine usage that we know about today comes from an incidence concerning one of Freud’s friends, Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow. Fleischl-Marxow suffered from chronic pain and had become addicted to morphine. Freud prescribed cocaine, and Fleischl-Marxow began to take larger and larger doses of it. This eventually helped him abstain from morphine use, but he ended up consuming a gram of cocaine every day. He also began to show bizarre symptoms we now recognize as characteristics of a cocaine overdose. These included paranoid delusions, and a feeling of itching called the formication syndrome. Which are symptoms of itching and feeling as if insects were crawling under the skin. Freud was rather surprised on the effects cocaine had on his friend, and in his later works, he was not so enthusiastic about the use of cocaine. This set a path for the first cocaine epidemic of the 80’s - the 1880’s, that is.
Monoamines:
Three neurotransmitters - norepinephrine, dopamine, and serotonin are known as the monoamines because the chemical structure of each contains a single amine group. Norepinephrine is a key chemical that mediates the physical changes that accompany emotional arousal. It is also important in the regulation of hunger, altertness, and arousal.
Serotonin is found throughout the brain and has been shown to be important in the regulation of sleep. It is also involved with mood and depression. Some anti-depressants are labeled as SSRIs. Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor(s), which block the reuptake of serotonin by the axon terminals, allowing for more of the neurotransmitter to become activated.
Dopamine is very important in the pathways that regulate coordinated motor movements and reward. Parkinson’s disease is related to dopamine insufficiency. It is interesting to note that dopamine itself cannot be administered to patients with Parkinson’s to help them because the brain screens out dopamine entering the system as toxic. (the brain is protected by a blood-brain barrier). However, L-dopa, dopamine’s precursor, does not get screened and is able to enter the brain and create dopamine. Unfortunately, this is not an end all cure for these patients.
Laudanum was a patent medicine which contained 1 grain of opium for every 25 drops of alcohol. One of its common uses was in calming and quieting crying babies.
Importance of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine:
Acetylcholine is found in the axon terminals of neurons that activate skeletal muscles. At the locations where nerves meet muscles, there is a space similar to the synapse called the neuromuscular junction. When the neurons that synapse with muscle fibers fire, they release acetycholine into the neuromuscular junction, and the muscle contracts.
Various muscle disorders are related to problems in the neuromuscular junction and the functioning of acetylcholine. Myasthenia gravis is caused by a blockage of acetycholine. A related similar process is the basis for a very deadly toxin, botulinum. One gram of botulinum toxin is enough to kill more than 3 million people. It blocks the release of acetylcholine at the neuromuscular junction, which in turn results in muscle paralysis, and possible death by asphyxiation. However, a carefully prepared form of this toxin is known to us as “Botox”.
Major neurotransmitters and their agonists and antagonists:
An agonist is a substance that occupies a neural receptor and causes some change in the conductance of the neuron. An antagonist is a substance that occupies a neural receptor and blocks normal synaptic transmission.
For acetylcholine, one agonist is nicotine, while one antagonist is altropine.
For dopamine and norepinephrine, cocaine and other amphetamines act as an agonist, while chlorpromazine acts as an antagonist.
Regarding serotonin, LSD is an agonist, and once again, chlorpromazine is its antagonist.
Morphine is an agonist of endorphins, while naloxone is the antagonist.
For gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), its agonist are barbiturates, and its antagonist is bicuculline.
For the neurotransmitter glutamate, aspartic acid is the agonist, and ketamine is the antagonist.
Neurochemical mechanisms of drug action:
Some drug effects are produced by altering the following neurochemical systems:
Either by,
1. Neurotransmitter synthesis, in which a drug may increase of decrease the synthesis of neurotransmitters.
2. Neurotransmitter transport, in which a drug may interfere with the transport of neurotransmitter molecules to the axon terminals.
3. Neurotransmitter storage, in which a drug may interfere with the storage of neurotransmitters in the vesicles of the axon terminal.
4. Neurotransmitter release, in which a drug may cause the axon terminals to release neurotransmitters into the synapse prematurely.
5. Neurotransmitter degradation, in which a drug may influence the breakdown of neurotransmitters by enzymes.
6. Neurotransmitter reuptake, in which a drug may block the reuptake of neurotransmitters into the axon terminals.
7. Receptor activation, in which a drug may activate a receptor site by mimicking a neurotransmitter.
8. Receptor blocking, in which a drug may cause a receptor to become inactive by blocking it.
"Unlike others, he (a heroin addict) could not find a vocation, a career, a meaningful, sustained activity around which he could wrap his life. Instead, he relied on the addiction to provide a vocation around which he could build a reasonably full life and establish an identity."
— Psychologist Isidor Chein
