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I am 26. I started using methamphetamine eight months ago. I had been using the drug for a month when I met a young woman and fell in love. She also used the drug. After dating for less than two months she had a stroke. She was 28. Methamphetamine was one of the primary causes of the high blood pressure that caused a blood vessal in her brain to rupture. She nearly died. After two months she was released from medical care. Within two weeks of being released she started using methamphetamine again. I never really quit. She suffers from partial paralysis on her left side.
--Jimmie
Source: www.kci.org - The Anti-Meth Site
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All drugs of abuse act in the brain to produce their euphoric effects; however some of them also have severe negative consequences in the brain such as seizures, stroke, and widespread brain damage that can impact all aspects of daily life. Drug use can also cause brain changes that lead to problems with memory, attention and decision-making.
| Drugs that can cause neurological problems: |
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| Selected Research Findings on the Neurological Effects of Drug Abuse |
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Effects of Hepatitis C virus on Neurological Injury HIV+ Methamphetamine Abusers
Given the increased risk for brain injury among methamphetamine abusers (MA), researchers at UCSD questioned whether the addition of Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection would have a further detrimental effect. In a preliminary study, concentrations of the metabolites NAA, Cho, Ins, and Cr were compared in three groups: HCV+/METH, HCV+/No METH, HCV-/ METH and HCV-/No METH controls. It was expected that NAA would be lowest in HCV+/METH, followed by HCV-/METH and would be highest in HCV-/No METH with a selective increase in the inflammatory markers Ins and Cho in HCV+/METH only, reflecting putative inflammation due to HCV. The preliminary results indicate that HCV infection may worsen METH-associated neuronal injury in white matter. NAA was lower in the white matter region of the right anterior centrum semiovale in the HCV+/METH compared to controls and HCV-/Meth groups. In addition, reduction in this marker of neuronal integrity was correlated with worsening global neuropsychological deficit in the combined METH groups. However, Cho and Ins were not elevated in the HCV+/METH group. Larger studies should determine if this disagreement is due to inadequate power, or whether the combination of methamphetamine and HCV alters the neuropathogenesis of the latter. Taylor, M.J., Letendre, S.L., Schweinsburg, B.C., Alhasson, O.M., Brown, G.G., Gongvatana, A., Grant, I. and The HNRC. Hepatitis C Virus Infection is Associated with Reduced White Matter N-acetylaspartate in Abstinent Methamphetamine Users. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society. 10(1) pp.110-113, January 2004.
Impact of Cannabis Use on Brain Function in Adolescents
Dr. Leslie Jacobsen and colleagues reported on a pilot study to determine the potential effect of cannabis exposure in adolescents. Seven adolescent marijuana users that also used tobacco, seven tobacco users with a minimal history of cannabis use, and seven non-smokers with no history of cannabis use were compared. Participants were tested on a number of assessments of attention and working memory while fMRI was used to assess hippocampal activation patterns, since both preclinical and clinical evidence suggests that cannabis modulates hippocampal function. Cannabis users were found to have significantly more errors on a continuous performance task, which tests sustained attention, than participants that did not use tobacco and had not used cannabis. Cannabis users also had more errors than tobacco users, although the difference did not reach statistical significance. The performance of cannabis users on the most difficult working memory task used (the 2-back task) was found to differ significantly from both the tobacco-using group and those individuals that used neither tobacco nor cannabis. Analysis across all tasks showed that, overall, cannabis users performed worse than the individuals in the other two groups and also differed in their hippocampal activation pattern from non-using adolescents. Although a pilot study with relatively few participants, the data from this investigation do suggest that adolescent use of cannabis may affect memory and attention and that these effects are reflected in neurobiological alterations. Jacobsen, L.K., Mencl, E.W., Westerveld, M. and Pugh, K.R., Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1021, pp. 384-390, 2004.
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