Cocaine And Its Effect On Dopamine

One can feel the effects of cocaine almost immediately after use, with these effects lasting only a few minutes or hours. The duration of cocaine 's effects depends upon how it is administered. The faster the drug is absorbed, the more intense the high, but also the shorter the duration. The high from snorting is relatively slow to arrive but it may last 15 to 30 minutes. In contrast, the effects from smoking are more immediate but may last only 5 to 10 minutes. “In the brain, cocaine interferes with the chemical messengers -- neurotransmitters -- that nerves use to communicate with each other. Cocaine blocks norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine, and other neurotransmitters from being reabsorbed. The resulting

To start, caffeine and cocaine give off different levels of dopamine to the brain. Dopamine is an important chemical in the brain, it can be used to make people feel good as well as sending signals from the brain to the muscles to make them move. The levels of dopamine that cocaine gives off are much higher and more dangerous than the levels caffeine does. Caffeine gives off small boosts, while cocaine not only releases large levels of dopamine it also prevents it from being reabsorbed back into the brain. This creates a euphoric high, the feeling of intense excitement, happiness, and possibly being invisible (“How Addictive is Coffee vs. Cocaine” par 19-20).

One of the most detrimental and addictive narcotics in the world today is cocaine. Cocaine dates back as early as 3000 BC. Ancient Incas used the coca leaves to counter the effects of living in thin mountain air. Native Peruvians in the 1500’s chewed the plant strictly for religious ceremonies. Andean Indians are believed to chew the leaves of the coca plant to increase their energy for work while decreasing their hunger and pain. It wasn’t until 1859 when a German chemist Albert Niemann successfully extracted the narcotic from the coca leaf. In the 1880’s, it was freely prescribed by physicians for “maladies as exhaustion, depression, and morphine addiction and was available in many patent medicines” (“Cocaine”), until users and doctors began to realize its dangers and side effects. While it was not fully understood at the time, cocaine has many devastating and lasting effects on the user.

Cocaine’s mode of action has been shown to involve the dopamine receptors. This paper will discuss how cocaine affects dopamine receptors, the mode of addiction, how cocaine affects the frontal brain metabolic activities, as well as the role of excitatory amino acids in cocaine’s mechanism. I will also discuss how cocaine affects another system through its mechanism on the brain—the renin angiotensin system.

Cocaine’s primary effect on the brain is to produce “psychoactive and addictive effects primarily by acting on the brain’s limbic system, a set of interconnected regions that regulate pleasure and motivation. Initial, short- term effect- a buildup of the neurochemical, dopamine which gives rise to euphoria and a desire to take the drug again”(Nestler, 2005, p.4). This is normally seen in some individuals that draw in the drug like through inhaling. It gives them an instant increase in blood, and brain levels. It causes the individual to become addicted to this substance. Cocaine is thought to produce pleasure/reward like any addicted drug

Crack has an effect on the part of the brain that is known as the rewards center. It is the part that makes us happy. Normally how this works is the brain will release dopamine, a feel good chemical neurotransmitter, in response to potential rewards that are coming its way. It will then be recycled back into the same cell that released it. The signal between nerve cells shuts off, then the cycle is then repeated. When someone puts crack cocaine into their body, the cocaine gets sent up to the brain through the bloodstream. It then will attach itself to the dopamine, preventing the dopamine from recycling. This causes it all to build up between the nerve cells and be released all at once, resulting in the powerful rushed high feeling people get. This lasts anywhere between 5 minutes to a half hour. After using it one time, people can become addicted. However, with each use the pleasurable feelings fade away, making people want a bigger dosage, which could lead to a negative

“There are changes in the brain caused by drug use that occur and persist, but are only unmasked after withdrawal from a drug — in this case, cocaine," senior author David Dietz explained in the press release. "Cocaine use alters the connections between certain neurons through changes in the shape of the cells."

Cocaine has much impact on your body. Cocaine is a stimulant that increases your body,

By the time he was 14 he was already snorting cocaine. He lies all the time, steals money from his mother’s purse and take items from the house. He does all of this to feed his addiction to cocaine. His family doesn’t want to give up on him but they are divided about what to do to help him overcome this addiction. His addiction has split the family down the middle some wanting to continue enabling him and others wanting to let him go completely. The one thing they do agree on is if Chad continues down this path of destruction his actions would result in his death.

The drug cocaine is a powerful and addictive drug that totally surpasses your physical and emotional system in the body. The side effects can be classified based on the route of administration of the drug.

Prolonged use of cocaine can cause itching, paranoid delusions, and hallucinations even when the person is not “high”. Using cocaine also increases your chances to contract rare diseases such as lupus. Overdosing raises the user’s blood pressure, and can be life-threatening. People who use cocaine regularly develop a tolerance, this increases the amount of cocaine needed to get “high”. People with a high tolerance often overdose because of the need for such a large dose. Drug addicts often die from an overdose because other people with them don’t know what to do. (Gahlinger 103)

Cocaine causes your brain to release Dopamine. This chemical is what your brain releases as a rewarder. It creates a good feeling and then is recycled into the cells. Cocaine prevents the recycle effect so you build up excessive amounts. Short term

Violence is another major effect of cocaine. Cocaine is an illegal drug that is sold for the hopes of yielding high profits returns. Most low-level cocaine dealers sell the drug in their community and city. Most places were drugs are sold are in the poorest areas in an inner city, there is not enough territory for everyone to sell drugs. In return this causes people to murder one another for control of territory. For example, a person receives a shipment of drug they are required to sale and they kill the people in that specific area to have more people to sell drugs to. Crime in these areas are at an all-time high as well. Many chronic abusers of cocaine are homeless or not employed. In a poll with 297 participants, 84 percent stated they hand some involvement with drug related violence (Heraclito). With money and resources to obtain drugs being very low. Many resort armed robbery, purse snatching, home

The drug Cocaine alters chemical levels in the brain which can lead the user to have the ‘feel good’ factor.

Cocaine, on the other hand, has been found to have a profound effect on increased dopamine activity. Kennedy & Hanbauer (1983; cited in Karch, 2007) found a strong correlation between cocaine binding and the inhibition of dopamine uptake, and therefore proposed that dopamine transporters are binding sites for cocaine. Such research, which correlates strong reinforcing properties of cocaine with inhibition of dopamine transporters, suggests that cocaine has a more significant affect upon dopamine, than than it has upon serotonin and noradrenaline. The excessive role of dopamine can explain the high degree of pleasure that users of cocaine experience, as well as depression and cravings, which follow.