Acne Medicine That Causes Suicidal Thoughts
Amphetamine, and related drugs such as methamphetamine are a group of drugs that act by increasing levels of norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine in the brain. It includes prescription CNS drugs commonly used to treat attention-deficit disorder (ADD) and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in adults and children. It is also used to treat symptoms of traumatic brain injury and the daytime drowsiness symptoms of narcolepsy and chronic fatigue syndrome. Initially it was more popularly used to diminish the appetite and to control weight.
Brand names of the drugs that contain amphetamine include Vyvanse, Adderall, and Dexedrine. The drug is also used illegally as a recreational club drug and as a performance enhancer. The name amphetamine is derived from its chemical name: alpha-methylphenethylamine. Some biochemistry textbooks also claim that the name 'amphetamine' is derived from an abbreviation for "amphoteric amine," indicating that the compound can act as both an acid (proton donor) and a base (proton acceptor) depending upon its chemical environment. This origin seems unlikely, however, as there is no unique structural feature that makes amphetamine amphoteric; indeed, all primary amines are amphoteric. The name is also used to refer to the class of compounds derived from amphetamine, often referred to as the substituted amphetamines.
History
Amphetamine was first synthesized in 1887 by Lazăr Edeleanu in Berlin, Germany. He named the compound phenylisopropylamine. It was one of a series of compounds related to the plant derivative ephedrine, which had been isolated from Ma-Huang that same year by Nagayoshi Nagai. No pharmacological use was found for amphetamine until 1929, when pioneer psychopharmacologist Gordon Alles resynthesized and tested it on himself, in search of an artificial replacement for ephedrine. From 1933 or 1934 Smith, Kline and French began selling the volatile base form of the drug under the name Benzedrine Inhaler, useful as a decongestant (and readily usable for non-medical purposes too). One of the first attempts at using amphetamines as a scientific study was done by M. H. Nathanson, a Los Angeles physician, in 1935. He studied the subjective effects of amphetamine in 55 hospital workers who were each given 20 mg of Benzedrine. The two most commonly reported drug effects were “a sense of well being and a feeling of exhilaration” and “lessened fatigue in reaction to work”. During World War II amphetamine was extensively used to combat fatigue and increase alertness in soldiers. After decades of reported abuse, the FDA banned Benzedrine inhalers, and limited amphetamines to prescription use in 1965, but non-medical use remained common. Amphetamine became a schedule II drug under the Controlled Substances Act in 1971.
The related compound methamphetamine was first synthesized from ephedrine in Japan in 1918 by chemist Akira Ogata via reduction of ephedrine using red phosphorus and iodine. The German military was notorious for their use of methamphetamine in World War II. It is also rumored that Adolf Hitler was receiving daily shots of a medicine secretly named "vitamultine" that contained certain essential vitamins and amphetamines. The pharmaceutical Pervitin was a tablet of 3 mg methamphetamine which was available in Germany from 1938 and widely used in the Wehrmacht, but by mid-1941 it became a controlled substance, partly because of the amount of time needed for a soldier to rest and recover after use and partly because of abuse. For the rest of the war military doctors continued to issue the drug, but ever less frequently, and with increasing discrimination as the war progressed onwards towards Nazi Germany's and the Axis' eventual defeat in 1945.
In 1997 and 1998, researchers at Texas A&M University reported finding amphetamine and methamphetamine in the foliage of two Acacia species native to Texas, A. berlandieri and A. rigidula. Previously, both of these compounds had been thought to be human inventions.
Indications
Along with methylphenidate (Ritalin, Concerta, etc.), amphetamine is one of the standard treatments for ADHD. Beneficial effects for ADHD can include improved impulse control, improved concentration, decreased sensory overstimulation, decreased irritability and decreased anxiety. These effects on productivity can be dramatic in both young children and adults. The ADHD medication Adderall is composed of four different amphetamine salts, and Adderall XR is a timed-release formulation of these same salt forms.
When used within the recommended doses, side-effects like loss of appetite tend to decrease over time. However, amphetamines last longer in the body than methylphenidate (Ritalin, Concerta, etc.), and tend to have stronger side-effects on appetite and sleep.
Amphetamines are also a standard treatment for narcolepsy, as well as other sleeping disorders. If used within therapeutic limits, amphetamines are generally effective over long periods of time without producing addiction or physical dependence.
Amphetamines are sometimes used to augment anti-depressant therapy in treatment-resistant depression.
Medical use for weight loss is still approved in some countries, but is regarded as obsolete and dangerous in others.
Contraindications
Stimulants such as amphetamines elevate cardiac output and blood pressure making them dangerous for use by patients with a history of heart disease or hypertension. Also, patients with a history of drug dependence or anorexia should not be treated with amphetamines due to their addictive and appetite suppressing properties. Amphetamines can cause a life-threatening complication in patients taking MAOI antidepressants. Amphetamine is not suitable for patients with a history of glaucoma.
Amphetamines have also been shown to pass through into breast milk. Because of this, mothers taking medications containing amphetamines are advised to avoid breastfeeding during their course of treatment.
Major neurobiological mechanisms
Primary sites of action
Amphetamine exerts its behavioral effects by modulating the behavior of several key neurotransmitters in the brain, including dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. However, the activity of amphetamine throughout the brain does not appear to be non-specific; certain receptors that respond to amphetamine in some regions of the brain tend not to do so in other regions. For instance, dopamine D2 receptors in the hippocampus, a region of the brain associated with forming new memories, appear to be unaffected by the presence of amphetamine.
The major neural systems affected by amphetamine are largely implicated in the brain’s reward circuitry. Moreover, neurotransmitters involved various reward pathways of the brain appear to be the primary targets of amphetamine. One such neurotransmitter is dopamine, a chemical messenger heavily active in the mesolimbic and mesocortical reward pathways. Not surprisingly, the anatomical components of these pathways—including the caudate putamen, the nucleus accumbens, and the ventral striatum—have been found to be primary sites of amphetamine action.
That amphetamines influence neurotransmitter activity specifically in regions implicated in reward provides insight into the behavioral consequences of the drug, such as the stereotyped onset of euphoria. A better understanding of the specific mechanisms by which amphetamines operate may increase our ability to treat amphetamine addiction, as the brain’s reward circuitry has been widely implicated in addictions of many types.
Endogenous amphetamines
Amphetamine has been found to have several endogenous analogues; that is, molecules of a similar structure found naturally in the brain. l-Phenylalanine and β-Phenethylamine are two examples, which are formed in the peripheral nervous system as well as in the brain itself. These molecules are thought to modulate levels of excitement and alertness, among other related affective states.
Dopamine
Perhaps the most widely studied neurotransmitter with regard to amphetamine action is dopamine, the “reward neurotransmitter” that is highly active in numerous reward pathways of the brain. Various studies have shown that in select regions, amphetamine increases the concentrations of dopamine in the synaptic cleft, thereby heightening the response of the post-synaptic neuron. This specific action hints at the hedonic response to the drug as well as to the drug’s addictive quality.
The specific mechanisms by which amphetamines affect dopamine concentrations have been studied extensively. Currently, two major hypotheses have been proposed, which are not mutually exclusive. One theory emphasizes amphetamine’s actions on the vesicular level, increasing concentrations of dopamine in the cytosol of the pre-synaptic neuron. The other focuses on the role of the dopamine transporter DAT, and proposes that amphetamine may interact with DAT to induce reverse transport of dopamine from the presynaptic neuron into the synaptic cleft.
Acne Medicine That Causes Suicidal Thoughts
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