Written by Bedirhan Atabay
Imagine a drug that was used in various wars, including WW2, and worked out so well that the Germans managed to invade France with it! Well, there indeed is such a drug, and its name is Methamphetamine! In 1893, Methamphetamine was invented by a Japanese scientist, an event that started this story (2). Then, amphetamine was invented in 1910 by Barger and Dale as an alternative to ephedra plant, a plant from China, and after this, a synthetisation of this was perfectly pulled off by G.A.Allen in 1927 (2). As a natural result of those events, Methamphetamine started to gain a massive popularity in the US and many other countries, even after 1970 when it was legally banned in the US (2)! What was the thing that made this drug so addictive and effective at the same time? Well, the real reason behind this lies in its effects on our brain.
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The reason behind the highly addictive nature of the drug is the tolerance that the user’s brain slowly develops against the drug. However, this tolerance is supposedly making things even worse, and the reason behind this is that the user starts to get higher doses of the drug instead of quitting it in order to satisfy themselves (1). This leads to extensive addiction issues and results with the drug influencing more and more people. Another reason behind this is that using this drug results with an increase of dopamine production (1). Some of the effects of this drug on our brain are the decreases of various substances required for our brain to work effectively and cytoskeletal damage. However, the point I want to stand on is that it can also cause various disorders and result in various damages to the brain varying from hallucinations and delusions to paranoia (1). The person who uses this drug can see various mental risks since the way their brain works will probably see a change.
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This drug also has another side effect, using this drug makes you ruthless and eager to destroy anything in your way. This is why this drug was so effective in the warfares, it was well capable of manipulating the brain to work more differently than it tends to work. This feature of the drug has had various negative effects on our society, including some people committing dangerous crimes due to the effect of the drug on their minds (5). On the other hand, it will be prominent to note that the effect of this drug on a person’s mind is yet not proven to be official; however, stats are seemingly directly proportional, and this comes with a high increase of possibility for this to happen (5).
Although hard to achieve, there are still some methods that can succeed in getting over methamphetamine addiction that can make the process easier for the people with methamphetamine addiction. Various behavioral therapies can work to get over this issue, but still, it must be noted that there is no government approved method to get over this addiction for now (1). Some of the aforementioned behavioral therapy methods can be listed as:
-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: This therapy helps the users to avoid things that can trigger drug usage for the addict (1).
-Motivational Incentives: This method uses cash rewards to keep the users away from the drug (1).
Withdrawing methamphetamine use can sometimes lead to several side effects varying from anxiety and severe depression to fatigue and psychosis (1).
References:
https://nida.nih.gov/publications/drugfacts/methamphetamine .
History.com Editors. (n.d.). History of meth. History.com. https://www.history.com/topics/crime/history-of-meth#meth-addiction.
Effects of crystal meth on the brain: What does meth do to your brain?. American Addiction Centers. (2022, September 15). https://americanaddictioncenters.org/meth-treatment/effects-on-the-brain-and-cns.
Rusyniak DE. Neurologic manifestations of chronic methamphetamine abuse. Psychiatr Clin North Am. 2013 Jun;36(2):261-75. doi: 10.1016/j.psc.2013.02.005. Epub 2013 Apr 11. PMID: 23688691; PMCID: PMC3764482.
Brecht ML, Herbeck D. Methamphetamine Use and Violent Behavior: User Perceptions and Predictors. J Drug Issues. 2013 Oct;43(4):468-482. doi: 10.1177/0022042613491098. Epub 2013 Jun 14. PMID: 26594058; PMCID: PMC4651438.