The article we have covered in a previous week, “A role on the metabotropic glutamate receptors in neuroplasticity” by Roghayeh Mozafari, Saeidah Karimi-Haghighi, Mojdeh Fattahi, Peter Kalivas, and Abbas Haghparast was an article about the basics on psychostimulant use disorder as an addiction disorder. Basically, it is a growing public problem attached with both physical and mental handicaps. However, the article warns that there is currently very little we can really do for psychostimulant use disorder, so it is essential to obtain all micro-scale information we can gather on all related topics from reward to many others.The topic today is why people should care about this topic and what the people must know, so without further ado let’s get reading!
The article informs us of some of the distinguishable characteristics of psychostimulant use disorder connected to the micro-scale levels of small. Though, the article specifically focuses mainly on neuron circuitry and glutamate receptors.^1 As a result of this connection, we can now classify correlation here.
Figure one from the article mentioned above is especially excellent at explaining this where it was needed (excellently timed, or in other words placed well). That piece is simultaneously even an absolutely massive diagram which shows even a seemingly full diagram of the journey of glutamate in the brain going off of glutamate receptors activation. Although, one slight problem could be that it could feel a large bunch overwhelming if you’re not too familiar with the applied terms of figure two in the Neuroscience field. This was an excellent piece to me for it is maximized simplicity because, for clear reasons, that kind of thing strongly helps. The figure may also benefit people uninvolved in Neuroscience as well because figure one works similarly like speech bubbles in comic books with all the brief, yet descriptive, labeling, and I find that effective myself in general because it’s easy on the eyes to track or logicate.
Now, at this point, one, such as yourself, may wonder why people really should care about all the above information. Well, let’s answer with essential basics to answer ourselves by quickly asking ourselves something simpler first; what really is a stimulant disorder? Well, the answer is absolutely nothing short of a true tragedy. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, stimulant use is known as the situation where a person is addicted to a drug for an innate reward (think cocaine, methamphetamine, amd even ritalin) with a consequence of serious health risks with the worst listed being, “heart attack, stroke,…”^2 that in turn becomes medical emergencies. Considering that we know about these symptoms as a consequence, it’s no shock to pretty much anyone that such a scenario can turn serious fast. Let us put this into perspective with another topic.
In my class, I personally examined the neurodiverse populations adapting to addictions. Unsurprisingly, I learned from Help 4 Addiction that neurodiverse populations get whole new different symptom addictions compared to the common neurotypical (such as lower functioning symptoms, long term executive functioning struggles, and so on)^3. However, it gets far worse than that; you may recall what I call “reinforcement culture” where people often magnetize towards others with similar addictions (think coffee, sugar, and especially alcohol) which makes it harder to make friends if you do not share an addiction (nor at least part takes). Well, neurodiverse populations such as autistic populations have an increased risk to addictions compared to neurotypicals.
References:
1.) “A role on the metabotropic glutamate receptors in neuroplasticity” by Roghayeh Mozafari, Saeidah Karimi-Haghighi, Mojdeh Fattahi, Peter Kalivas, and Abbas Haghparast
2.) https://www.mentalhealth.va.gov/substance-use/stimulants.asp
3.) https://www.help4addiction.co.uk/addiction-and-neurodiversity/
