Therapeutic lesions for addiction related neuroplasticity/hyperdopaminergic states

[Jabberwocky]

I was wondering if anybody knew of any attempts to lesion (or some other surgical intervention) possible hyper-active dopaminergic brain areas in an attempt to reverse addiction related neuroplasticity/behavior.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3037848/ - Study shows that long abstinent MDMA users have increased dopamine. I was wondering if these increases in dopamine might be concentrated in an area(s) so that a well placed lesion might disrupt some of the activity and "turn the volume down".

9% - really? especially when there were no adverse psychological issues noted in the ecstasy users.

I'd love to see the 18F-Dopa uptake STANDARD DEVIATION values in a real sample of people say 200-300, instead of 12.

In fact -- lets conduct PET scans of a few thousand people so we can get a good baseline mean and standard deviation for 18F-Dopa in humans, before we go getting all upset over a 9% deviation

Furthermore -- testosterone and other sex hormones drastically affect DA release and uptake in males and females

Too many confounding variables

 

[MeDieViL]

Environent you live in influences neurotransmitters levels, i beleive some slight alterations dont mean much, long term induced issues is what we need to look at and so far i havent seen any evidence mdma on its own, not poly drug use does anything else then possily inducing underlying mental health issues like shizophrenia which can be triggered by potent drugs like mdma.

 

[cr33py]

I have heard of that being done in conditions like parkinsons, but never in addiction. SSRIs tend to lower levels of DA and NE.. drugs that act on GABA and glutamate might be worth checking out. lamotrigine?
when taking street drugs, its anyones guess as to whats in there. Damage can happen. Long term adaptive changes can happen. Like amphetamine addicts that experience intense amotivation and anhedonia. I know of one person who has tried a number of psych meds hoping to force an adaptation in the other direction, using antipsychotics and anticonvulsants. I dont recall the outcome however. =(

 

[Jabberwocky]

Try bacopa monnieri

It has been shown to act in an adaptogenic manner on serotonin, dopamine, and GABA systems

It has been found to increase dopamine when dopamine is low, but to exert anti-doapamine action as well

 

[Limpet_Chicken]

Lamotrigine isn't the most suitable imo, remember its got that nasty tendency in a small subset of people to cause stevens-johnson syndrome.