Which drug causes the most brain damage?

[coolname]

All drugs cause a certain level of brain damage if used chronically. Brain damage as defined by any alterations in brain chemistry that are deleterious to the functioning of the brain.

I know there are studies out there that show what the results of chronic use of drugs are on the brain (lowered attention span, difficulty managing impulses, short term memory affect, mood destabilization, and so on). These studies are cool and all but I don't think it's possible to get really pure statistics from them since long-term studies are tough to perform.

If you have annecdotes that's cool too. Like, "since my buddy started smoking X he hasn't been the same in years.."

Personally, I think the tranquilizers like Xanax are the worst!!!!! They slow your brain down, make you want to do nothing, and as a result of all the inactivity your brain dumbs down verry fast!! It's the worst drug because out of all of them it encourages your not to want to use your brain which results in brain atrophy--- one of the worst poisons for your brain is not to exercise it, why do you think old people get dementia so much? i think a lot of it is due to not exercising the brain enough. Plus the withdrawals from xanax are hell on earth, a billion times worse than anything, and you don't have to use for too long to become habituated. Even if you take vicodin as often as you might xanax (dose dependant I know) you will still not be as addictedd to that as xanax.

Secondly, maybe pot (or meth)? It slows the brain down too much sometimes and makes one way too freakin laaaazy. You don't use the brain as much I think, like xanax, which doesn't help your brain.

Lastly opiates... I've read they can cause some damage.




What's your opinion?

 

[Pagey]

Are you talking about permanent damage or are you limiting this to current use?
If you're talking abotu permanent damage I disagree about benzos being the worst. I was on about 12mg xanax daily for a few months last year - granted, it wasn't a very long time in total but my brain's completely recovered now except for the annoying brain zaps. At the time yes I couldn't think or concentrate properly or anything and it stayed like that for a couple months after I quit but it's all back now...

Cocaine is known to completely destroy brain cells and to cause absolutely irreversible damage in long-time users. Pot's also known to do that on a lesser level. Psychedelics can sometimes cause permanent damage if they result in a bad trip.

So all in all I pretty much disagree with your list haha.

 

[coolname]

hey Pagey, I meant more like permanent damage. Wow 12mg xanax a day!!!!!! Holy......... I would... i don't know waht but man!!!!!!! 12mg!!!!!! holy. can you explain how you got off that amount? did you taper? i assume you weren't prescribed this... or else, Bad Doctor!!!!

ireeversible brain damage. cocaine is pretty bad i guess.

does anyone have personal experience/issues with long-term brain functioning after drug abuse?

also, personally i feel that i've become slower, stupider, more "dead inside" feeling, since I started using... but that could also be because i'm 26 and still figuring things out. but also I've become more open-minded and my sense of humor is damn near indesctructible.... nothing can touch it!!!

 

[Pagey]

^I didn't taper unfortunately but quit cold turkey because I was a bit naive and thought I'd be fine. It was a very stupid mistake though as I had two seizures in the week or so following that sooo to anyone out there looking to quit benzos, please taper.
And no I certainly wasn't prescribed that amount haha.

It's normal for you to feel different since you've started using as your brain chemistry is changing. What drugs do you use predominantly if I may ask, how much and how long has it been? Obviously the more and the longer your use the more brain damage this is gonna cause and the likelier it'll be that this damage won't be reversible...when I was on xanax I certainly was nothing more than a walking zombie.

 

[adriaantje113]

I think MDMA (or any other member of the phenethylamine/ amphetamine family) abuse causes serious brain damage.
If you re dose in a short period of time (like after 3 hours or so), you force your brain to release neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine and that causes the receptors to deteriorate at a relative fast rate.

Abuse is known to cause the ecstasy dip and if you ignore the signals and do it again the next week, you are badly damaging your brain.
If you abuse other drugs at the same time (like pot or what ever), you make it worse.

The abuse could lead to (in some cases permanent) short term memory loss, depression etc.

But I believe that abuse of every kind of drug is able to initiate life-lasting brain damage, wherever you sense it is another story.

To answer you're question, I know that PCP is known to cause hemorrhage in the brain and acute kidney damage in some individuals and I will never try that for sure.

Also, there is a street opioid analog, MPPP, which gained some popularity in the 80's as a recreational drug.
It is very easy to make mistakes in the creation process, impurities like MPTP or MP++ could form, which are major neurotoxins known to causes (permanent) symptoms similar to Parkinson disease.

Those are the cases that stood by me the most.

 

[ebola?]

Cocaine is known to completely destroy brain cells and to cause absolutely irreversible damage in long-time users.

This is completely untrue. With the exception of hypoxia due to its cardiovascular effects, cocaine is essentially non-neurotoxic.

Pot's also known to do that on a lesser level.

This is completely incorrect. Cannabinoids are non-neurotoxic in any respect.

Psychedelics can sometimes cause permanent damage if they result in a bad trip.

This is highly misleading. Bad trips result from immediate bad reactions to the nature of psychedelic experiences. While some cases of HPPD might be due to mechanisms of neural adaptation that we're as of yet unaware of, there is no as of yet discovered physiological mechanism underlying their occurrence.

In short, the short-term effects of drug use, and the medium-term effects of drug abuse and/or cessation, have little to do with neurotoxicity-proper...
...
It is clear that inhalation of volatile solvents is the most neurotoxic type of drug use. Because their recreational effects are inseparable from oxygen deprivation (localized or global), they really do lead to neural cellular death.


ebola

 

[Pagey]

^My bad I guess, I based what I said regarding cocaine and pot on a number of studies but okay...
Regular dopamine levels are significantly lower in cocaine users and from what I've read this hasn't always been reversible, for instance.
What I meant in regard to psychedelics is that some people never go back to 'normal' following bad trips so I'm assuming there's some sort of physiological reaction hiding under there in one way or another.

 

[herbavore]

This is not really suited to TDS. I am moving this to Drug Culture.

 

[Serotonin101]

my vote goes to inhalents.

 

[Pill2Chill]

my vote goes to inhalents.

This. All aside from N2O.

 

[Whosajiggawaaa]

High THC weed and LSD together in big quantities over a long period - have seen 2 people I know have psychosis from that, then meth - probably on the same level if also used chronically.

 

[Jabberwocky]

If we're talking neuro toxicity, it's definitely amphetamine related drugs abused for a long period. MDMA is the most neuro toxic from that class IMO, causes irreversible damage to serotonin neurons, next meth - which does both dopamine and serotonin in.

For brain damage (cognitively) I'd say alcohol - many alcoholics have destroyed their ability to recall or learn new information.

From a psychological point of view (purely in the head) it would be opiates - they are actually the safest drugs to abuse, which is surprising right? They cause no damage to the brain, but cause intense psychological cravings for them which may never leave.

 

[Seyer]

It is clear that inhalation of volatile solvents is the most neurotoxic type of drug use. Because their recreational effects are inseparable from oxygen deprivation (localized or global), they really do lead to neural cellular death.

This ^

There is no answer more correct.

 

[RobotRipping]

If we're talking neuro toxicity, it's definitely amphetamine related drugs abused for a long period. MDMA is the most neuro toxic from that class IMO, causes irreversible damage to serotonin neurons, next meth - which does both dopamine and serotonin in.

For brain damage (cognitively) I'd say alcohol - many alcoholics have destroyed their ability to recall or learn new information.

From a psychological point of view (purely in the head) it would be opiates - they are actually the safest drugs to abuse, which is surprising right? They cause no damage to the brain, but cause intense psychological cravings for them which may never leave.

I have to agree with opiates, psychologically they damage you pretty bad. If you had a never ending supply then maybe they'd be fine to use everyday but even while you're high on them you can get irritable and the side effects aren't great either.

Many drugs that are commonly used do not cause much if any damage physically (aside from alcohol, nicotine, inhalants and the like) but psychologically can ruin your life and destroy you. I think the stress and physical pain from tons of opioid and benzo withdrawals is far more damaging to your brain (excess glutamate? in the case of benzo w/d) tham the actual drug use itself.

anyway, my vote is for inhalants obviously, they are the worst for you.

 

[ebola?]

Regular dopamine levels are significantly lower in cocaine users and from what I've read this hasn't always been reversible, for instance.

This is to be expected, as with regular ingestion of highly effective dopaminergic compounds, the brain will adapt to maintain dopamine levels similar to those basal. However, there is nothing to indicate that receptor downregulation can be permanent.

ebola

 

[Renz Envy]

While there is no way I could directly measure brain damage in a number, MDMA causes a heavy load of pleasure center down regulation which can last for arguably weeks to months after only a single use. Studies of direct neurotoxicity have been thus inconclusive in humans, as far as my reasearch has lead me, making claims of brain damage difficult to prove. (I speak for those who have used 100% MDMA pills and not cocktails of amphetamines mixed in.)

However, methamphetamine abuse has been responsible for not only dopamine receptor down regulation, but dopamine receptor loss. In my opinion, methamphetamine's neurotoxicity would not be as bad if it were not possibly the most deceptive/addictive recreational drug to ever exist. Heavy users require years before their brains are back to normal.

Other things may be fairly subjective.

I believe GABAergics can be highly neurotoxic upon abuse and discontinuation.

 

[Delphinia]

alcohol abuse takes one hell of a toll on the brain

 

[AlphaMethylPhenyl]

cocaine is essentially non-neurotoxic.

Are you sure about this?

 

[Swimmingdancer]

All drugs cause a certain level of brain damage if used chronically. Brain damage as defined by any alterations in brain chemistry that are deleterious to the functioning of the brain.

Actually that's not the definition of brain damage, so that will add some complications to this thread as many people may be thinking of the medical definition of brain damage, which is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells (in significant numbers). Or more specifically, neurotoxicity, which is when a substance alters the normal activity of the nervous system and can eventually disrupt or even kill neurons, key cells that transmit and process signals in the brain and other parts of the nervous system. Damage to the brain can often be permanent, but other areas of the brain can learn to compensate for the damaged areas, and may increase in size and complexity and even change function, (neuroplasticity), so the noticeable effects of brain damage are not always permanent.

And obviously NOT all drugs cause brain damage, and not all drugs have harmful effects on brain function at all. By "all drugs" did you actually just mean "most recreational drugs" when chronically used?

Drugs can make changes to the brain that are not considered to be "brain damage" or "neurotoxicity", but can be just as detrimental to one's life. Referring to any deleterious changes/alterations of brain chemistry is so vague. There are so many different ways drugs can change your brain that are damaging to one's mental health/life, but are not considered "brain damage" or necessarily permanent. For example addiction and/or physiological dependence can be extremely harmful to one's life and mental health, but it can be reversible to a degree (I do feel however that being dependent on a drug for a long period of time can cause some very long lasting and possibly permanent changes).

Effects of a drug while you are taking it is different from "brain damage". For example, I could use a particular drug just once and have altered cognitive function or something like that while it's im my system, that does not mean it gave me "brain damage", it may simply be an effect of the drug. It makes things even more confusing if you consider any unwanted effects of a drug on the brain/mind to be "brain damage".

So basically I am thinking your real question is about the adverse effects of drugs on the brain and mental health in general, especially lasting effects?

This is completely untrue. With the exception of hypoxia due to its cardiovascular effects, cocaine is essentially non-neurotoxic.

I don't think you can be certain about that. Deprivation of adequate oxygen supply can be very damaging to the brain, although there is some suggestion that cocaine might actually induce antioxidants that prevent/reverse its own oxidative damage. It's a controversial issue though. Regardless, cocaine can be very damaging to one's mental health, even if it's not neurotoxic. Certain other people on this forum are always saying that cocaine is not neurotoxic so therefore it's in general safer than amphetamines, or therefore it's not bad for one's brain/mental health, which are false conclusions.

This is completely incorrect. Cannabinoids are non-neurotoxic in any respect.

There are actually a lot of studies showing brain damage in chronic cannabis smokers, but I am skeptical about potential bias and flaws in these studies (like who is paying for these studies? how do they know that these people didn't have brain damage for other reasons, like maybe people with brain problems are more likely to smoke pot, or the people they studied also drank a lot of alcohol, etc?) Do you have a source for a study that concluded the opposite?

In short, the short-term effects of drug use, and the medium-term effects of drug abuse and/or cessation, have little to do with neurotoxicity-proper...

^Agree. Even many long-term effects of chronic drug use can have little to do with neurotoxicity, there can be changes to the brain aside from neurotoxicity. How neurotoxic a drug is is not the only or even most important factor to consider in a drug's potential effects on the brain/mind (I don't really see a separation between brain/mind anyway, everything in life causes changes to the brain).

What I meant in regard to psychedelics is that some people never go back to 'normal' following bad trips so I'm assuming there's some sort of physiological reaction hiding under there in one way or another.

It's not really understood and it's likely complex. I think everything is due to real physiological aspects/reactions in the brain, everything we do or experience affects our brains in some way. That doesn't mean adverse effects after using psychedelics are "permanent brain damage". It's more along the lines of something like post traumatic stress disorder. Someone predisposed to mental health issues may find they have a "bad trip" and then there are lasting effects on their mental health. It's also really not THAT common, I think it's highly exaggerated in the media. I personally feel (most) psychedelics - if respected and used with care - can be some of the safest drugs, and can actually be very beneficial.

 

[Illyria99]

Crystal meth, definitely.