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Neuroscience Does amphetamine have any long term deleterious effects?

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LucidSDreamr

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Does amphetamine have any long term deleterious effects?

All literature search results for neurotoxicity give results for meth and mdma. I need amphetamine proper data or information.

any other damage to other physiological systems like kidney etc?
 
It certainly can. Not like methamphetamine. Even in equivalent and reasonable doses, meth is more toxic to dopamine-producing neurons than amphetamine. The recommended max dose is a good metric for determining this. Depending on how much you take, your sleep schedule, what you eat, how much you move, and what other substances you may be ingesting. Also, drugs change the brain, and since we don't know much about the brain, still, it's hard to determine exactly what is neurotoxicity.

Most people need breaks from their stimulant prescription so that the stress doesn't build and turn into anxiety or even paranoia, long term.

The cardiovascular system becomes stressed too with sympathomimetic activity, but with amphetamine it's harder on the brain than the heart.

Hard to find the full-texts, but this particular paper by George A. Ricaurte about 20 years ago explored the topic: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16014752/

Others:



Of course meth and MDMA are much more stigmatized de facto, so there will be more literature about their deleterious effects. However those two can be very, very hard on the brain.

Hope this helps!
 
As others here have rightly said, prolonged use of high dose amphetamine will likely produce some neurotoxicity as well as cardiovascular issues.
However, I doubt that low doses like those prescribed for medical use Will produce any relevant damage.
The neurotoxicity of stimulants is quite controversial and we don’t yet know the true implications of this phenomenon. Brain remodelling which can affect long-term behaviour., rather than actual physical damage or death of neurons is probably the major negative outcome of long-term psychostimulant abuse.
If you want to use amphetamine either for medical or recreational purposes, my advice would be keep doses as low as possible, avoid repeat dosing, take lots of breaks, insure good sleep and eat a diet high in protein, minerals, and vitamins.
 
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