effect on long-term memory

[astarythe]

someone asked me last night what drug (or group of drugs) had the most adverse effect on long-term memory. its really three questions that we're interested in, with a breif (if possible) explaination of why and with what sort of use:

what drug has the most adverse effect on creating long-term memories when you are on it?

what drug interferes with your abilty to create long term memories even after you stop using it?

what drug interferes with retrieval of long term memoris, even after discontinuing use?

guesses are fine since it's more than i can offer, and also for the sake of limiting the scope of the question, by 'drugs' we are only interested in those commonly abused.

 

[CuervoGirl]

Ecstasy

 

[Dope_User]

To answer "what drug has the most adverse effect on creating long-term memories when you are on it?" I'd have to say benzodiazepines. Although I don't believe they "interfere with your ability to create long term memories even after you stop using it," amnesia is a VERY common side effect of benzos, especially when used (abused) in high recreational doses. It is quite common for people to not remember anything from an entire evening when under the influence of benzos...they wake up the next day and people have to tell them what happened...and even once they are told, it's common for them to not have even the vaguest memory of any of it happening. This is only short term memory loss and I know you asked about long term. But the fact that it's possibly to have total amnesia while under the influence, I'd definitely say that benzos have "the most adverse effect on creating long-term memories when you are on it."

Similar situation with alcohol in large quantities, although I believe (due to personal experience) they benzos have the potential to cause much more amnesia and therefore prevent the development of long term memories while under the influence.

 

[mad_chemist]

Ecstasy

ecstasy?? probably not.

ecstasy affects working memory (short-term mem), as do some other "hard" illicit drugs, rather than long term-mem.

what drugs affect long-term mem? perhaps brain-washing agents

 

[Smyth]

Well Alzheimers patients have poor memory - if I were to look in depth at this then I might find an answer.

 

[BilZ0r]

The best amnesic drugs are GABA-a agonists... benzos and barbs both do fine jobs... so does scopolamine, aka hyoscine and other antimuscarinics.

Drugs which fuck retrival of memories even after use? Well an excitotoxin will do that, but most recreational drugs don't do that... so I suppose MDMA and meth are pretty bad

 

[panty]

I was under the impression srytal meth did significantly more brain damage in general, and memory damage in particular than just about any other recreational drug...

 

[Jamshyd]

I know for myself and many other people that 5-MeO-DMT has the after-effect of improving long-term memory (to the point of having random vivd flashbacks from your past). Check out the 5-MeO-DMT thread on PD.

 

[Smyth]

When people run NMR machines, did you know that they are supposed to remove their keys and/or bank cards? This is because NMR machines run of some of the most powerful magnets you will ever come into contact with. The stronger the magnet, the better the resolution - and biochemists are particularly motivated by the quest for a stronger magnetic field.

It is probably BS but NMR machines are alleged to have the capacity to erase the magnetic strip on bank cards. Well, if it can do that to a bank card I wonder what it can do to the human brain

 

[lifeisforliving]

"It is probably BS but NMR machines are alleged to have the capacity to erase the magnetic strip on bank cards. Well, if it can do that to a bank card I wonder what it can do to the human brain "

Yeah, it's probably BS about being dangerous to your brain - unless you have a magnetic strip in there.

From what has been researched so far, there is hope using magnetic fields to help depression and other ailments. It is the subject of much research.

 

[BilZ0r]

Poweful relectromagnets certainly do mess with your brain... you can temporarily induce blindness, or paralysis or all kinds of things with them.

NMR machines really can erase magnetic strips.

 

[fastandbulbous]

NMR machines produce magnetic fields that are so strong that they'll even interact with non magnetic materials. If you stand a sheet of aluminium on its edge, and let go, the sheet falls over in slow motion due to the induced electrical field formed within it (the induced electric fields also has it's own magnetic field associated with it, and it's the interaction of those two magnetic fiels that makes it fall over slowly - it will happen with a sheet of any electrically conductive material)

As for te effects of magnetic fields on nerve tissue (and specifically the brain), there are studies in Canada that have been carried out using transcranial magnetic stimulation using something that looks like a motorcycle crash helmet with thousands of small electromagnets, under computer control, attached (referred to as a 'Shakti helmet'), that have been capable of inducing the same sort of sensations people get in haunted houses (some people have had the shit scared out of them, through participation in the research), such as there being another 'entity' on the room. As the research gets more refined, they're hoping to be able to produce more specific sensations (used in conjunction with MEG - magnetoencephalograpic - recording devices, it might eventually lead to something like the device portrayed in the film 'Brainstorm'). In theory, you might eventually be able to experience somebody else's experiences, including the effects of things like psychedelics, but I think that's still a long way off.

Back in the here and now, there has been reported that there is a correlation between lights in the sky/UFO's and geological activity. It's been speculated that the geological activity causes rapid local changes in the Earth's magnetic field, and it's the influence of the changing magnetic field on the brain, that produces the perception of light in the sky etc

Most probably explains as well why some places are felt to be occupied by supernatural spirits (faries, little people etc) in folk lore, as well as places feeling haunted.

Weird shit eh?

If you're interested, this is a piece by Dr M Persinger (the main man in this research),here , but if you put shakti helmet into Google, you'll get refs to lots of the work he's done

 

[nuke]

As far as amnesia, I've found anticholinergics, disassociatives, benzos, and alcohol are pretty bad culprits.

Memory retrieval: Meth seems nasty here...Disassociatives I guess might too, but I haven't noticed that too much since my small recreational usages.

 

[fastandbulbous]

There are drugs that are partial inverse agonists at the benzodiazepine binding site which have a partial opposite effect to the benzodiazepine anxiolytic drugs, and are reported to improve memory. On the downside, they're supposed to cause a mild increase in the level of anxiety.

Midazolam is used when unpleasant proceedures, like endoscopic investigation (having a camera put down the throat for a stomach examination), as afterwards, you can't remember a thing about how unpleasant the proceedure is (unless you're one of the natural Linda Lovelace's of this world!). That said, all benzos are very good at wiping the memory.

Anticholinergics (esp scopolamine) can cause retrograde amnesia, that is, the memory loss extends further back than the point that the drug was taken. As far as I understand, the phencyclidine/ketamine type drugs can also cause retrograde amnesia.

Salvinorin A is strange in that it's not so much that you experience amnesia, more you remember a totally different set of memories compared with the people present when you take it (at least with high doses!)

Memory loss with alcohol goes without saying

 

[5-HT2]

The best amnesic drugs are GABA-a agonists... benzos and barbs both do fine jobs... so does scopolamine, aka hyoscine and other antimuscarinics.

Drugs which fuck retrival of memories even after use? Well an excitotoxin will do that, but most recreational drugs don't do that... so I suppose MDMA and meth are pretty bad

^^^Agreed. Also, don't forget alcohol, especially when combined with opiates or other sedatives.

 

[Synapse999]

Poweful relectromagnets certainly do mess with your brain... you can temporarily induce blindness, or paralysis or all kinds of things with them.

NMR machines really can erase magnetic strips.

Heh, like a hard drive and other types of data storage...such as our brains.
Electromagnets scrambles shit up ;p




As far as Original post, How is long-term memory being defined?
Remembering yesterday,last week.... Or memories from childhood and years before drug induced state.



As far as i have seen, Drugs really can't make you forget about the past permantly...
at least not something significant....or anything one would want to forget.


Sure, after a couple years of benzo use..........you probably will never remember much from those 2 years - 10 years later.
But you will never really forget 5 years before administration?

Unless its in the form of severe brain damage, which would be different from it causing memory loss directly.
Since its like a symptom branched out from certain damage.

 

[fastandbulbous]

All the drugs that cause a reduction in memory storage seem to do so by interfering with long term potentiation. I'm not too sure how the pharmacology at receptor level translates into reduction of long term potentiation, but I think it's something to do with reducing the level of feedback that translates into physical changes in the neurons involved (sort of like it fades out before it has the chance to affect a physical change)

If anybody has a neat (fairly) simple model/explanation, I'd appreciate their input as I seem to have my own problems with long term potentiation when it comes to this particular subject

 

[lifeisforliving]

A little off-topic but:

Would moderate use of methamphetamine or amphetamine be detrimental for long term potentiation? This would be for studying purposes. A dose would be taken in the morning, and a normal sleep pattern would be maintained. (sometimes with GHB).