% happiness units Crystal ice

[nods]

I say a recent doco on crystal ice and it was a real eye opener to the biochemistry of how ice quickly enslaves people. I got a couple Qs that if anyone has a clue on it's you guys.

the doco showed a graph comparing dopamine units of:

-100 units, a normal happy event (being with friends, laughing)
-400 units, acheived with Cocaine
-1200 units acheived by crystal ice

1200 units! 12 times that which can be acheived naturally, and 3x that of coke.


Would anyone know how other stimulants/benzos/opiates/others compare8)

 

[mrjefferson]

It sounds like that graph drew upon years of peer-reviewed research and the culmination of decades of hard work by some of the most talented researchers in the field.

...Just kidding, it sounds like bullshit.

 

[nods]

I'v also read since else where of crystal raising dopamine to 1200+units, a brain state so dopamine spiked high, that it's unreachable by other ways.

 

[melange]

hey stimulants are the most euphoric drug ever, old news

 

[nods]

Yer yer i know, i was wondering about Ritalin, Dex, compared?

 

[nuke]

Methamphetamine can raise amounts of dopamine in the brain (I forget which part; basal ganglia?) to 1200% of their normal levels, if that's what you mean.

Dexedrine was about 500% if I remember correctly.

Elevations of dopamine does not correspond to euphoria necessarily. The baseline 100% also does not represent a "happy event", just the normal amount of dopamine in the brain.

There is no unit as a "% happiness unit", aside from maybe the hamilton depression scale or the Beck depression inventory. For instance, I would not qualify my two run ins with methamphetamine as "happy".

 

[nods]

thanks

 

[any major dude]

Methamphetamine can raise amounts of dopamine in the brain (I forget which part; basal ganglia?) to 1200% of their normal levels, if that's what you mean.

Nucleus accumbens i believe, but probably not only there.

For instance, I would not qualify my two run ins with methamphetamine as "happy".

Ditto.

 

[ebola?]

Nucleus accumbens i believe, but probably not only there.

Well, increases in intercellular dopamine should be rather global, but you're right in that we'd wish to look to the nucleus accumbens for comparing and contrasting affective effects.

ebola