Misc Question: How come their is no form of dopamine as a drug or whatever?

[pbuilder]

I was just looking up random sh*t and came across the fact that the dopamine molecule is very similar to the amphetamine molecule.
Dopamine structure:

Amphetamine, and a bit more different, meth amphetamine structure:

So then I thought, well if they are so similar in structure, shouldn't you be able to synthetically manufacture dopamine? Is their some sort of severe danger of adding something extra to the brain that occurs naturally within it?

If you could make it into a physical drug, it could be used in conjunction with dopamine re-uptake inhibitors like cocaine, or meth, and in theory would provide EXTREME euphoria would it not?

 

[Oxide]

Here is a good snippet that sums it all up:

Dopamine is available as an intravenous medication acting on the sympathetic nervous system, producing effects such as increased heart rate and blood pressure. However, because dopamine cannot cross the blood-brain barrier, dopamine given as a drug does not directly affect the central nervous system.

 

[rickolasnice]

You can buy L-Dopa and L-tyrosine (2 precursors to dopamine) but it wont produce a drug like affect..

L-Tyrosine -> L-Dopa -> Dopamine

Most neurotransmitters don't cross the BBB as far as i know.

(Btw the precursors are obviously found in food as well)

 

[polymath]

L-DOPA will increase the dopamine levels in the brain, but is not usually euphoric. To get an euphoric effect, you should specifically increase the dopamine levels in the nucleus accumbens. If you use L-DOPA to increase the dopamine levels all over the brain, you will get mostly side effects, like dyskinesias from stimulation of nigrostriatal dopamine pathway, and nausea from stimulation of chemoreceptor trigger zone.

To get high from dopamine or L-DOPA, you would have to literally drill a hole in your skull and use a microinjection technique to inject it directly in the right part of your brain, which of course isn't practical.

 

[Oxide]

^(excellently) answered.


and closed.