• Neuroscience & Pharmacology Discussion Welcome Guest
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
    Recent Journal Articles Chemistry Mega-Thread
    FREE Chemistry Databases! Self-Education Guide

  • N&PD Moderators: Skorpio

So Pure dopamine...

C

Cface

Bluelighter
Joined
Jan 2, 2008
Messages
801
I noticed in the movie Crank (if it has any logic to it), the guy takes pure Epinephrine and gets jacked up... So would taking pure Dopamine really be good? After all it does cause nausea and vomitting as well as agitates muscles and creates addiction, oh and euphoria. I was wondering this because i remember a guy asked about taking pure Serotonin, theoretically speaking of course.

Hell it says here Serotonin increases body temperature, decreases appetite and causes hallucinations. Maybe most mainstream drugs have just the right amount of serotonin, dopamine, etc.
 
Adrenaline doesn't make it into the brain and causes only peripheral effects. Same with dopamine and serotonin, except i doubt they cause any peripheral effects even. L-DOPA and 5-hydroxytryptophan are dopamine and serotonin equivalents, they get taken into the brain and converted into dopamine and serotonin. For some reason though i don't think either have much recreational potential.

No drug, except in a sense L-dopa and 5-htp, contain dopamine or serotonin, they usually work by being similar in structure.
 
No, it will not cause euphoria because the idea that DA = euphoria is simply wrong. (and the whole idea that Adrenaline = excitement is just colloquial language - adrenaline really just causes one thing: it makes you feel like you're about to be hit by a train).

The way agonistic drugs work is that they manipulate certain dynamics and concentrations of several transmitters in several different areas of the brain that, when changed in that very specific way, will trigger a good response.

Even then, drugs that are direct DA agonists for example tend to produce one main effect really: vomiting. Its not about the transmitter itself - its about how it is modulated and the cascade effects caused with other transmitters in very specific places in the brain.

Dorothy: supplements like 5-HTP, Phenylalanine and Tyrosine work because they don't have considerable direct action - they simply supplement the body's natural cycle of transmitter production and the body has a regulating mechanism for that so that you can never take "too much" of them in order to get high.

Btw as an aside, one reason L-Dopa is toxic when taken alone is because it converts to DA outside the brain, causing all the bad peripheral effects. Thats why it is admnisitered with Carbidopa, an inhibitor of the enzyme that converts the L-Dopa to Dopamine. I do believe that taking too much 5-HTP has similar consequences with the absense of carbidopa, but I could be wrong.
 
it doesnt activate the central nervous system i dont think. its the same way Phenethylamine is structurally very similar to methamphetamine but not active so it doesnt feel like anything
 
You don't think that Dopamine has an effect on the CNS?

wow...

Dopamine just doesn't pass the bbb.
 
myfavoriteaccident said:
it doesnt activate the central nervous system i dont think. its the same way Phenethylamine is structurally very similar to methamphetamine but not active so it doesnt feel like anything
Click to expand...

As yes those aliens from a far distant galaxy whose CNS rely on endogenous methamphetamine, LSD and morphine. ;) No wonder they can't figure out how to send radio signals back to earth.

On a more serious note:
Dopamine is crucical for MANY bodily functions(including playing pivotal functions in the CNS), one of them being the pleasure centres of the brain but as always it is far more complicated.

Even if you figure out a way to get dopamine (excluding modifying it's structure) past the blood brain barrier - your probably looking at a potential treatment for parkinsons rather than a recreational drug.
 
Before anyone decides to get clever with pure dopamine, be aware that it is also critical to the regulation of fluid balance through the kidneys. fuck around with this at your peril.
V
 
Well, systemic dopamine is administered in cases of heart failure in order to jack up one's blood pressure and HR. A normal person injecting pure DA would probably feel like they were having a heart attack. Fun in the sun, right?
 
If you know someone (eg an anesthesiologist) who could do a spinal injection of dopamine, then that might be interesting idea, but it's a waste of time (and life) if you plan to administer it peripherally. It may put a lot of oxidative stress on the CNS though, because of MAO-B.
 
Well i got ripped on :P Definitely clears things up for me. Thanks for the replies everyone.
 
It's pressor activity would probably cause you to hafve a stroke rather than a heart attack.

Even an injection bypassing the BBB is more likely to cause a pukefest than anything else. Getting the right amount of dopamine in the correct place is a delicate, tricky little business, which is why different stimulants have differing degrees of addictiveness, euphoria, side effects etc
 
Ham-milton said:
You don't think that Dopamine has an effect on the CNS?

wow...

Dopamine just doesn't pass the bbb.
Click to expand...

yup, although dopamine is widely known not to cross the BBB it still has CNS effects on the body. its used intravenous(ly) as an 'adrenic' in medicine along with epinephrine and the alike. though Levodopa does have recreational potential because 'euphoria' is one of its common side-effects although i would highly recommend not taking a anti-parkinsons drug to reach any sort of a 'buzz'
 
immaturepoop said:
though Levodopa does have recreational potential because 'euphoria' is one of its common side-effects although i would highly recommend not taking a anti-parkinsons drug to reach any sort of a 'buzz'
Click to expand...

QFT

The key point is that all these side-effects have been noted with Parkinson's patients who have low dopamine levels in parts of the brain. To my knowledge, there have been no large scale studies of the effect of L-dopa on healthy people. In Parkinson's patients, it is a balance act to get the right dose as there are other nasty side effects that occur when you have too much L-dopa (dyskinesias for example) and I imagine these would be predominant in people with normal dopamine levels.

I've noticed however, that L-dopa is being sold as a dietary supplement which is strange since without an inhibitor like carbidopa, most of it would be metabolized before it got to the CNS and should cause all sorts of unpleasantness like nausea and edema at any significant dose. This is puzzling since even with inhibitors, Parkinson's patients often experience these effects when taking their medication.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top