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Drugs targeting the neurotransmitter of major systems affect the whole system, which can explain the complexity of action of some drugs. Cocaine , for example, blocks the re-uptake of dopamine back into the presynaptic neuron, leaving the neurotransmitter molecules in the synaptic gap for an extended period of time.
Monoamine transporters are established targets for many pharmacological agents that affect brain function, including the psychostimulants cocaine and amphetamine. Cocaine and amphetamine employ different mechanisms that both result in an increase in extracellular monoamines by decreasing reuptake.
Psychoactive drugs operate by temporarily affecting a person's neurochemistry, which in turn causes changes in a person's mood, cognition, perception and behavior. There are many ways in which psychoactive drugs can affect the brain. Each drug has a specific action on one or more neurotransmitter or neuroreceptor in the brain.
These three different actions are major areas where drug action can affect communication between neurons. [3] There are two types of receptors that neurotransmitters interact with on a post-synaptic neuron. The first types of receptors are ligand-gated ion channels or LGICs.
Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, or nAChRs, are receptor polypeptides that respond to the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. Nicotinic receptors also respond to drugs such as the agonist nicotine. They are found in the central and peripheral nervous system, muscle, and many other tissues of many organisms.
Cocaine addiction results from complex molecular changes in the brain following multiple exposures to cocaine. [16] Dynorphins have been shown to be an important part of this process. Although a single exposure to cocaine does not affect brain dynorphin levels, repeated exposures to the drug increases dynorphin concentrations in the striatum ...
Psychoactive drugs exert their sensory and behavioral effects almost entirely by acting on neurotransmitters and by modifying one or more aspects of synaptic transmission. Neurotransmitters can be viewed as chemicals through which neurons primarily communicate; psychoactive drugs affect the mind by altering this communication.
In the United States, past year cocaine users in 2019 was 5.5 million for people aged 12 or older. When broken into age groups, ages 12–17 had 97,000 users; ages 18–25 had 1.8 million users and ages 26 or older had 3.6 million users. [10] Past year cocaine users with a cocaine use disorder in 2019 was 1 million for people aged 12 or older.