Methamphetamine-Induced Brain Injury and Alcohol Drinking PMC

If you inject meth with a needle, you also have a higher risk of contracting bloodborne viruses like hepatitis C. The euphoria you experience when using meth may last only a few minutes. But other effects, like increased energy or higher body temperature, can linger for hours. Too much alcohol affects your speech, muscle coordination and vital centers of your brain.

Changes in the brain

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Risk factors

A majority of methamphetamine (Meth) abusers also abuse alcohol but the neurochemical consequences of this co-abuse are unknown. Individually, alcohol and Meth cause inflammation and long-term alterations in dopamine and serotonin signaling within the brain. Experiments were conducted to identify if serial exposure to alcohol and Meth has neurochemical consequences that are greater than after either drug alone. Male Sprague Dawley rats voluntarily drank 10% ethanol (EtOH) every other day for 4 weeks and were then exposed to a binge injection regimen of Meth (10mg/kg injected every 2 hrs, for a total of 4 injections). EtOH drinking and preference increased over the 4 weeks and caused inflammation evidenced by increases in serum and brain lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and brain cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) 24 hours after the last day of drinking. Meth alone depleted dopamine and serotonin in the striatum, as well as serotonin in the prefrontal cortex when measured 1 week later.

1. In this regard, the enhanced toxicity to Meth would require prior exposure to EtOH and its inflammatory effects rather than EtOH exposure after Meth.
2. This means that you can pay a $100 fine or visit an addiction recovery center instead of spending time in jail.
3. Moreover, these studies provide the rationale for future studies using different behavioral models to examine the consequences of prior EtOH drinking on Meth self-administration and subsequent neurotoxicity.
4. The greatest risk of combining these two substances is cardiovascular damage.
5. Opioids are narcotic, painkilling drugs produced from opium or made synthetically.

Control rats received 0.9% saline injections (1 mL/kg) at the same time. This paradigm of Meth exposure is comparable to that used by human Meth users mixing muscle relaxers and alcohol (McCann et al. 1998) and produces deficits in dopamine transmission (Volkow et al. 2001; Callaghan et al. 2012). This binge injection paradigm was chosen over the self-administration procedure because it is well-suited for studying the dose-dependent pharmacological interactions with EtOH. It utilizes a well-documented and specific dose of Meth over a defined time window after the exposure to EtOH and avoids the confounds of more protracted and variable times required to train rats to self-administer a given Meth dose. If you feel that you sometimes drink too much alcohol, or your drinking is causing problems, or if your family is concerned about your drinking, talk with your health care provider.

Methamphetamine overdose is a toxic, potentially life threatening reaction to the drug. Your risk of overdose increases if you take a large dose of meth or mix methamphetamine with other drugs. The drug also makes dramatic changes to your brain structure in a very short time, which can lead you to keep using it despite any negative consequences on your life, health, and relationships. This change in behavior is known as meth addiction, or methamphetamine use disorder. Alcohol use disorder is a pattern of alcohol use that involves problems controlling your drinking, being preoccupied with alcohol or continuing to use alcohol even when it causes problems.

Health Challenges

If you or someone you know has any signs of an overdose, call for emergency help right away. Healthline does not endorse the use of any illegal substances, and we recognize abstaining from them is always the safest approach. However, we believe in providing accessible and accurate information to reduce the harm that can occur when using. People struggling with addiction usually deny they have a problem and hesitate to seek treatment. An intervention presents a loved one with a structured opportunity to make changes before things get even worse and mirtazapine with alcohol can motivate someone to seek or accept help.

Simply enter a keyword or location to find a suitable treatment center for you. You can also call our team at for free, confidential, 24/7 support finding addiction treatment programs that might be right for you. You can also check your insurance coverage for addiction treatment with our free insurance verification tool to get started. In 2020, about 1.5 million people in the United States over the age of 12 had meth use disorder.

If your health care provider prescribes a drug with the potential for addiction, use care when taking the drug and follow instructions. Physical addiction appears to occur when repeated use of a drug changes the way your brain feels pleasure. The addicting drug causes physical changes to some nerve cells (neurons) in your brain. Opioids are narcotic, painkilling drugs produced from opium or made synthetically.

Mixing Meth and Alcohol

Stimulants include amphetamines, meth (methamphetamine), cocaine, methylphenidate (Ritalin, Concerta, others) and amphetamine-dextroamphetamine (Adderall XR, Mydayis). They’re often used and misused in search of a “high,” or to boost energy, to improve performance at work or school, or to lose weight or control appetite. Using meth can cause long-term damage to the person’s health, which often persists even after the person has stopped using the drug. Methamphetamine, commonly referred to as meth, speed, or crack, is a powerful stimulant drug that affects the central nervous system. While some drugs slow down the body, meth speeds it up by triggering a burst of energy and an intense rush of euphoria.

Sometimes called the “opioid epidemic,” addiction to opioid prescription pain medicines has reached an alarming rate across the United States. Some people who’ve been using opioids over a long period of time may need physician-prescribed temporary or long-term drug substitution during treatment. Some commonly inhaled substances include glue, paint thinners, correction fluid, felt tip marker fluid, gasoline, cleaning fluids and household aerosol products. Due to the toxic nature of these substances, users may develop brain damage or sudden death.