Evidence indicates that chronic methamphetamine use alters the brain, affects both memory and reason

Feb 12, 2015 10:50 GMT  ·  By

Just yesterday, we were told that smoking can make a person's brain shrink. As it turns out, there is one other vice that has the same effect on this organ that most of us simply can't do without: chronic methamphetamine use.

As explained by specialists with the University of Utah and their colleagues, evidence at hand indicates that those who abuse methamphetamine risk having their own brain shrink inside their skull.

Specifically, it appears that these guys and gals have high chances to lose one too many neurons, especially in a brain region that goes by the name of the frontal cortex and that is involved in reason and memory processes.

Some are more vulnerable to the effects of meth than others

In a report in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, the University of Utah scientists and fellow researchers explain that, looking to determine how this drug affects individuals, they looked at the brains of several adult and adolescent meth users.

Loss of grey matter was documented in both the adults and the adolescent participants in this study. However, it appears that the younger individuals were the ones who had it worse. Thus, they were the ones who displayed the most pronounced neuron loss in their frontal cortex.

Writing in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, the specialists behind this investigation go on to detail that this find is all the more worrying given the fact that, as mentioned, the frontal cortex is involved in reason and memory processes.

“Damage to that part of the brain is especially problematic because adolescents’ ability to control risky behavior is less mature than that of adults. The findings may help explain the severe behavioral issues and relapses that are common in adolescent drug addiction,” explains specialist Kyoon Lyoo.

It's not just neurons that methamphetamine messes with

What's interesting is that, while looking at the brains of the meth users who agreed to take part in this study, the University of Utah researchers found evidence that it's not just an individual's neurons that this drug likes to mess with.

Long story short, it appears that chronic use of this drug also takes its toll on white matter in the brain, which is largely made up of axons and which serves to carry signals from neurons located in one brain area to their brothers and sisters in another region.

Besides, the specialists say that, according to evidence at hand, the white matter in the brain of adolescents is more vulnerable than the one in the brain of adults. This too might explain why young meth users are more likely to behave erratically.