Brain region recovery possible in former methampheta...( mine users had been abstinent. The rese...),Health

mine users had been abstinent. The researchers found elevated Cho levels in the methamphetamine users who had not used the drug in one to six months, but normalized levels in the longer abstainers. "In the early periods following methamphetamine exposure, the brain may undergo several processes leading to increased membrane turnover. The relative Cho normalization across periods of abstinence suggests that when drug exposure is terminated, adaptive changes occur, which may contribute to some degree of normalization of neuronal structure and function," they write.

"The understanding of how the human brain can recover or partially recover as a function of extended drug abstinence has important implications both for the neurobiology of addiction and substance abuse treatment," the authors conclude. "Additional longitudinal studiesare needed to further understand the underlying physiological changes of stimulant drugs on the human brain."

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Contact: Carole Gan
916-734-9047
JAMA and Archives Journals
4-Apr-2005

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