Drug Abuse: A Curse or Worse?

Khat is not where it's at. The consumption of khat in Somalia may have contributed to the disastrous problems over there including warfare (2, 3).

On the other hand, America has been going to pot (1).

Homelessness

Studies have shown that many of the homeless have substance abuse, including alcoholism. Many have other forms of mental illness (6, 7, 8). But what do we do about this problem? Throwing a lot money at it without a plan may not work. A plan is needed to solve this problem, or at least alleviate it. These people need treatment. My suggestion is orthomolecular treatment.

For one thing, alcholics have a bizarre diet. Alcoholic beverages are mostly carbohydrates. Many alcoholics probably have malnutrition. They should be given vitamins.

Mood Disorders

Stress is thought to play an important role in mood disorders (11). A dual diagnosis could mean both depression and substance abuse or both schizophrenia and substance abuse. Unfortunately there can be interactions between psychotropic drugs and substances of abuse (13).

MDMA

This notorious amphetamine was invented by Dr. Alexander Shulgin of California. It is in the phenethylamine class as are all amphetamines. It has the street name of "Ecstacy". The full name for MDMA is 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine. The numbers refer to the location of the methylene bridge on the benzene carbon ring. The bridge is from the 3 (meta) position to the 4 (para) position. The location of this bridge appears important to the potency of this drug. This drug is extremely dangerous.

The amphetamines have similar structures to dopamine and appear to act through dopamine release (19). Arvid Carlsson (19) of Sweden won a Nobel prize for his work on this neurotransmitter.

Alternative Medicine

What is considered alternative medicine (natural products) is the mainstream medicine in China (22). This interesting and controversial article by Tan is available free full text at Pubmed Central. My own articles on alternative medicine are also available free full text at Associated Content (23-26). My slide shows on this subject are available free at Gather.

What sometimes happens in alcoholism is that the patient is put into the hospital. There he is taken off of one substance (alcohol) and put on another, such as Valium. He then becomes hooked on Valium. When he is discharged, he goes back to drinking and is now addicted to both Valium and alcohol. Alternative medicine avoids this trap. Another example is methadone for drug addicts. I'm not that convinced that methadone is so great.

Conclusions

More information on substance abuse is given in the references. Also more information on homelessness is given in Ref. (6), which correctly describes the problem as a "crisis". Torrey has blamed much of the homelessness problem on deinstitutionalization. Many of the people who were in institutions can't survive outside of them.

Many will not go to shelters because they can't drink in the shelters. These people sometimes freeze to death in the winter. They will even live in the woods because the shelters will take their stash.

I would have improved the institutions rather than shut them down. The government didn't want to do this because they didn't want to pay for the institutions. The institutions were expensive because of the psychiatric drugs. The new idea is to put people in halfway houses, but the neighborhoods don't want halfway houses in their area.

My view is that the government could save massive amounts of money by switching to orthomolecular medicine. Right now the government is hooked on xenobiotic (drugs) medicine. The unnatural substances make a lot of money for the drug companies, which have great influence. They hire lobbyists to spread the money around.

References

1. The Mental Health Risks of Adolescent Cannabis Use Wayne HallPLoS Med. 2006 February; 3(2): e39. Published online 2006 January 24. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0030039. PMCID: PMC1351917.

2. Odenwald M, Hinkel H, Schauer E, Neuner F, Schauer M, et al. The consumption of khat and other drugs in Somali combatants: A cross-sectional study. e341PLoS Med. 2007;4 doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0040341.

3. Elmi AS. The chewing of khat in Somalia. J Ethnopharmacol. 1983;8:163-176.

4. Warfa N, Klein A, Bhui K, Leavey G, Craig T, et al. Khat use and mental illness: A critical review. Soc Sci Med. 2007;65:309-318.

5. Drug Consumption in Conflict Zones in Somalia Kamaldeep Bhui and Nasir WarfaPLoS Med. 2007 December; 4(12): e354. Published online 2007 December 11. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0040354. PMCID: PMC2121649.

6. Crisis. How many and how much: Single homelessness and the question of numbers and cost. London: Crisis UK; 2003.

7. The Prevalence of Mental Disorders among the Homeless in Western Countries: Systematic Review and Meta-Regression Analysis Seena Fazel, Vivek Khosla, Helen Doll, and John GeddesPLoS Med. 2008 December; 5(12): e225. Published online 2008 December 2. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0050225. PMCID: PMC2592351.

8. Bassuk EL, Rubin L, Lauriat A. Is homelessness a mental health problem. Am J Psychiatry. 1984;141:1546-1550.

9. Hall WD, Pacula RL. Cannabis use and dependence: Public health and public policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 2003. 298 pp.

10. Adams IB, Martin BR. Cannabis: Pharmacology and toxicology in animals and humans. Addiction. 1996;91:1585-1614.

11. Duman RS, Monteggia LM. A neurotrophic model for stress-related mood disorders. Biol Psychiatry. 2006;59:1116-1127.

12. Krishnan V, Nestler EJ. The molecular neurobiology of depression. Nature. 2008;455:894-902.

13. Improving the Care of Individuals with Schizophrenia and Substance Use Disorders: Consensus Recommendations DOUGLAS M. ZIEDONIS, DAVID SMELSON, RICHARD N. ROSENTHAL, STEVEN L. BATKI, ALAN I. GREEN, RENATA J. HENRY, IVAN MONTOYA, JOE PARKS, and ROGER D. WEISSJ Psychiatr Pract. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2008 December 10. PMCID: PMC2599914 Published in final edited form as: J Psychiatr Pract. 2005 September; 11(5): 315-339.

14. Regier DA, Farmer ME, Rae DS, et al. Comorbidity of mental disorders with alcohol and other drug abuse. JAMA. 1990;264:2511-8.

15. Serper MR, Alpert M, Richardson NA, et al. Clinical effects of recent cocaine use on patients with acute schizophrenia. Am J Psychiatry. 1995;152:1464-9.

16. Molinoff PB, Axelrod J. Biochemistry of catecholamines. Annu Rev Biochem. 1971;40:465-500.

17. Seiden LS, Sabol KE, Ricaurte GA. Amphetamine: Effects on catecholamine systems and behavior. Annu Rev Pharmacol Toxicol. 1993;33:639-677.

18. Bunzow JR, Sonders MS, Arttamangkul S, Harrison LM, Zhang G. Amphetamine, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, lysergic acid diethylamide, and metabolites of the catecholamine neurotransmitters are agonists of a rat trace amine receptor. Mol Pharmacol. 2001;60:1181-1188.

19. Carlsson A. Drugs acting through dopamine release. Pharmacol Ther [B] 1975;1:401-405.

20. Carlsson A. Monoamine precursors and analogues. Pharmacol Ther [B] 1975;1:381-392.

21. Medical Research News. Biotoxin from puffer fish may provide treatment for opioid withdrawal. Sydney (Australia): News-Medical Net; 2004 November 18.

22. Science Star over Asia Chris Y. H Tan. PLoS Biol. 2005 September; 3(9): e322. Published online 2005 September 13. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0030322. PMCID: PMC1201306.

23. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1698919/advances_in_biological_psychiatric.html

24. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1680090/cuban_research_on_schizophrenia.html

25. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1680380/the_virus_theory_for_schizophrenia.html

26. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1676885/new_ideas_in_psychiatry.html