Is that a familiar-sounding rationale? Is it
yours—or that of your college-age child? Do you, he, or she take stimulant
drugs—“uppers,” whether amphetamines or certain prescription drugs—to help have
a good time? Does getting together with friends in the evening sometimes
involve popping a few pills to get high on?
Even occasional use of stimulant Alcohol
can be harmful. New research from the
University of California-San Diego School of Medicine among college-age
students has pointed to impaired neuronal activity in those students who use,
albeit only occasionally, stimulant drugs including cocaine, amphetamines, and
certain prescription drugs.
Using MRIs, researchers investigated
the brains of college students in the 18-24 age range, some of whom have used
stimulants “occasionally” (an average of 12 to 15 times) and the others of whom
have never used stimulants. Tests taken by the two groups while hooked up to
the MRIs demonstrated an “impaired ability to anticipate a situation” on the
part of the stimulant-users as opposed to the non-user group. Further, the
researchers say their findings indicate that the occasional stimulant-users may
be more likely to fall prey to an addiction to drugs later on in life.
