How Does Your Brain Produce Euphoria and Madness?

Can the function of just one small group of chemicals really determine whether you are happy or sad? Two neurotransmitters, dopamine and norepinephrine, called catecholamines, may do exactly that and much more. We know a lot about these neurotransmitters primarily because so many drugs have been discovered that can modify their function. A consistent pattern of effects emerges: Norepinephrine underlies the major components of euphoria and behaviors that arise in association with increased arousal; dopamine is intimately related to the experience of euphoria.

Amphetamines and Ecstasy

Amphetamine dramatically and rapidly induces the release of norepinephrine and dopamine (and serotonin) into the synapse and greatly slows their inactivation by blocking reuptake back into the neuron. The increased and prolonged presence of these neurotransmitters within the synapse produces heightened alertness, euphoria, lowered fatigue, decreased boredom, depressed appetite, and insomnia. And sometimes total madness.

During World War II, soldiers and airmen on both sides of the battle lines used amphetamine to combat boredom, fear, and fatigue and to increase endurance. Historians suggest that at the end of the war, Adolf Hitler’s increasingly paranoid behaviors resulted from his excessive use of amphetamine. Indeed, excessive and prolonged use of amphetamine can produce a condition like paranoid schizophrenia.

Thanks to advances in medicinal chemistry, faster-acting and more potent versions of amphetamine have been invented by making amphetamine more fat-soluble. One of the basic principles of pharmacology is that fat solubility is directly correlated with the speed of uptake of a drug into the brain. Furthermore, the faster a drug enters the brain and somehow alters its physiology, the greater the euphoria the drug is likely to induce. Amphetamine was modified to make it act faster and produce more euphoria and, therefore, more addicting. Not surprisingly, its street name became “speed” because of its speedy entry into the brain.

Over time, attempts to make amphetamine ever more fat-soluble have produced drugs that are more euphorigenic and hallucinogenic than amphetamine. The most famous of these is Ecstasy. The action of Ecstasy in the brain is very similar to that of amphetamine. It also produces a dramatic rise in body temperature. Indeed, if you were to overdose on Ecstasy, you die because you become too warm.

Mother Nature’s Stimulants

Mescaline

Extracts of the cactus Lophophora williamsii are used to prepare a drink containing mescaline, which is structurally like dopamine and acts like amphetamine. Mescaline also acts more directly on serotonin receptors. Mescaline produces an amphetamine-like euphoria at low doses and hallucinations at higher doses. Mescaline is the least potent of all known hallucinogens and is poorly metabolized by our bodies. This means that a large percentage of mescaline is excreted unchanged, and thus still fully psychoactive, in the urine. For these reasons, rather rigid cultural rituals included a “recycling” program for the experience of ingesting it. Often, persons of the highest social or religious rank would consume mescaline in large quantities, eventually excreting it in their urine, which was then consumed by those of lesser social status. Sometimes, because of the gradual loss of potency, the urine from a few people needed to be combined to achieve the greatly anticipated experience.

Nutmeg and Other Spices

The spice nutmeg contains myristicin, which is chemically like mescaline. (Myristicin is also found in parsley and carrots but at very low concentrations.) Typically, one must consume approximately 30 grams of nutmeg powder—or roughly the contents of an entire container of the product you could purchase at your local grocery store—to experience its psychoactive effects. Reactions vary considerably, from nothing at all to euphoria at low doses and marijuana- and LSD-like experiences at higher doses, with hallucinations that can last up to 48 hours.

Spices such as saffron, fennel, dill, cinnamon, and anise also contain psychoactive substances that are chemically like myristicin. Generally, the level of psychoactive agents in these spices is far too low to produce any noticeable consequences in people using them for cooking, but their role, regardless of how subtle, in enhancing the culinary experience should not be ignored.

Madness

What happens when the brain starts releasing too much dopamine? The consequence is psychosis. Whatever the causes of psychosis may be, almost universally, the treatment is to block the ability of dopamine to access its receptors. Psychosis is essentially a generic term for a mental condition associated with a loss of contact with reality. Individuals who are psychotic report hallucinations, delusions, and highly disorganized thinking. Drugs that block dopamine receptors can reduce some of the symptoms associated with psychosis. Because an alteration in dopamine function probably does not cause psychosis, these drugs do not treat all the symptoms. Antipsychotic drugs simply compensate for the presence of an error of chemistry that exists somewhere in the brain.

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By considering how various drugs manipulate the various neurotransmitter systems within the brain, scientists have discovered some consistent patterns that allow us to make predictions about what to expect when specific types of drugs are taken.