Consumers ofecstasyeven occasional ones run the risk of quickly becoming addicted. Jean-Pol Tassin and his colleagues from the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) are now able to explain the mechanism of addiction to this drug, as strong as morphine, at the cerebral level.
Addiction is created in the most vulnerable people when a “communication cut-off between norepinephrine neurons and serotonin neurons” occurs in the brain.
This dissociation of these two types of neurons results in an inability to self-control. “The coupling between norepinephrine and serotonin neurons does not exist at birth and is set up during development. However, in some people this set up goes badly, most often due to a life or difficult experiences, explains the author of the study. As a result, the decoupling takes place from the first drug intake and causes anxiety and dependence that set in very quickly “.
Restore contact between neurons
This dysfunction of neuronal activity was studied in 700 mice in the laboratory. Rodents were given four doses of ecstasy before performing a series of behavioral, physiological and molecular tests. The researchers thus grasped the origin of this neuronal decoupling: the norepinephrine and serotonin neurons “lose their ability to self-reduce their level of excitation and this causes a decoupling between these two types of neurons. As a result, the behavior of the neurons. animals deteriorate with the number of catches and they become extremely anxious ”.
To overcome this anxiety, characteristic of addiction, scientists are working on how to prevent this neuronal decoupling: “It’s up to us to find one or two molecules capable of acting on these targets and restoring normal neuronal activity. This would restore communication between the two types of neurons and reduce anxiety and the risk of dependence, ”concludes Jean-Pol Tassin.
