
How does alcohol influence the brain? - neurosphere
http://theneurosphere.com/2016/01/09/how-does-alcohol-influence-the-mind-a-look-into-the-brain-and-its-genes/
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xchaotic
The article is interesting on a chemical level and explains the biochemical
reactions really well. What I am really interested in is a higher level study
on overall social and cognitive results of moderate drinking. I bet you 'll
find plenty of anecdotal opinions with claims that small amounts of alcohol
help with coding and also social awkwardness

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agumonkey
I've told that before, but I'll say it once more. Some people are badly
calibrated. Two drinks don't make us drunk, they make us normal. I'm not
incapacitated, not foolish, not violent, just in tune with the others. Alcohol
is the bit of jitter that make the system not corner itself.

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tptacek
The term for this is "self-medication".

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aarpmcgee
I'm not necessarily sure there's anything wrong with that.

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tptacek
<shrug>

I do it at parties, especially when I don't know lots of people.

On the other hand, if you feel like you're dysfunctional most of the time, and
you're regularly keeping yourself slightly buzzed to mitigate that, you might
have a problem.

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md224
I've been thinking about this topic a lot recently, as I've been self-
medicating depression and anxiety with Kratom leaf powder.

In my opinion, the line between self-medication and proper medication is
ethically blurry. Yes, clearly it's better to have a doctor supervising your
treatment, but it's also important to find relief from debilitating psychic
pain. It can be incredibly frustrating when the best psychiatry has to offer
simply isn't good enough.

If someone is dependent on "recreational" drugs to soothe their pain, it's
labelled a "crutch" and seen as a weakness. If someone is dependent on
prescribed drugs (SSRIs, etc.) then it's just considered proper psychiatric
treatment.

I agree that if someone is keeping themselves "buzzed" to mitigate
dysfunction, there is definitely a problem. The solution, however, is often
unclear. Could this person find relief "naturally" (exercise, diet, therapy,
etc.)? Could a regular regimen of a different drug help, and if so, which one
would be best? Would a drug that's currently illegal help more than drugs
which are currently legal?

The state of medicine in 2016 is clearly strong, but psychiatry has a long way
to go. I applaud the work MAPS is doing to promote the medicinal application
of psychedelics, I'm encouraged by the research being done with Ketamine, and
I'm eagerly watching the development of ALKS-5461, an antidepressant that
incorporates Buprenorphine (an opioid).

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PavlovsCat
Am I wrong to read this as alcohol being some kind of actual gateway drug? Not
in the sense that it brings you in contact with other drugs, but more
susceptible to addiction to them?

> The fact that repeated alcohol exposure reduces production of this receptor
> means that over time, drinking disrupts the brain’s normal brakes on
> dopamine release. In rats, this is known to speed up the development of
> addiction to anything from cocaine, to sugar and food. All of this points to
> a somewhat worrying reality – in consuming alcohol, people make their brains
> increasingly sensitive to the experience of reward that comes with
> substances like alcohol, drugs and food, which gradually makes people more
> desperate to seek them out.

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fallingfrog
If you start looking at their references the arguments start to fall apart-
for example, that photo of reduced glucose uptake was _not_ associated with
reduced cognitive performance and the authors of the paper suggested that
perhaps an alternative energy source to glucose was being utilized.

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tcj_phx
Alcohol is an energy-rich molecule... I think one of its metabolites is
preferentially burned by the body. There was a study published about 2 years
ago that found heavy drinkers' brains burn lots of acetate.

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fallingfrog
I feel like this article is misleading in some of the details, for example
some of the neurons that are quieted are _inhibitory_ neurons, so the net
effect is to make other neurons _more_ activated.

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neurosphere
The notion that some of the neurons silenced by alcohol are inhibitory neurons
is actually the explanation that researchers have proposed for why stimulating
glycine receptors produces an increase in dopamine release. The idea which is
shown in a diagram in the article is that silencing GABA-releasing
interneurons (which are inhibitory) with glycine consequently disinhibits
dopaminergic neurons.

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fallingfrog
And the part about the rats hitting the dopamine lever is wrong too. If the
rats were in a rich environment with other rats to interact with they would
overwhelmingly prefer straight water to water with cocaine. It was only rats
in an empty box with literally nothing else to do that would get addicted- in
other words rats which were already in significant psychological pain. I need
to find the reference for that..

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neurosphere
The idea of whether rats with exciting lives would indeed be less likely to
become addicted to cocaine / morphine is quite controversial, and there have
been some failures to replicate that original study (references here: 1.
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9148292?dopt=Abstract](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9148292?dopt=Abstract)
and 2.
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2616610?dopt=Abstract](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2616610?dopt=Abstract)).
I think the argument is that social isolation can and probably does make
animals and humans more prone to drug addiction, but it's definitely not the
only factor, and both animals and humans with good lives can still become
hooked.

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kefka
I started to read said article, and then realized that I normally am not
inebriated as the article only tests for. I am not a binary sober/inebriated.

Again, it's "Alcohol(in some form) is Good" and then "Alcohol(in general) is
bad." Just like Eggs. And just like Butter. All these scientists can test for
is gross amounts, and not the small.

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sketchet
Interesting read, drinking makes it easier to be addicted to other things. I
wonder how strong of an effect this would be.

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MichaelTerry
I take it you mean what influence alcohol has on the brain. It´s effect is to
constrict the blood vessels going to the brain with the consequence that less
oxygen can get there which gives you that woozy feeling when you imbibe too
excess.

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agumonkey
There's more to it. I have blood/c.v problems, I feel when blood flow is
constricted, and when it happen I'm not woozy, I'm crippled. Like a piece of
dead wood.

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lutusp
The article uses the word "mind" in its title, but the article is strict
neuroscience, i.e. it discusses the brain from a biological perspective. The
word "mind" never appears again. The mind (psychology) is not the brain
(neuroscience).

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arvinjoar
A bit of a nitpick (but I guess that's the HN spirit)? Just different levels
of abstraction. The dream would be to be able to put all these levels of
abstractions together, and have good mappings between them. Basically, I think
you're painting a false dichotomy.

Just like the execution of a program can be described in Machine Code, 1's and
0's or even as electricity, or any other layer of abstraction.

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megalodon
I'm not so sure. The title should be relevant to the layer of abstraction
used. You're talking of abstractions as if there is a beginning and an end
level, but what if there isn't?

