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Re: Naltrexone success

Posted by mila on May 7, 2001, at 3:17:06

In reply to Naltrexone success, posted by Fred Potter on May 6, 2001, at 16:35:51

Hi!

> Can someone please explain how blocking your natural opiate receptors brings peace to an unquiet mind?

Prozac brings peace to an unquiet mind (my guess)by lowering the hyper-reactivity of the threat system which otherwise can be dampened by alcohol. naltrexone increases social deprivation induced distress behavior and causes quicker neurological development. Administration of an opiate antagonist lowers hyperreactivity to painful stimuli, such as sexual deprivation, sensory overstimulation, frustration, disappointment, and involuntary social isolation)as well.

===how is it that "healthy" ways of stimulating the same endorphins seem unaffected or even increased?
I am not sure about 'the same' part of your question. Pleasure seeking activities are mediated mainly by the dopaminergic system. While Prozac brings serotonin concentration to normal or enhanced levels, which are associated wiht satiety, with relief from need for reward, with enhanced resistance to punishment, and with the ability to use threat cues to govern behavior, it leads to decrease in need for ethanol intake. It is my guess, that your dopaminergic system has been damaged or suppressed by the years of ethanol consumption, and freedom from alcohol disinhibits dopaminergic release. The subjective effects of increased levels of dopamine are analgesic, we experience them as hope, excitement, and curiosity. These feelings and dopamine release are triggered by promise, by cues of reward, and force us near what is potentially necessary to us. Associated pleasure, hope and curiosity are used as enticement by the dopaminergic system here.

>
> Is there down-regulation of natural opiate receptors (such as might happen with chronic alcohol administration) that is relieved by blocking them? Or can there be too many receptors?
>
I have never heard of such down-regulation, but I am not an expert on ANY down-regulation either:). What seems to be happening is rather a natural process. There is a delicate balance of love-related deactivation and social-induced activation of pain circuitry. At first stages of isolation from the loved ones we experience distress. If contact is not reestablished in some variable critical time period, we cease protesting and withdraw. After such withdrawal we are often resistant to the reestablishment of close contact, as if our trust were broken. In extreme desperate cases we cease seeking non-specific contact and may die.

The first stages of loneliness or grief produce a state of neuropharmacological affairs similar to that induced by opiate withdrawal in addicts. Prolonged isolation, by contrast, reverses the process, overwhelming the organism with endogenous opiates, restricting need for and affect of social contact. the proper amount of voluntary separation enhances development, while excess separation restricts growth. Chronic alcohol administration doesn't allow us to experience the very first stage of social-isolation induced pain. never underestimate the relief and the opportunity for development that vociferous complaints and protesting afford us :) What is bad or deadly for an infant, changes its character for a grown-up mainly because he can rely on inmense cognitive resourses unavailable to the infant...

> Finally, is there any evidence that the augmentation strategy itself can poop out?

sounds like concern about facing some pile of elephant dung in a near future... LOL :)))

M.


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