PSYC 211 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Neurotransmitter Receptor, Sublingual Administration, Peritoneal Cavity
8 Sep 2016
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In 1982 california, patients showed up at the hospital showing severe symptoms of parkinson"s disease, such as inability to speak, drooling, lack of eye focus, slow and difficult movements. The patients were mostly in their twenties and thirties, while parkinson"s disease almost always strikes after middle age. All patients had been taking an intravenous new heroin , a synthetic opiate related to meperidine (demerol) Because symptoms resembled those of parkinson"s they were given l-dopa. In normal cases of parkinson"s, l-dopa therapy works for a time but as the degeneration of dopamine-secreting neurons continues, the drug loses its effectiveness; the pattern of response also appeared in the drug users. The symptoms were caused not by the synthetic opiate itself but another chemical that contaminated the drug. Researcher langston found out that the synthesizer of the heroin led to the presence of mptp, a chemical high toxic to the neurons that are lost in parkinson"s disease.
