Chronic, heavy marijuana use during adolescence, which is a critical period of ongoing brain development, is associated with poorer performance on thinking tasks, including slower psychomotor speed and poorer complex attention, verbal memory and planning ability.

Research supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) shows that it is evident even after a month of stopping marijuana use. There may be partial recovery of verbal memory functioning within the first three weeks of abstinence from marijuana, but complex attention skills continue to be affected.

Not only are their thinking abilities worse, their brain activation to cognitive tasks is abnormal. The tasks are fairly easy, such as remembering the location of objects, and they may be able to complete the tasks, but the adolescent marijuana users are using more of their parietal and frontal cortices to complete the tasks. Their brain is working harder than it should.

Girls may be at an even greater risk than boys.

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Popularity: 10% [?]

Methamphetamine is one of the most addictive and neurotoxic drugs of abuse and it produces large increases in dopamine, a brain chemical associated with feelings of pleasure and reward — both by increasing dopamine’s release from nerve cells and by blocking its reuptake.

Using positron emission tomography (PET) to track tracer doses of Methamphetamine in humans’ brains, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory found that meth was slow to clear the brain.

“This slow clearance of methamphetamine from such widespread brain regions may help explain why the drug has such long-lasting behavioral and neurotoxic effects.” Methamphetamine is known to produce lasting damage not only to dopamine cells but also to other brain regions, including white matter, that are not part of the dopamine network" stated chemist Joanna Fowler, lead author on the study.

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Popularity: 12% [?]

The proof every person must see about drugs, alcohol and the brain!

SEE FOR YOURSELF on DVD how drugs and alcohol damage your brain . . .

Meet five young people from different backgrounds, with different levels of substance abuse, including two who chose to stay clear of drugs or alcohol.

Hear their stories and learn about the impact their choices have had on the quality of their lives.

Next, look at the scans of their brains. See for yourself how their choices; good or bad; have affected the health of their brains.

The candid conversations between these young people and Dr. Daniel Amen, a pioneer in the use of brain scans, are revealing. They want to know if it's too late . . . and they want another chance . . . now that they realize they DO have a choice.

The question echoes in their ears . . . Which Brain Do You Want?

This powerful, high-energy production includes . . .

* How the brain works
* How the brain is involved in everything you do
* What happens when the brain "misfires"
* The physical impact of drugs and alcohol on brain function
* How to improve your brain

I have this DVD and it is . . .

A MUST-SEE FOR PARENTS AND TEACHERS WHO WANT TEENS TO KNOW THE TRUTH ABOUT DRUGS AND ALCOHOL!

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Popularity: 31% [?]

Excerpted from Dr. Daniel Amen's Book "Images of Human Behavior: A Brain Spect Atlas" this color atlas contains 115 pages of brain SPECT images. It compares normal brain images to abnormal brain images and looks at functional neuroanatomy.

Includes detailed study of strokes, dementia, brain trauma, depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, PMS, anxiety, ADD (attention deficit disorder), obsessive compulsive spectrum disorders (OCD), violence, alcohol and drug abuse, with before and after treatment studies.

This comprehensive atlas is a wonderful overview of Brain SPECT Scan Imaging, and it also a good resource to teach patients about the effects of brain problems on behavior.

You can review images on-line:

amenclinic.com/bp/atlas

Also, click here >> Which Brain Do You Want?

Popularity: 27% [?]

Dr. Daniel Amen is a pioneer in brain imaging. He has written numerous books including, Change your Brain, Change Your Life. He has taken thousands of brain scans comparing normal brains and "drug abused" brains and his work indicates that brain scans of people who have abused drugs showed abnormalities.

The Amen Clinic has a SPECT Image gallery that contains fully animated 3-D images as a learning resource. Each animation is presented in a full 360 degree rotation.

There are comparisons of normal brain images and brains that have been affected by alcohol and drugs.

The images will impact you. Take a look.

http://www.amenclinic.com/bp/spect_rotations/

Click resource >> Which Brain Do You Want?

Popularity: 28% [?]

Studies have shown that people who take prescriptions for an anxiety disorder don't get much help from it. And doctors have no definitive way to predict who will, and who won't, benefit from each anti-anxiety prescription they write.

You are like a medical experiment or guinea pig.

K. Luan Phan, M.D., University of Michigan Medical School researcher, and his team are working to bring more certainty to how doctors and patients choose anxiety treatments, by probing the connection between brain activity, genetics and medication. According to the Journal of Neuroscience, he is reporting intriguing findings from brain imaging studies with marijuana users and making comparisons with prescription drugs such as Zoloft.

Dr. Phan notes that some individuals may be using illicit drugs and misusing prescribed drugs to alleviate their anxiety.

Wow - what a revelation! I call this self medication.

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Popularity: 26% [?]