Role of Neuroplasticity in the Response to Drugs

摘要

The monograph reviews research advances showing that the nervous system can alter its response to drugs and summarizes studies of the developing nervous system. Certain brain regions vulnerable only at certain times--differing in different species, and the same amount of a drug that has a profound effect as a single dose may have little or none when administered over the course of a day or chronically. It also discusses plasticity in the adult nervous system. Drugs administered to adults tend to have much more limited and specific effects, some of which are reversible. The mechanisms by which various drugs, including opiates, marijuana (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), alcohol, and amphetamines, produce adaptation in the nervous system are described.