The Brain, Drugs, and Crime

The brain is arguably the most important organ of the human body, as well as the most fascinating. It houses our conscience, our psyche, memories, emotion, and personality as well as controlling and managing all physiological functions of the entire body. Our well developed and evolved brain uniquely sets us apart from other mammals in terms of high intelligence. For such a vital organ, it is surprising that we actually know very little about the brain. Doctors and researchers utilize diseases and injuries of the brain to better understand function and makeup. 

When it comes to diseases of the brain, there are a couple in particular that catch my eye. Korsakoff’s syndrome is a cause for dementia. When I was a senior in high school, I wrote a research paper on what alcohol and certain drugs did to the brain. Korsakoff’s syndrome was one of the key points I had when discussing severe alcoholism. Severe alcoholism can damage the brain, causing Korsakoff’s. With Korsakoff’s, the ability to create and solidify new memories is destroyed. Essentially, a person with the syndrome is living in the past because they cannot make new memories. If someone gets it at 45 years old, they will spend the rest of their life believing they are 45. Someone with the disease could spend the entire day rereading the same exact page of a book because they can’t remember what they’ve read. There is no cure for this, which makes this disease even more devastating.    

Another disease that I had never heard of before was Tay-Sachs disease. It is a genetic disease defined by the destruction of nerve cells in the central nervous system. It is characterized by slow development with eventual early death, typically around four years old. Because it is caused by the absence of the Hexosaminidase A enzyme, I wondered if researchers could synthetically create the enzyme and insert it into nerve cells. Because nerve cells are damaged easily and do not regenerate after death, one possible route could be directly inputting it into the cerebrospinal fluid.  I also wonder what roles geneticists could play in preventing the disease. Because it is such a rare disease, there is much left to research regarding treatments and preventative measures. Researchers and doctors have barely scraped the tip of the iceberg in regards to fully understanding the central and peripheral nervous systems.

Dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases are particularly sad. My grandpa had dementia and short term memory loss for a few years before his passing. I remember several occasions where he would forget who I was, or sit in a room full of people and not recognize who they were. Once, he called me Melissa, a combination between mine and my sister's name (Madi + Alissa). Sometimes he would stare at the floor in silence, not aware that people were around. I would get very upset because he was forgetting me, yet there was nothing I could do about it. It’s very hard not only for the people who have dementia, but those involved in their lives. I would be interested to read studies on the depression/anxiety prevalence amongst those close to or taking care of someone with dementia. 

Aside from diseases of the brain, traumatic brain injuries can also create issues. The Phineas Gage case was a crucial piece to understanding the frontal lobe. In a freak accident, he had a piece of rebar forced through his eye socket, taking out a piece of the frontal lobe and exiting through the top of his skull. He was able to survive and recover, but he had major personality changes. It is a major study case for psychologists. After the bar went through a large portion of his frontal lobe, he had a complete personality change. He went from being well mannered and polite to being disruptive, outrageous, and angry. When I took physiology, we discussed how neural tissue is not regenerative. The areas that control personality are largely controlled within the frontal lobe. If it were possible to go back in time, it would be interesting to test whether the personality changes were due to the brain damage or if the remaining functional frontal lobe was where his aggression, carelessness, and other disruptive behaviors were housed. 

The Henry Molaison case was very surprising to me. We now understand the role of the hippocampus because of this event. In an attempt to fix his epilepsy, doctors removed a large portion of his hippocampus. The hippocampus is vital for memory creation and solidification. Cutting it out would prevent someone from being able to retain any new information. Nowadays, surgery is a last resort. In severe seizure cases, doctors can sever the corpus callosum, a thin sheet of nervous tissue that connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain. This procedure doesn’t stop seizures from occurring, but it lessens the effect. Without that connection, a seizure cannot spread to the entire brain. This is just one example demonstrating that we don’t know a lot about the brain. With other organs, there are ways to directly test function. In the Henry Molaison case, it took removing an important portion of the brain to figure out what role it played. In many instances, trial and error has led to the discovery of certain brain functions.  

Drugs can also alter the brain. Many mental disorders can be managed with the use of medications. For example, SSRIs are commonly prescribed for depression. These medications can help individuals live a more normal life. However, I can’t help but think about drug resistance. If you continually take a medication, your body builds resistance to it. This requires either a higher dosage of that medication, or the prescription of a new one that is similar. For people with issues like depression, anxiety, or other mental disorders, this begs the question of whether or not medications or lifestyle treatments are best. From an ayurveda standpoint, a holistic approach might be better. If medications won’t always be reliable, it would be better to rely on yourself and things you can control to treat your problems. But for severe mental disorders (ex. schizophrenia) you could argue that medications are better. Modern doctors are quick to prescribe medications, and I wonder if it would be better overall for patients to try a combination between holistic practices and medications.

Many distinguish prescription medications from illegal drugs. In our society, we deem them as if they were very different from each other. I have to disagree with this way of thinking. Yes, they are different in the sense that they are controlled, but from a chemical standpoint a different story is told. In chemistry, we learn that structure determines function. Painkillers have extremely similar structures, differing only in one or two molecules or arrangement of molecules and they all serve the same purpose. This is true for both legal and illegal drugs. Take adderall and meth, for example. Adderall and meth differ by one methane group, but both consist of a benzene ring with a propyl group coming off of it and a nitrogen attached. Functionally, they serve the same purpose. Yet, adderall is normally prescribed while meth is illegal. I think it can be dangerous to so harshly distinguish medications from illegal drugs. Any substance you place inside your body should be carefully researched and all risks need to be evaluated. Because much is still unknown about the brain, I hesitate when it comes to medications that directly affect the brain, or any nervous tissue for that matter. I think medications should be clinically studied for 10-15 years, and even longer to measure direct long term effects. 

Illegal substances are a huge debate today. I took a substance and drug abuse course a couple semesters ago, and crime and punishment regarding drug offenses was a huge topic. The laws regarding drugs are messy and not always helpful. In many instances laws are keeping people safe, for example DUI laws. However, others are doing more harm than good. Take alcohol, for example. It is one of the most risky substances for physical and psychological addiction while harming the body, yet it is promoted in the media and bought legally. Meanwhile, marijuana tends to be less harmful but people have been given life sentences in prison for possession charges. A lot of laws regarding substances were written decades ago and were based around bias and prejudices. I believe more beneficial approaches to addiction and drug abuse is to provide more education and better access to rehabilitation facilities. Addiction is difficult, and if help were offered instead of prison our society may be better off.

On the flip side, some argue that drug abuse is beneficial. I want to discuss an idea that comes from sociology. A specific type of sociologist, called a functionalist, approaches situations with the concept that everything, good or bad, serves a function. It begs the question of whether drug abuse is an important part of society. Drug abuse creates a lot of jobs. It funds the police, rehab centers, psychologists/psychiatrists, and pharmaceutical companies. One could argue that illegal substances contribute to the economy by providing jobs. It is an interesting concept to think about. 

In conclusion, the brain is a delicate organ that is susceptible to many forms of altercation. There are a wide variety of diseases that can affect the brain with different causations. Physical damage to the brain contributes to a variety of issues. Drugs, both prescribed and illegal, can have drastic effects on the brain. There is a lot of debate regarding medications and their uses. Overall, there is much left to understand and learn about this fascinating organ. It will be exciting to see all that will be discovered as time and technological advances continue.