TAKING DRUGS 'CAN CAUSE BRAIN DAMAGE'

TAKING drugs such as speed can cause long-term brain damage, according to
new research.

Methamphetamine - popularly known as speed, crystal or ice - can cause brain
damage similar to that found in people suffering from Alzheimer's disease,
epilepsy, brain tumours and strokes.

The drug may alter the chemistry of the brain on a long term, and possibly
permanent basis, according to the study published in the journal of the
American Academy of Neurology.

Seizures of amphetamines (including methamphetamine) have soared by 167% in
the last five years and the amount found has increased by 500%, according to
Home Office figures.

Either snorted or swallowed as a white powder, it is the UK's most widely
used illegal drug after cannabis.

Californian researchers examined the brain chemical levels of 24 healthy
people and 26 former abusers of methamphetamine, who had stopped taking the
drug for between two weeks and 21 months.

Abnormalities in brain chemical levels are good indicators of brain cell
damage.

The researchers found that concentrations of the chemical N-acetyl-aspartate
in the drug abusers were reduced by 5% in the basal ganglia region of the
brain, which controls the subconscious regulation of voluntary movement.

Levels of the same chemical were also 6% lower in the brain's white frontal
matter among the abusers, the researchers found.

The findings are particularly worrying because N-acetyl-aspartate is only
present in neurons, the brain cells used for thinking.

Report author Dr Thomas Ernst said: "Many brain diseases associated with
brain cell or neuronal damage or loss, such as Alzheimer's disease and other
dementias, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, brain tumours, stroke and HIV brain
diseases, consistently have shown decreased N-acetyl-aspartate.

"Therefore the reduced concentration in the drug users' brains suggests
neuronal loss or damage as a result of long-term methamphetamine use."