Dextroamphetamine

Dextroamphetamine Addiction

Dextroamphetamine comes with a considerable likelihood of addiction, especially in cases of recreational use. However, it’s not as likely to occur in long-term medical use at therapeutic doses. Addiction typically stems from patients deviating from the prescribed usage. In fact, current data draws statistical correlations between lifetime stimulant therapy for ADHD and a reduction in the risk of developing substance use disorders in adulthood if that therapy begins in childhood. 

The key there, though, is therapeutic dosage. Amphetamine addiction is consistently based on overstimulation of the mesolimbic pathway in the brain’s dopaminergic system connecting the ventral tegmental area to the nucleus accumbens. People who self-administer high doses incur high risk levels for amphetamine addiction. Chronic use at high doses gradually causes the accumulation of a specific protein in that nucleus accumbus area. The protein in question has recently been described by some as the “master control protein” for addiction.