Caffeine and Other Drugs

Let’s look into why caffeine makes me so productive, shall we?

Well, I did a bit of research (Wikipedia, Lol) and it turns out that the primary mechanism of psychoactivity due to caffeine is the antagonization of adenosine, which is a neurotransmitter associated with, among other things, controlling (limiting) neural activity. There’s also some connection between one of the adenosine receptors and dopamine, but Wiki doesn’t know what exactly it does. This is just a wild guess, but I’d say adenosine inhibits dopamine function. This would mean that caffeine increases dopamine action, which would explain why I’m always so fucking happy when I drink a lot of coffee.

There is also some shit goin’ on with epinephrine when you take caffeine. Apparently one of the metabolites of caffeine somehow increases epinephrine action, which is just another reason why I get all speedy when I’m whacked out on coffee.

Wow! Antagonization of adenosine, agonization of dopamine, and moar epinephrine? If there is a god, he sure did a good job on Coffee. I wonder if it’s merely a coincidence that the brain reacts this way to caffeine, or if maybe it’s something more?

It sounds crazy (because it is), but what if humans evolved to be as sensitive as we are to some psychoactives because it was useful for us to be able to control our state of mind?

I guess that doesn’t make much sense, because other mammals (and at least one lizard) are also affected by psychoactives; I’m aware of a large body of anecdotal evidence suggesting that dogs and cats can get stoned, and I’ve seen it happen with my friend’s bearded dragon.

Then again, caffeine is poisonous to some mammals other than ourselves (i.e. dogs), yet it makes us more functional in some respects. I’m probably just crazy, so please for the love of Gzus do not quote me on this ridiculous hypothesis. I’m going to shut up about it now and get back to how great coffee is.

Isn’t coffee just fucking dandy? I wouldn’t be able to blog without it. I guess that’s partially because I take so many drugs to inhibit my dopamine and epinephrine function that I need a little boost to be able to think like a normal person. But it would appear that 28 ounces of coffee give me a bit more than a normal person’s dopamine and epinephrine action, because I’m fucking WIRED right now.

I realize that I just claimed that my meds inhibit epinephrine action, but I don’t actually know if that’s true. Let’s find out, shall we?

So it turns out that one of my meds, Divalproax, agonizes GABA receptors. I don’t know too much about GABA, but I do know that it is one of the main “downer” neurotransmitters. As such, divalproax can be used as an anti-seizure med or a mood stabilizer. However, Wikipedia did not say anything about interactions between GABA and epinephrine. I’m going to look up the rest of my meds and see if any of them do affect epinephrine.

Citalopram, my anti-depressant, doesn’t have shit to do with epinephrine or norepinephrine. It’s a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, so all it does is increases serotonin action. Maybe that has something to do with epinephrine, but I doubt it.

I guess it’s possible that melatonin, which is produced after serotonin is released, inhibits epinephrine function in order to make you sleepy, but I think that’s a bit of a stretch.

I know that Strattera, my ADHD med, is a selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, and norepinephrine is a speedy neurotransmitter like epinephrine… but it never makes me feel “up”. In fact, I don’t really notice it at all.

It doesn’t appear that Abilify, my antipsychotic, has anything to do with epinephrine or norepinephrine function. Well, that covers all of my meds… I guess it’s just the GABA agonism by means of divalproax that makes me so drowsy. That was kind of fun to explore!