Do psychoactive drugs cause or merely mimic schizophrenia?
Although it is widely accepted that whilst drugs which act by blocking NMDA receptors (e.g. PCP, ketamine), dopamine transporters (DAT; cocaine/metamphetamine) and serotonin transporters (prozac, MDMA) mimic in part or in whole the symptoms of schizophrenia, it is ‘said’ that they do not cause schizophrenia as their actions are transient, lasting only for the duration of drug action, cocaine for example having a half-life of only some 6 minutes. However, this presupposes that there is neither a progressive augmentation in their action (behavioral sensitization) which may eventually become sustained in the absence of drug, and secondly that the drugs themselves do not cause functional neurotoxic damage at these self-same sites of action which are sufficient to induce the schizophrenia-like symptoms. However behavioral sensitization is seen in both humans and animals exposed to metamphetamine, especially in regard to hallucinations, suggesting a prolonged change in the neurochemical bala
