Posted by SLS on June 22, 2012, at 5:02:12
In reply to What other medical websites are similar to this?, posted by rjlockhart04-08 on June 21, 2012, at 23:29:31
These are just guesses:
I don't think the brain likes to be different from that which it is convinced it should be. It is perhaps too plastic in this regard. When exposed to a psychotropic, the brain reacts by invoking changes in gene expression in an attempt to maintain its equilibrium. Sometimes a new phenotypic equilibrium is set (response), and sometimes the old equilibrium is approximated (non-response) using new values. However, one can briefly pass through a period in which new values are enacted which lead to a temporary response. However, this occurs while the brain is en route to the establishment of the old phenotypic relationships that existed prior to drug exposure, thus precipitating a relapse. In other words, the brain is adept at changing in order to stay the same. This adeptness is a manifestation of plasticity. In many instances, the brain will never be the same after exposure to a drug than it was prior to exposure. This is why the same drug often doesn't work a second time.
I don't know if this is indeed the way things work, but it is probably a reasonable guess.
- ScottSome see things as they are and ask why.
I dream of things that never were and ask why not.- George Bernard Shaw
poster:SLS
thread:1020030
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120608/msgs/1020038.html