Comment by driverdan
13 years ago
Just because something is physically addictive doesn't mean it has negative health consequences. Many studies have shown that long term, low to moderate caffeine consumption (especially coffee) has a positive impact on overall health.
Caffeine, amphetamines, and modafinil are not neurotoxic. I believe the others aren't either but I haven't read up on them. Methamphetamine is neurotoxic but non-methylated amphetamines are not.
The problem is that these studies are narrow and only look at a handful of the aspects of consumption.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_of_caffeine
> Short term side effects such as headache, nausea, and anxiety have been shown as symptoms of mild caffeine consumption.
When assessing the health impact of a drug, it is important to look at the whole picture.
Amp is indeed neurotoxic, though the exact effect is a little nuanced and dose-dependent.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15019431
> In addition to the social, cultural and indirect medical complications of amphetamine analog abuse, this class of drugs is also known to have the potential to damage brain monoaminergic cells directly.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17606768
> In early studies, high doses of amphetamine, comparable to amounts used by addicts, were shown to damage dopaminergic pathways. More recent studies, using therapeutic regimens, appear contradictory. One paradigm shows significant decreases in striatal dopamine and transporter density after oral administration of "therapeutic" doses in primates. Another shows morphological evidence of "trophic" dendritic growth in the brains of adult and juvenile rats given systemic injections mimicking "therapeutic" treatment. Imaging studies of ADHD-diagnosed individuals show an increase in striatal dopamine transporter availability that may be reduced by methylphenidate treatment.
I did not claim that caffeine and modafinil are neurotoxic, just amphetamine.