Reaction To Article: Neurochemical Effects Of Bath Salt (Article Critique Sample)

ARTICLE REACTION
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I have chosen to react on a peer-reviewed journal on “Long-term cognitive and neurochemical effects of “bath salt” designer drugs methylone and mephedrone” (den Hollander et al., 2013). The principal goal for doing this studies was to examine the long-term effects that might probably be caused by the use of cathinone- derivative designer drugs. In the recent past, use of methylone and mephedrone has risen rapidly making this study very relevant in regards to the effects that this drugs will cause to users in the event they are used for a long period. The study went ahead to examine the effects of the drugs on the brain neurochemistry in the long run. The investigation was carried out in both mice and rats. The animals were treated with methylone or mephedrone in a binge-like schedule two times in a day for four days in doses of 30mg/Kg (den Hollander et al., 2013).
Behavioral memory tests were later carried out after two weeks that also included tests of nervousness and depression. The levels of serotonin (5-HT), “dopamine (DA),” their metabolites as well as norepinephrine (NE) in the brain. In rats, the levels of “DA transporter (5-HTT and DAT)” were similarly measured by mazindol binding with [3H] paroxetine (den Hollander et al., 2013). The outcome was a reduction in the performance of memory in the spontaneous alternation “T-maze task” while it had no effect on the neurotransmitter levels other than a decline in the levels of striatal homovanillic acid (HVA) of about 22 % in mice. It was hence, concluded from the study that behaviour as well as biochemical estimates of neurotoxicity in mice and rats was affected in the long run by the use of mephedrone and methylone.
The study was able to address issues that were not covered in previous experiments adequately. The examination of the lasting effects on the monoamine levels in the brain from using the two drugs as well as on behavior provided a lot of insight on this issues had been overlooked by previous studies. It was because the rate at which these drugs were used was not as high as it has become in the recent past. The experiments could have taken longer to evaluate the effects exhaustively both in the behavioral as well as the biochemical tests. The investigation of this effects in the study could have therefore become clearer it was possible to confirm that similar changes would occur in humans as they exactly did in rodents. The neurochemical effects brought about by methylone should also have examined further due to the difference in sensitivity between the two species during the experiment.
The results observed from the rodents used in the t...