Excessive Smoking Of Marijuana Linked To Decreased Dopamine Levels In The Brain, Research Says

Any habit done excessively can be dangerous. A new research finds that excessive smoking of marijuana is linked to a decreased production of dopamine in the brain.

Decreased dopamine levels in the brain can lead to memory problems, attention deficits and difficulties in problem-solving, IFL Science reports. The study was led by Anissa Abi-Dargham and published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

Dopamine is a catecholamine neurotransmitter in the brain known as the "feel-good" chemical, Examined Existence shares. It helps signal the body to wake up in the morning, helps control what the memory retains, regulates the body's motor function and serves the brain's reward system.

"When the brain is presented with an unexpected reward, dopamine increases, prompting the limbic reward system to take note and remember how to repeat such positive experience," Examined Existence explains. Examples of stimuli that activate dopamine increase include eating sweets, having sexual intercourse and using drugs.

However, abuse of these activities can cause dopamine level imbalance which can make a person abuse these practices more in order to experience that emotional and mental high once again. The researchers used positron emission tomography (PET) to examine the dopamine levels of 11 study participants who smoke marijuana excessively.

"The results -- which are published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry -- indicate that, compared to non-dependent subjects, these participants did indeed exhibit reduced dopamine levels," IFL Science shares. However, that's not to generalize and make assumptions as a whole.

The research team also noted that the study does not definitively prove that excessive smoking of marijuana directly caused the participants' decreased dopamine levels. This is because other pre-existing health conditions could have also contributed to the results.