[Ultrastructure of the prefrontal cortex in long-term amphetamine administration]

In animals three weeks of chronic amphetamine administration at 2.5 mg/kg daily doses elicited either functional or dense-type degenerative changes in nerve cells. The former were prevailing, the latter rarely occurred in the single cells. Morphometric analysis showed sharp density increase in axodendritic synapses and density decrease in axospinal ones at the spine's neck. Apart of this, the postsynaptic dense structures were expanded considerably in axodendritic and axospinal synapses. The authors believe this ultrastructural reorganization to result from the amphetamine-elicited dopaminergic hyperfunction.