GVG and Brain Dopamine Levls

Dopamine, has been described as the "feel-good" neurotransmitter. That's because drugs like nicotine and cocaine cause a pleasurable or "high" feeling by keeping dopamine molecules from re-entering their home cells and thus creating floods of dopamine in the brain. This pleasurable reaction is crucial to the process by which nicotine and cocaine addiction starts.

GVG increases the amount of the brain's most common neurotransmitter, called GABA, and enables better communication among brain cells. GABA reduces the level of dopamine in the region of the brain that's involved in addiction to nicotine, cocaine and other substances.

Left: Graph of brain dopamine levels normally, after cocaine use, and after GVG followed by cocaine. Right: Graph of brain dopamine levels normally, after nicotine use, and after GVG followed by nicotine.

Last Modified: January 31, 2008

One of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry and government researchers. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE’s Office of Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit, applied science and technology organization.

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