Practice question · Multiple choice
A regular opioid user needs steadily larger doses for the same effect, and feels terrible without any. What has the synapse done?
Hints
- The synapse is trying to keep its output steady. Ask what it does when the input is permanently raised.
- Withdrawal is the compensation still running with the drug removed. What does that imply was changed?
Show the answer
B. Downregulated, so normal transmitter levels now underwhelm it
Why
The synapse defends its set point by removing receptors, so the same dose lands on a less responsive system, tolerance. Withdrawal is that adaptation exposed: the compensation persists after the drug is gone, leaving normal transmitter levels far short of what the receptor count now expects.
Practise Synaptic Transmission
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More questions on Synaptic Transmission
- An agonist and an antagonist can both bind the same receptor with equal affinity. What distinguishes them,…
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- Order the events of chemical synaptic transmission.
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- Sort each drug action as an agonist or an antagonist.