Mood Modifying Chips - Future of Drug Use

Mood Modifying Chips - Future of Drug Use

Mangalore Today News Network

By Dr. G. Shreekumar Menon

Mangaluru, Feb 8, 2025: Drugs are used by human beings to alter their moods; hence most drugs are labelled as ‘mind-bending drugs’. Using drugs can invite legal consequences from most governments in many countries. As the global tendency to rely on drugs gets stronger and stronger, in order to escape from reality, harsh punishments are in vogue in several countries, including death penalty. In order to escape detection of drugs by sniffer dogs and electronic gadgets, many underworld scientists are examining the possibility of creating mood-modifying chip under human skin, controlled by a smartphone, which raises new concerns. 3D printing could facilitate the cloning and manufacturing of drugs at home itself, creating potent mixtures.

Mood-altering chips are brain implants that use electric pulses to alter brain chemistry and mood. Most narcotics and psychotropic substances such as benzodiazepines and opioids hijack the reward system and once users are exposed, they need more and more of the substances to get the rush of the feel-good neurotransmitter dopamine. Scientists are understanding more and more about the brain circuitry, especially with reward and addiction issues, and are engaged in developing very precise tools to target the brain. One of the things scientists are trying to use is the Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) to specifically change the brain circuits involved in craving and relapse. The principle is the same as that of a pacemaker which treats abnormal rhythms of the heart, similarly, DBS can be used to alter or modify rhythms in the brain.

Clinical trials are being conducted at West Virginia University’s Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute, on using Deep Brain Stimulation on patients who have undergone repeated rehabilitation efforts that were not successful, and, on those who suffered multiple overdoses. It has been observed that in worst-case drug addiction cases, targeting the brain’s reward center, the Nucleus Accumbens (NAc), with tiny sparks of electricity could quieten powerful cravings. Researchers are working on the hypothesis that by using the DBS in this part of the brain, it would be possible to normalize the dopamine levels. In addiction the rewards part of the brain, releases Dopamine, when the drug is taken and people feel their moods have changed. Users experience bliss, joy, calmness, or even aggression, high levels of energy, enhanced sexual stimulation and limitless energy. Hence, they indulge in repeated consumption of drugs, to experience the altered feelings and moods, consequent upon the increased levels of Dopamine that gets secreted in the brain.

The Nucleus Accumbens (NAc), a central component of the brain’s reward circuitry, has been a key player in a wide range of behaviours and emotional states. Emerging evidence, hints that the function of the NAc in reward and aversion processing is wide-ranging. Prolonged stress or drug use induces maladaptive neuronal function in the NAc circuitry. The role of the NAc in motivated behavior regulation and the complex underlying mechanisms of psychiatric disorders such as addiction and depression, is being studied across the world.

In Stanford Engineering’s The Future of Everything, Professor Anna Lembke of Stanford Health Care discloses that addiction can take many forms, it can be not only drugs or alcohol, but it can also be behaviours that cause harm to social relationships, business and professional relationships, and even health. It’s The Future of Addiction. The modern world is constantly changing. In the last 50 years, incredible changes have not only taken place in technology, transportation and communication, but also in the drug landscape. The use of drugs to help people cope with a 24-hour society, perhaps under employer pressure, is a problematic area that needs to be addressed. Recently, the Chairman of Larsen & Toubro (L&T), sparked controversy by suggesting that employees should work 90 hours per week, essentially advocating for a very long work week including Sundays, which has drawn flak for promoting overwork and neglecting work-life balance. In order to impress such employers, many employees may secretly resort to drugs available in the market, to be in a continuous state of high alert. What the psychoactive substances of the future will be, what their effects will be, remains unknown. Dozens of new drugs are entering the markets every day or are under development in many underworld laboratories, to cater to the requirements of greedy employers and insatiable pleasure seekers.

The ethical debate about whether or not to use drugs to improve performance and cognition enhancers in the workplace, and by schoolchildren and students, is set to be controversial. Psychoactive substances may be used to optimise performance, relieve distress, treat mental illness, help people relax, or aid sociability. Another ethical issue concerns the potential development of drugs that have only pleasurable or enhancing effects but few adverse effects and are neither categorised as medicines nor restricted as ’controlled drugs’. There is also the potential for illicit drug manufacture to occur in many new countries. Technological developments may enable simpler and cheaper ways to make drugs at home, although doing so might raise severe issues of quality control.

A more sophisticated understanding of the mechanisms and complexities of addiction as we understand it today may expand into new frontiers. This could involve new insights into the experience of pleasure and excessive and compulsive behaviour.

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Dr. G. Shreekumar Menon, IRS (Rtd), Ph.D. (Narcotics)

Former Director General of National Academy of Customs Indirect Taxes and Narcotics & Multi-Disciplinary School Of Economic Intelligence India; Fellow, James Martin Centre For Non Proliferation Studies, USA; Fellow, Centre for International Trade & Security, University of Georgia, USA; Public Administration, Maxwell School of Public Administration, Syracuse University, U.S.A.; AOTS Scholar, Japan. He can be contacted at shreemenon48@gmail.com