The Caffeine Story Part 3: Caffeine Reduces Blood Flow in the Brain

So part 1 showed that caffeine at high enough doses works a little like marijuana and is a pro-psychotic: Insight: Caffeine is a pro-psychotic!.

Part 2 Caffeine is Good Guys was roughly based off this article from Anxiety.Org: Anxious? Drink coffee and focus on something

Part 3: Schizophrenia, Bipolar, ADHD and Depression are cases of what they call hypofrontality or reduced brain blood flow in the thinking and self-regulation part of the brain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypofrontality

It turns out that caffeine reduces blood flow and reduces the diameter of blood vessels in the brain! The Effect of Daily Caffeine Use on Cerebral Blood Flow: How Much Caffeine Can We Tolerate?, Comparison of caffeine-induced changes in cerebral blood flow and middle cerebral artery blood velocity shows that caffeine reduces middle cerebral artery diameter.. So far 1 positive thing about caffeine is that it helps focus (although I’m not sure how this works) and 2 negative things are that it is a pro-psychotic and that it reduces brain blood flow!

Moreover, recent studies have shown that the alpha 2 receptor agonists such as Clonidinie and Guanfacine can treat hypofrontality associated with ADHD, PTSD and depression. (From Wiki).

It is known that Taurine is also an alpha 2 agonist and may reverse hyprofrontality as Cloninide and Gaunfacine do. (Link soon.)

So I drink some tea and coffee to beat sedation. I don’t go psychotic but I’m on anti psychotics.

Wouldn’t it be if it was a pro psychotic you’d see way more psychotic people? The western business world runs on caffeine. We all seek our personal reasons but I’m not sure that this would correlate in any studies. Explain the fact that across boundaries and cultures it’s relatively 1%…

That really could be noble prize material.

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This makes a lot of sense although I believe is the similar argument with marijauna or amphetamines. If marijuana causes psychosis why are most people who smoke marijuana not psychotic? Some say that marijuana only causes psychosis in people prone to psychosis others say psychosis is not only schizophrenia but is a state of dysregulated dopamine, analogous to a state like low mood. Shitj Kapur (Shitij_Kapur) argues that Schizophrenia should rather be called a case of “chronic psychosis”. Basically that given the right conditions it would cause psychosis in most people.