Ephedrine is a killer high. And now researchers think they know why. Herbal preparations containing ephedrine are sometimes sold as appetite suppressants and mild stimulants. The drug has gained a reputation, however, for producing a euphoric high much like that produced by the street drug Ecstacy. In studies of laboratory rodents, Wellman found that levels of the brain chemical dopamine increased sharply soon after ephedrine was administered.
Dopamine is a chemical that helps the brain transmit nerve signals.
Using tiny probes that reached painlessly into the rats' brains, Wellman measured normal dopamine levels and monitored what happened to the chemical after varying doses of ephedrine were administered. Dopamine levels in the brain also rise sharply when cocaine is administered. D.C. Wellman says these findings confirm ephedrine acts like cocaine to increase levels of dopamine in the brain and this neurochemical effect of EPH may account for its euphoric properties.