Do Drugs Affect The Brain

Everyday thousands of teenagers are peer pressured into trying drugs or alcohol. Which can lead to early addiction, in a critical time in a teen's life. Many teens try drugs or alcohol to boost their social status.

To understand addiction further, it is important to look at how drugs have neurological effects in a human body. Drugs can be ingested in various ways; while some are taken orally, some are smoked (cannabis) while others are injected directly into the blood stream (Heroin). Once in the body, they mainly affect the reward pathway in the brain, known as the dopaminergic pathway, which in turn gives pleasure. Even though all drugs affect the reward and motivation pathways in the brain, their speed depends on the way the drug has been consumed. Over constant use of drugs, the cognitive functions are impaired as the effects become more prominent in learning, memory

Neurotransmitters send messages to different parts of the body that trigger certain behaviors. For example, acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter that has an effect on movement by being released to muscle cell receptors that cause muscles to contract. Researchers have found that the brain produces its own opiates and therefore certain drugs can trigger them. The problem with this is that the brain begins to rely on those drugs and stops producing their own natural opiates. This can cause struggle and lead to addiction. Certain drugs alter neurotransmitters by either mimicking or blocking them. Agonist molecules can bind to a similar neurotransmitter to mimic and enhance its effects, while antagonists bind to neurotransmitters but block its

Of the six most common neurotransmitters, dopamine is probably the one people know the most about. Dopamine is involved in controlling the reward and pleasure system in the brain. It allows us to recognize rewards and helps give us the ability to go after them. Learning, behavior, and cognition are also affected by dopamine levels. As with anything, if you have an imbalance, then bad things can happen. Parkinson’s disease can be caused by low dopamine amounts. People who have low dopamine levels can be addicted to substances easier.

Drugs some use them to escape pain, others use them for pleasure, and some use them to just fit in. Either way drugs are a harmful substance that may seriously affect the body. Drugs mess with the brain in ways that we couldn’t even imagine. From destroying brain cells that help with critical thinking to destroying cells that give us the ability to feel pleasure. Drugs take the place of our natural body functions of the body. They fool receptors of the body and make it to where our bodies produce less of what we need. Over a period of time this may produce very severe consequences on the body. With all the risks involved with drugs it’s a wonder why some people use them.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the article, “The Brain’s Rewarding System & Addiction” (2004) by Katharine P. Bailey, MSN. In this article, I did not find a general hypothesis. Studies in this article show that most drugs directly or indirectly cause selective elevation of dopamine levels in the nucleus accumbens (NA), the ventral tegmental area (VTA), and the limbic system, consequently called the reward center of the brain (Bailey, 2004). Behaviors that bring pleasure and are also crucial to existence (eating, drinking, and sex) also activate the same reward circuitry, however, activation of this circuitry by addictive drugs can be much

Some dopaminergic (i.e., dopamine-releasing) neurons run from the substantia nigra to the corpus striatum; their loss gives rise to the clinical manifestations of Parkinson's Disease (Korczyn 1994); others, involved in the rewarding effects of drugs and natural stimuli, run from the mesencephalon to the nucleunucleus accumbens.

Addictive drugs cause dopamine neurons to release dopamine, the pleasure hormone. The narcotics disable the neurons that would usually keep the dopamine neurons in check; becoming over stimulated. Endorphins are produced and released within the brain, creating a high and reinforcing the individual’s positive associations with the activity. Hence “the rush” (Molintas, 2006)

In today’s session, group members received education on how alcohol and drug abuse affects the brain chemistry. Group members learned how different categories of substances and how they act in the mind and body.

These drugs are best know for altering the user's brain, There are two types of ways the drug affects the brain. Both of the types affect neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are natural brain chemicals that communicate information throughout the brain and body. Different ones have a different job in our body. For example one can tell you to breathe and another can tell your stomach to growl when you're hungry.

A second neurotransmitter comes to play: GABA. GABA is an inhibitory substance. Inhibitory substances hyperpolarize the neuron. GABA is also involved in the reduction of dopamine that is released by the nucleus accumbens. Dopamine is the neurotransmitter involved in the brain’s reward and pleasure center. The use of an exogenous opioid, such as heroin, causes a reduction in the amount of GABA that is released. However, when GABA (the inhibitor) is inhibited, it can no longer reduce the amount of dopamine released. Because of this, there is now an increase of dopamine in the body.This increase of dopamine in the body is what produces the pleasure felt after getting high on heroin. This release of pleasure after doing the heroin is also why

Ecstasy is both a hallucinogenic, causing hallucination, and a stimulant drug. Ecstasy is the name given to methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). It was first synthesized in 1912 by Merck chemist Anton Köllisch. Ecstasy appears to disturb the body 's ability to regulate its temperature and this can lead to serious problems with overheating of the body. Ecstasy can be swallowed as a pill or tablet or snorted like a powder. Users of ecstasy can experience a rush of good feelings, a high, and makes someone 's feelings much more intense, whether they 're good or bad feelings. Ecstasy’s effects usually last up to 6 hours.

An individual’s behavior and emotion becomes chemically altered often resulting in dependency, aggression, onset of diseases and poor judgement. This poses a dangerous threat to the neurotransmitters since they have multiple jobs in different parts of the brain. Drugs of abuse are able to exert influence over the brain reward pathway either by directly influencing the action of dopamine within the system, or by altering the activity of other neurotransmitters that exert a modulatory influence over this pathway. These drugs are often powerful and have been known to trigger schizophrenic behavior and can also cause a person to cease breathing, for example hallucinogens such as LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin are able to artificially stimulate the serotonin receptor (Sapolsky, 2005).

Probably one of the most common forms of psychoactive drugs is stimulants. Stimulants are a class of psychoactive drugs that elevate mood, increase feelings of well-being, and increase energy and alertness. Nearly everybody has tried a stimulant and many people rely on them every single day. The best example of this is the drug caffeine, which is in many of the sodas or coffee we drink. Other forms of stimulants include: cocaine, methamphetamine, amphetamines, methylphenidate, nicotine, and MDMA. An additional common stimulant is nicotine, which is found in various types of tobacco. Stimulants change the way the brain functions by inhibiting neurons, which are nerve cells. These nerve cells communicate using neurotransmitters . One of the neurotransmitters they affect is dopamine, which makes people feel good. Dopamine can be released naturally by simply doing something you enjoy such as riding a bike or eating your favorite food. While these drugs may give the user pleasure, continual use may render their dopamine system useless. This will give the user little to no pleasure, which is often followed by an increased amount used in order to chase that high (NIDA).

In contrast to ecstasy and cocaine, which increase the secretion of natural neurotransmitters by blocking transporters, ‘direct agonists’ imitate natural endogenous neuromediators and bind to their receptors. Heroin and cannabis are both examples of direct agonists.