Tags: #notes
Links: Dashboard General Psychology

Psychoactive Drugs (documents)

Addiction

Addiction is defined by some as a chronic, relapsing brain disease that is characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, despite harmful consequences.

• Considered a brain disease
• the drugs change the brain, its structure, functions
• Changes are long lasting and lead to harmful behaviors
• Smoking a drug or injecting it into a vein increases its addictive potential. Both smoked and injected drugs enter the brain within seconds, producing a powerful rush of pleasure.
• Marijuana and heroin, can activate neurons because their chemical structure mimics that of a natural neurotransmitter.

How do drugs produce pleasure?

• Dopamine, neurotransmitter, regulates movement, emotion, motivation, and feelings of pleasure.
• Drugs overstimulate the dopamine beyond the reward of natural behavior and provide euphoric effects (which reinforce drug use)
• Drugs can release 2-10 times the amount of dopamine then eating or sex.
• When smoked or injected, effects occur faster and last longer
• The brain adjust for overwelimg amounts of pleasure by lowering production or reducing number of receptors.
• A person who is addicted to drugs (abuseing them) produces less dopamine and the persons ability to feel any pleasure is reduced
• A person takes more and more to get the same high, this is called tolerance

Definition, Explanatory Note, Cigarettes, E-Cigarettes

• Definition of “psychoactive”: a drug that changes sensation or perception or cognitive processing.
• A sensation is what we experience through our senses
• Perception is how we interpet our sensations

Cigarettes

• Cigarettes are stimulants (Bc of Nicotine)
• Stimulants speed up firing of neurons
• Nicotine increases energy, alterness enorphines, and is a pain releiever
• Deadly poisent, cigarette ash kills pests in gardens
• Smokers only absorb 10% of the Nic inside of a cig, if they absorbed 100 it would take 30 cigs to kill
• Harms brain development in adolescnes (up to 25)
• Cigerettes kill half of the people who smoke long term
• take 10-14 years off of ones life
• 1 cig takes 12 mins off life
• What do smokers die from? :
  • Heart disease. Smoking is responsible for 30 percent of all heart attacks and cardiovascular deaths.
  • Cancer. It is responsible for at least 30 percent of all cancer deaths and 87 percent of lung cancer deaths each year.
  • Lung problems. Smoking is responsible for 82 percent of deaths due to emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
• Smoking during pregnancy causes miscarriage, low birth weight.
• Smoking also ages skin, slows wound healing.
• 50k people who dont smoke die from second-hand smoking
• Lung cancer risk increases 24% living with a smoker, 39% working with smokers, and 50% being an environment where people are smoking 2/hrs a day
• Childrens' health affected (asthma, fires)
• Chew still kills

Trends

1964, 50% of adults smoked ( year gov said smoking bad)
1990-26%
2007- 20%
2014-16.8%
2018-14%
WV highest smoking rate (26%)
Utah at lowest (8,9%)

Quitting

• Half of people who smoke quit
• "smoking to control weight" is a myth, would have to gain 100 pounds for health to be same. Avg. gain 7 lbs
  • Benefits occur 20 mins after last cig
  • takes 15 years to get back to the same risk as a non smoker
  • Most take about 4 times to quit

E-Cigerettes

• In 2007, e-cigarettes were introduced to the American market.
• Since 2014, they have been the most commonly used tobacco product among U.S. youth.
• E-cigarette use among U.S. middle and high school students increased 900% during 2011-2015, before declining for the first time during 2015-2017.
• E-cigarette use increased 78% among high school students from 2017 to 2018 i.e. in 2017 11.7% of high schoolers vaped in 2017 and in 2018 20.8% of high schoolers vaped. In 2019 that figure rose to 27.5%.

Alcohol

• Alcohol is classified as a depressant drug. Depressants are drugs that slow down the rate of firing of neurons and thus slow down various brain/body functions.

Short-term Effects

• Likely to act on impulse
• lower self-awarness
• lowers body heat
• disoreintation
• disrupts processing memories
• loss of conciousness
• Death upon overdose

Long-Term Effects

Alcohol causes about 88,000 deaths per year in U.S. each year (CDC)

• 40% of crimes involve alcohol
• Every day 28 people in U.S. die in accidents caused by drunk driving
• Among drivers of BAL of .08% of higher who had fatal crash, 34% were age 21 to 24, 31% were between age 25 to 34, 25% were age 35 to 44.
• Health problems due to alcohol: high blood pressure, ulcers, some cancers, brain damage (memory and learning problems, shrinkage of brain), muscle damage to heart, liver damage, fetal alcohol syndrome—there is no safe amount of alcohol to drink during pregnancy.

Alcholism/Problem Drinkers

• Heavy use
• Withdraw
• tolerance
• 6.2% of adults over 18 have a usage disorder
• Parent who is alcoholic increases risk 400%

Marijuana

Affects on brain & body

• Both short and long term effects

Short term

• Smoking allows THC to act faster
• 30 minutes to an hour without smoking
• THC acts on specific brain cell receptors that ordinarily react to natural THC-like chemicals. These natural chemicals play a role in normal brain development and function
• Effects:
  • altered senses (for example, seeing brighter colors)
  • altered sense of time
  • changes in mood
  • impaired body movement
  • difficulty with thinking and problem-solving
  • impaired memory
  • hallucinations (when taken in high doses)
  • delusions (when taken in high doses)
  • psychosis (when taken in high doses

long term

Teens with use disorder lose an average of 8 IQ points between ages 13 and 38.

What Are Other Health Effects

Physical Effects

• Breathing Problems
• Increased Heart Rate
• Problems with child development during and after pregnancy
• Intense nausea and vomiting

Mental Effects

• Temporary hallucinanons and paranoia
• Worsened symptoms in schizophrenic people

Effects on a persons life

• Lower life satisfaction
• Poor Physical/Mental Health
• Relationship issues
• Lower academic and carrer success (increased absense and accidents)

IS MARIJUANA A GATEWAY DRUG?

While there is a higher chance of going to harder grugs, most don't. However, exposure at a young age has a higher risk.

Addictive?

• Yes
• Risk is higher if begun under 18
• 9-30% have a use disorder
• withdraw symtoms:
  • grouchiness
  • sleeplessness
  • decreased appetite
  • anxiety
  • cravings

Extracts

THC Extracts get the high faster, and have many dangers. Called dabbing

ARE THERE EFFECTS OF INHALING SECONDHAND MARIJUANA SMOKE?

• Possibility of failing drug test
• high from passive exposure (Eg Hotboxxing a car)
• A recent study on rats suggests that secondhand marijuana smoke can do as much damage to the heart and blood vessels as secondhand tobacco smoke
• toxins and tar found in marijuana smoke could affect vulnerable people, such as children or people with asthma

Treatments

No medications are currently available to treat marijuana use disorder, but behavioral support has been shown to be effective.

THERE ARE BETTER WAYS TO EXPERIENCE PLEASURE

Exercising, playing games, listening to music, going on a drive to see the wildflowers and blossoms, eating delicious food

Take a long, hot bath. Try a new hobby that you’ve always been interested in. Learn a new language or to play an instrument. Try writing a story or making something. Make up a song. I like to make collages and I make my own journals. Learn to draw or cook. Interview older family members and write your family history or make a video about it. Make a scrapbook. Make funny videos to post online. This is a good time to call old friends you haven’t talked to in a while. My brother loves to travel so for fun he goes online to plan his next trip. Research has shown that doing something to help someone is a great source of pleasure.

Opioids, Fentanyl

• Opioids are a class of drugs that include the illegal drug heroin, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, and pain relievers available legally by prescription, such as oxycodone (OxyContin®), hydrocodone (Vicodin®), codeine, morphine, and many others.
• Opioids are a class of drugs that include the illegal drug heroin, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, and pain relievers available legally by prescription, such as oxycodone (OxyContin®), hydrocodone (Vicodin®), codeine, morphine, and many others.
• Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid that is similar to morphine but is 50 to 100 times more potent.
• What are Opioids?
• Opioids are a class of drugs naturally found in the opium poppy plant. Some opioids are made from the plant directly, and others, like fentanyl, are made by scientists in labs using the same chemical structure (semi-synthetic or synthetic).
• When prescribed by a doctor, fentanyl can be given as a shot, a patch that is put on a person’s skin, or as lozenges that are sucked like cough drops.]
• binds to the body's opioid receptors, which are found in areas of the brain that control pain and emotions
• Fentanyl's effects include
  • extreme happiness
  • drowsiness
  • nausea
  • confusion
  • constipation
  • sedation
  • problems breathing
  • unconsciousness
• There is a high risk to overdose on Fentanyl, and when given right away, Naloxone can treat the overdose and save a person.