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Drugs, Behavior, and Modern Society

Terms in this set (77)

Current Social Messages Regarding Drug use:
Social environment sends mixed messages about drug use.

Examples for cig smoking: Magazine ads encourage, while tv commercials don't.

Examples for alcohol: Beer commercials during football games show the fun side but all explain to "drink responsibly" or "know when to stop."

Examples for marijuana: some states legalized it, while the US federal government has it still illegal.
Psychoactive drug
drugs that affect our feelings, perceptions, and behavior.
illicit drugs
illegal drugs
licit drugs
legal drugs
Drug Dependence
a condition in which an individual feels a compulsive need to continue taking a drug
Instrumental use
reason for use is more than getting high
recreational use
use is only for the "high" or achieve some pleasurable effect
drug misuse
cases in which a prescription or over-the counter drug is used inappropriately.
drug abuse
cases in which a licit or illicit drug is used in ways that produce some form of physical, mental, or social impairment.
Shaminism
the philosophy and practice of healing in which diagnosis or treatment is based on trancelike states, on the part of the healer or the patient
Egyptians: Ebers Papyrus
65 foot long scroll that contains more than 800 prescriptions for practically every ailment imaginable.
During the 19th century:
role of medical advances:
succeeded in the isolation of active ingredients with many psychoactive drugs. FOR EXAMPLE: morphine was identified as the major active ingredient in opium. Cocaine= antidepressent. Anesthetics and Vaccines=small pox.
Patent Medicine
a drug or combination of drugs sold through peddlers, shops, or mail order advertisements.
Drugs in the 20th century
social pressure:
this resulted in the national prohibition of alcohol consumption in the US from 1920-1933
1940's-1950's
important strides were made in the development in antibiotics and psychiatric drugs. Illicit drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and marijuana were outside the mainstream of american life.
1960's-70's
use of marijuana and hallucinogenic drugs spread across the nation, along with the increase in problems related to heroin.
1980's
decline in the heroin abuse, matched by an increase in cocaine abuse and the emergence of crack as a cheap, smokable form of cocaine. Smoking was romantic and sexy. cocktail parties were in.
Present day attitudes towards drugs:
It is now recognized that a wide range of psychoactive drugs, licit or illicit, qualify as potential sources of misuse and abuse.

Individuals born toward the end of the "baby boom" generation were the first group to have grown up during the explosion of drug experimentation in the 1960s and 1970s.

Now, as the parents of teenagers at the beginning of the twenty-first century, they face the difficult challenge of dealing with the present-day drug-taking behavior of their children.

Interestingly, there appears to be no relationship between prior marijuana use among parents and marijuana use by their children.
Patters of drug use in the united states
Surveys of illicit drug use among high school seniors in 2011 have shown that over the last twelve months, 38-40 percent of seniors used an illicit drug, 33 percent smoked marijuana, and 3 percent used cocaine.

During the 1990s, marijuana use among high school seniors rose significantly, as did the use of other illicit drugs. However, there has been a steady decline in drug use among eighth and tenth graders since 1997.
What factors impact a person's decision to take a drug?
include a tendency toward nonconformity within a society and the influence of drug-using peers.
protective factors
include an intact home environment, a positive educational experience, and conventional peer relationships
Present day concerns about drugs:
New drugs will come on the scene; old drugs that are out of favor might regain popularity. Use of club drugs rising.
Drug toxicity
a drugs harmful effect
acute toxicity
can be measured in terms of either a drugs therapeutic index or its margin of safety, each of which can be computed from is effective dose response and lethal dose-response curves.
dose response curve
an s shape graph showing the increasing probability of a certain drug effect as the dose level rises.
Effective dose
the minimal dose of a particular drug necessary to produce the intended drug effect in a given percentage of the population.
lethal dose
the minimal dose of a particular drug capable of producing death in a given percentage of the population
Therapeutic index
a measure of a drugs relative safety for use, computed as the ratio of the lethal dose for 50 percent of the population to the effective dose for the 50 percent of the population
Margin of safety
the ratio of a lethal dose for 1 percent of the population to the effective dose for the 99 percent of the population
DAWN Reports
Drug Abuse Warning Network statistics, which reflect drug-related lethal and nonlethal emergencies in major metropolitan hospitals in the United States, offer another measure of acute drug toxicity
Acute toxicity
the physical or psychological harm a drug might present to the user immediately or soon after the drug is ingested into the body.
Chronic toxicity
the physical or psychological harm a drug might present to the user immediately or soon after the drug is ingested into the body.
Tolerance
the capacity of a drug to have a gradually diminished effect over repeated administrations; in effect, a greater dose has to be taken to maintain the original effect of the drug.(Tolerance effects can be quite dangerous, because experienced drug users often end up taking potentially lethal dose levels.)
Behavioral tolerance
The process of drug tolerance that is linked to drug-taking behavior occurring consistently in the same surroundings or under the same circumstances. Also known as conditioned tolerance. Similar to pavlovian dogs.
Psychological dependence
a model of drug dependence based on the idea that the drug abuser is motivated by a craving for the pleasurable effects of the drug.
physical dependence
a model of drug dependence based on the idea that the drug abuser continues the drug-taking behavior to avoid the consequences of physical withdrawal symptoms.
substance abuse
used by professionals to identify an individual who continues to take a psychoactive drug despite the fact that the drug-taking behavior creates specific problems for that individual.
substance dependence
to identify an individual with specific signs of a dependent relationship with a psychoactive drug.
substance use disorder
to identify an individual with significant problems that are associated with some form of drug taking behavior.
relation between drug abuse and HIV infection
sharing of needles
Pharmacological violence
violent acts committed while under the influence of a particular psychoactive drug, with the implication that the drug caused the violence to occur.
Economically compulsive disorder
violent acts committed by a drug abuser to secure money to buy drugs
Systemic violence
violence that arises from the traditional aggressive patters of behavior within a network of illicit drug and distribution.
Government policy, regulation, and laws
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, U.S. society's philosophy toward drug-taking behavior has been:
First - we should restrict it by reducing the availability of illicit drugs
Second - make it as difficult as possible for the potential drug user to engage in drug taking behavior
Harrison Act
was the first of several legislative efforts to impose criminal penalities for the use of opiates and cocaine and of later marijuana, hallucinogens, and several other types of drugs.
The comprehensive drug act
organized the federal control of drugs under five classifications called schedules.

Schedule I: High potential for abuse. research use only. (heroin, LSD)

Schedule II: High potential for abuse. some accepted medical use.. may lead to dependence. (Morphine, codeine, cocaine)

Schedule III: some potential use for abuse. Accepted medical use, though may lead to low to moderate physical dependence. (long lasting barbituates, narcotic solutions)

Schedule IV: Low potential for abuse. Accepted for medical use. (antianxiety drugs, valium)

Schedule V: minimal abuse potential. widespread medical use. (cough medicine)
4 principle routes of drug administration:

Oral
Injection
Inhalation
Absoprtion
Injection
---Intravenous: through vein
---Intramuscular: through muscle
---subcutaneous: through the skin

Absoprtion:
---intranasal: through the nose
---sublingual: absorb through tongue
---transdermal patch
Process of Biotransformation
Process of changing the molecular structure of a drug into forms that make it easier for the body to excrete it.
A metabolite is a by-product resulting from the biotransformation process. Example is the hallucinagen Amanita muscaria.
How are drugs eliminated from the body?
Most drugs are eliminated from the body through urinary excretion.
Drugs are broken down for elimination by the action of enzymes in the liver.
An index of how long this process takes is called the elimination half-life.
Elimination half life
The length of time it takes for a drug to be reduced to 50 percent of its equilibrium level in the bloodstream.
What factors determine the behavorial impact of drugs?
Time elapsed since its administration,

Drug interactions when it is administered with other drugs at about the same time,

Personal characteristics of the individual consuming the drug
Synergism
The property of a drug interaction in which the combination effect of two drugs exceeds the effect of either drug administration alone.
Potentiation
The property of a synergistic drug interaction in which one drug combined with another drug produces an enhanced effect when one of the drugs alone would have had no effect.
Cross Tolerance
A phenomenon in which the tolerance that results from the chronic use of one drug induces a tolerance effect with regard to a second drug that has not been used before.
Cross Dependence
A phenomenon in which one drug can be used to reduce the withdrawal symptoms following the discontinuance of another drug.
what individual differences could impact the behavorial impact of drugs?
*Some characteristics that can play a definite role in the effect of a drug include:
* Individual's weight
*Gender
*Ethnic background.
Label this chart
Fight or Flight response
KNOW IT
Occipital lobe
responsible for vision
Temporal lobe
responsible for language (brocas area: speech production)
Limbic system (Hyppocampus, amyglada, nucluse accumbens)
Parietal lobe
responsible for motor cortex
integration of senses
Frontal lobe
responsible for higher order executive functioning (emotions, problem solving, personality)
Hindbrain:
Medulla
Cerebellum
Pons
coordinator of the basic life suuport systems in our body
Medulla: Responsible for respiration and heart rate

Cerebellum: responsible for movement (punch drunk)

Pons: responsible for arousal and awareness-- important for sleep
Midbrain
Thalamus
Hypothalamus
Pituitary gland
Nucleus accumbens
is a center for the control of important sensory and motor reflexes, as well as for the processing of pain information

Thalmus: relay station for sensory function

Hypothalumus: homeostasis (balance)

Pituitary gland: responsible for endocrine system (hormones)

Nucleus accumbens: reward center-impacted by dopamine
Forebrain
Cerebral Cortex
is the most recently evolved region of the brain; it controls the most complex behaviors and processes the most complex information

Cerebral cortex: outer bark, wrinkled surface
Hypocampus
deals with memory
amygdala
deals with emotion--especially anger and fear
corpus colllusum
holds the left and right hemisphere together
contralateral
left side controls right side of body and vice versa
Neuron
Specilized cell in the nervous system designed to recieve and transmit information.
Cell body (soma)
The dendrites
The axon
Synapse
is the juncture between neurons. It consists of a synaptic knob, the intervening gap, and receptor sites on a receiving neuron.
Neurotransmitter
chemical substances that a neuron uses to communicate information at the synapse.
*The "big seven" neurotransmitters include:

*Acetylcholine:muscle action, learning and memory
--ACh-producing neurons deteriorate as Alzheimer's professes

*Norepinephrine: helps control alertness
--undersupply can depress mood and cause ADHD

*Dopamine: influenced movement
--oversupply linked to schizophrenia

*Serotonin: affects mood, hunger, sleep, arousal
-- undersupply linked to depression

*GABA: a major inhibitory neurotransmitter
-- undersupply linked to seizures

*Glutamate: a major excitatory neurotransmitter: involved in memory
--oversupply can overstimulate the brain, producing migraines or seizures

*endorphins: endogenous hormones
Blood-brain barrier
A system whereby some substances in the bloodstream are excluded from entering the nervous system. A drug can pass though based on whether is it fat soluble or not.
Endocannabinoids
Brain produced chemicals that mimic the effects of the active ingredients in marijuana and other cannabis products.
How do drugs work at the neuronal level?
In general, drugs work at the neuronal level by altering neurotransmitter release, receptor binding, or reuptake at the synapse.
Three steps of neuronal communication
1. A nerve impulse stimulates the release of neurotransmitters across the synapse

2. Neurotransmitters bind themselves to receptor sites on the surface of another neuron, causing a change in electrical potential.

3. After receptor binding has occured, neurotransmitters are returned into the synaptic knob in a process called reuptake. if the process of reuptake is slowed down a bit, neurotransmitters will remain longer in the receptor site and produce a stronger receptor-binding effect.
3 important issues that need to be understood in the looking at the physiologcal effects of drugs:
*the extent to which drugs pass from the bloodstream to the brain,

*the extent to which tolerance effects occur, and

*the extent to which a drug influences neuronal activity in the region of the nucleus accumbens in the brain.
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