My focus throughout my research paper will Cited: Mission Enabled. "Drug Addiction Facts." Drug Addiction Support. N.p. Web. 1 July -National Institute of Health. "Understanding Drug Abuse and Addiction." DrugFacts. NIDA, Mar. Web. 1 July -National Institute of Health Aristotle's Drug Addiction Research Paper Words | 3 Pages. Everything that is said above now can be related to a huge modern problem- drug abuse. Now, a lot of people, especially a younger crowd, live “in the moment.” They enjoy things today, without taking into account the future The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the relevant literature concerning drug use and addiction in the context of deviant behaviors, the subculture that exists among drug users and addicts, and their potential for participation in illegal activities
Drug Abuse Research Paper - iResearchNet
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A drug is a chemical substance produced exogenously outside of the body that, when taken into the body, changes normal body functions. Psychologists are very interested in psychoactive drugs that change central nervous system CNS; brain and spinal cord activity, and thereby affect perception, thought, emotion, and behavior. Although people use many psychoactive drugs for acceptable medicinal reasons, this research paper focuses on those psychoactive drugs that people use primarily for recreational, nonmedicinal reasons e.
Most of the information about how drugs make a person feel come from self-reports of licit and illicit users of drugs, whereas most of the data about how the body affects drugs and how drugs work in the brain comes from well-controlled experimental studies using nonhuman animals. With pills to treat everything from the symptoms of the common cold to the positive symptoms of schizophrenia, drug use is prevalent in the United States, and pharmaceuticals are a multibillion-dollar industry.
For example, taking more or fewer pills per dose or day, not using the drug the full time course as prescribed e. Although most of these acts may not seem very serious, they all can lead to very dangerous, even deadly, consequences e.
Drug abuse, which also can occur with licit and illicit drugs, refers here to use of a psychoactive substance a research paper on drug addiction the extent that it produces some sort of physical, cognitive, a research paper on drug addiction, behavioral, or social impairment, a research paper on drug addiction.
Keep in mind, however, that the public often thinks of drug abuse as specific to illicit drugs like methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, and LSD lysergic acid diethylamideeven though alcohol, for example, is a licit drug that people can abuse. What follows is an introduction to the use, misuse, a research paper on drug addiction, and abuse of psychoactive drugs and their effects on behavior, beginning with how drugs enter the body and what happens to them once they do.
Pharmacokinetics is the study of how drugs are absorbed into the body, metabolized once in the body, and excreted from the body. The goal of drug absorption is for the drug to circulate in the blood, and more specifically for a psychoactive drug, the goal is for it to circulate in the brain. Administration for the purpose of absorption in blood and brain can take various forms depending on type of substance lipid soluble vs, a research paper on drug addiction. water soluble, gaseous vs.
solid and desired rate of absorption rapid vs. slow, acute vs. Most humans administer drugs either orally swallowed by mouthsublingually substance placed under the tonguesubcutaneously injecting under the skinintramuscularly injecting into muscle tissueintravenously injecting directly into the bloodstream via a veintransdermally applied to outer layer of skinintrarectally using suppositoriesintranasally sniffed into the nostrilsor by inhalation breathing gases and solids into the lungs.
Intraperitoneal into the peritoneal cavityintraventricular via a cannula into the ventricles of the brainand intracranial directly into a target area of the brain injections are forms of administration used mostly in research with laboratory animals.
Psychoactive drugs administered directly into the brain will have the most rapid effects because they will reach their CNS sites of action most quickly. Drugs administered through all other routes must be lipid-soluble in order to get through the formidable solid lipid barrier of the brain known as the blood brain barrier BBB.
Provided the psychoactive drugs administered directly into the bloodstream can pass the BBB, they will reach their CNS sites of action relatively quickly. Inhalation results in fast absorption into the bloodstream because gases and drugs in smoke e. Although swallowing a pill is a simple, common method of drug administration, absorption is a tenuous process. Drugs taken orally must survive the harsh environment of the digestive system e.
Rates of absorption via other routes of administration are somewhere between those of inhalation and oral administration, depending somewhat on the availability of capillaries at the site of administration. Users of psychoactive drugs choose their favorite drug partially because of how quickly the drug exerts its psychoactive effects.
Before drugs can stop working in the body, they must be either broken down into other substances metabolized or removed from the body excreted. Enzymes in the liver metabolize most of the psychoactive drugs a research paper on drug addiction in this research paper into less lipid-soluble chemical products metabolites, a research paper on drug addiction. Some metabolites have their own effects on the body and brain. Several variables affect the rate of metabolism, including species, genetics, age, drug experience, and drug interactions.
Regarding the latter, some drugs will inhibit or enhance the activity of enzymes responsible for metabolizing certain drugs—for example, SSRI-type antidepressants like fluoxetine inhibit some of the enzymes responsible for metabolizing codeine into the active analgesic morphine. Subsequent to metabolism and recirculation in the blood, the kidneys excrete the more water-soluble metabolites from the body in urine, although there is excretion of small amounts of the drugs and their metabolites in exhaled breath, sweat, saliva, feces, and breast milk.
Not surprisingly, urine drug tests are frequently used to determine the presence of metabolites some time after the metabolism of the original drug, rather than the presence of a research paper on drug addiction original drug at time a research paper on drug addiction administration, a research paper on drug addiction. Pharmacodynamics is the study of how drugs work in the body.
Psychoactive drugs work in the CNS. The brain is made of supporting glial fat cells and excitable neurons. Neurons are responsible for the electrochemical transmission of information, enabling cells to communicate with one another. The structure and arrangement of neurons allows for the transmission, integration, storage, and interpretation of information received via sensory receptors, as well as the control of bodily organs and muscles.
In other words, these specialized cells neurons are responsible for everything we think, feel, and do. Psychoactive drugs work in the brain primarily by affecting neurotransmitter activity at the synapses. Neurons produce neurotransmitters that are stored in vesicles within the terminal buttons. When an action potential reaches the terminal buttons, vesicles release the neurotransmitter into the synaptic cleft.
Neurotransmitter molecules then briefly bind to postsynaptic receptors causing ion channels to open, letting ions enter or exit, resulting in either excitatory or inhibitory postsynaptic potentials. A research paper on drug addiction released from the postsynaptic receptors, the neurotransmitter molecules undergo reuptake into the presynaptic terminal button or are destroyed by enzymes in the synaptic cleft.
The effect of psychoactive drugs on synaptic activity can occur anywhere in the process of neurotransmitter production, storage, release, receptor binding, and reuptake or degradation.
More specifically, the administration of neurotransmitter precursors can increase the amount of neurotransmitter molecules available in the brain. Other drugs can destroy or block the enzymes necessary for conversion of the precursors into neurotransmitters e. The vesicles that house neurotransmitters also can be the target site of drugs. Reserpine, occasionally used to treat high blood pressure, interferes with the transporter molecules that fill vesicles with neurotransmitters, thereby leaving the vesicles empty with no neurotransmitter available for release.
A common target site of psychoactive drugs is the postsynaptic receptors where neurotransmitters bind. Drugs that bind to receptors and mimic the actions of a particular neurotransmitter are direct agonists e.
Drugs that bind to receptors without stimulating the receptor and prevent neurotransmitter molecules from occupying the receptor binding sites are direct antagonists e. There are also drugs that work as agonists or antagonists by binding to sites other than where the neurotransmitter molecule binds noncompetitive sites.
Finally, drugs can affect what happens to neurotransmitters a research paper on drug addiction they are released from their receptors by interfering with either the enzymes that break the neurotransmitters down e. Each type of neurotransmitter binds to a specific set of receptors that typically bear their own name e, a research paper on drug addiction.
The set of receptors belonging to a specific neurotransmitter can have quite different reactions to the neurotransmitter. Various drugs bind to receptor sites with different strengths, and may selectively bind to just one or a few receptor subtypes or nonselectively bind to multiple receptor subtypes. The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors SSRIsused as antidepressants, bind specifically to receptor sites on the presynaptic serotonin reuptake pumps.
Recent technological advances have allowed scientists to isolate the unique subtypes of receptor proteins, such that they can produce large quantities of each of the specific receptor proteins and then test the affinity of new drugs at each of the receptor subtypes. Drugs that bind to only a very specific receptor subtype or have greatly enhanced affinities for very specific subtypes of receptors will have fewer side effects as compared to drugs that bind less discriminately to an entire set of receptors.
Some of the older drugs e. Clearly, not all drugs are equal. They then plot the number or percent of participants who respond to the drug at each of the doses tested dose response curve. Unfortunately, all drugs have multiple effects, with some effects less desirable. Given that undesirable side effects are unavoidable, the goal is the most favorable combination of the most desired drug effects and the least unwanted side effects.
The ED50 is the effective dose that produces the desired effect in 50 percent of the participants. The LD50 is the lethal dose that produces death in 50 percent of the subjects. Typically, a research paper on drug addiction, the ED50 and LD50 are a research paper on drug addiction in several species and over many trials to reduce the risk of toxicity in humans.
The greater the distance between the ED50 and LD50, the less the risk of drug-induced toxicity at beneficial dosages. The margin of safety is the ratio of LD1 to ED99 effective dose in 99 percent of the participants.
Ratios of one or greater suggest greater safety. Be cautious, though—this margin of safety is under the best of controlled testing conditions, far from the circumstances under which many humans may take the drug e. One drug can alter the effects of another drug in many different ways. A second drug can have an additive effect, a synergistic effect a greater effect than would be expected when just adding the two drugsor an antagonistic effect the second drug reduces or blocks the effect of the target drug.
Tolerance is the need to take increasing doses of a drug in order to achieve the same effects as previously achieved a research paper on drug addiction lower doses. Likewise, when the same dose of drug has less and less of an effect with repeated administrations, tolerance has occurred.
A good example is the tolerance that some people have for the caffeine in coffee. A novice coffee drinker may feel the stimulatory effects of coffee after a single cup of coffee containing about mg of caffeine. After drinking coffee daily for a few weeks, it may take two or three cups of caffeinated coffee to feel that same excitation.
There are several types of tolerance including metabolic tolerance, cellular tolerance, and behavioral tolerance. A research paper on drug addiction tolerance occurs when, with repeated administrations of a research paper on drug addiction drug, the body produces more and more metabolic enzymes, thereby speeding up the rate of metabolism of that drug.
Thus, one must take more and more drug with each administration to maintain the same concentration of drug in the body as during previous episodes, a research paper on drug addiction. Cellular tolerance is down regulation reduction in numbers of the receptors in the brain or reduced sensitivity of those receptors to the drug because of the continuous or repetitive presence of the drug.
The result is the need for more drug in order to get the same level of effect in the brain. Behavioral tolerance involves learning. Behavioral tolerance can be observed in the presence of conditioned drug-taking cues and be absent in novel environments or situations. The drug serves as the unconditioned stimulus US and the drug effect as an unconditioned response UR.
Drug administering paraphernalia e. For example, a research paper on drug addiction, when Siegel gave rats morphine USthey showed reduced sensitivity UR analgesia to heat applied to their paws, but with repetitive administrations of morphine in the presence of the same environmental cues CSthe rats showed increased sensitivity CR hyperalgesia to those environmental cues.
A drug may develop different types of tolerance, and to all, a research paper on drug addiction, some, or none of its effects. Some effects of a drug may even show acute tolerance, which occurs during a single administration of the drug.
As a drug is absorbed into the blood, there is a gradual increase in the blood drug concentration, the ascending portion of the blood concentration curve.
As long as drug administration has ceased, the blood concentration will eventually reach a peak level.
Drug Addiction Research
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The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the relevant literature concerning drug use and addiction in the context of deviant behaviors, the subculture that exists among drug users and addicts, and their potential for participation in illegal activities 40 Drugs and Drug Abuse Research Paper Topics: When Medicine Meets Criminology. The research paper about the drug abuse can be of any subject: Sociology, Criminology, Psychology, Medicine, Pharmacology, Statistics, even History. This problem emerges at the very dawn of humanity. So, the topic itself is too vast to capture it all in one paper Drug Addiction Research Paper Outline. I. Introduction. II. Drug Use, Misuse, Abuse, and Addiction. III. Drug Administration, Absorption, Metabolism, and Excretion. IV. How Drugs Work in the Brain. V. Drug Safety and Toxicity. VI. Tolerance, Dependence, and Withdrawal. VII. Specific Psychoactive Drugs. A. Stimulants. 1. Xanthines. 2. Nicotine. 3. Amphetamines. 4. CocaineEstimated Reading Time: 7 mins
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