Alcoholism, Drugs & The Brain



Alcoholism, Drugs & The Brain

Action Of Drugs On The Brain (Third)

Drugs that act most strongly on mood are psycho-stimulants and opiates. Psycho-stimulants, such as their name suggests increase alertness and decrease fatigue and sleep; this is the case of amphetamines and cocaine. By contrast, opiates such as morphine or heroin, have a sleep. Although these two groups of products have opposite effects, current research has shown that they possess in common the ability to increase brain's release of a molecule produced by neurons, dopamine. In fact, it is not only psycho-stimulants and opiates as well as all products i.e. codeine and morphine, that have this property to release dopamine, such as tobacco, alcohol, ecstasy and cannabis, which trigger the dependency among the rights. Cocaine, ecstasy, tobacco, alcohol, heroin, psychoactive drugs, etc (Nielsen 2006) all these products increase the amount of dopamine in the brain and cause dependence.

The interest of opiates discovery is that dopamine activates in humans a circuit called the reward circuit. This is a set of brain structures that, as a barometer, it will keep one constantly in what physical and mental state it may find ourselves. When the amount of dopamine in these structures increases, for whatever reason, it feel pleasure and believe that everything is okay, even if our body also suffers or that it depressed. And drugs, their biochemical action, alter the consciousness it have of our environment and ourselves (Nielsen 2006). The repeated use of drugs long-term changes how the brain perceives the source of satisfactions and disrupts our pursuit of pleasure, causing some people to dependence phenomena.

Synapse

To pass from one neuron to another, the nerve impulse is transformed into chemical messages in the form of a substance secreted by the neuron, the neurotransmitter, such as dopamine. There are various neurotransmitters (dopamine, serotonin, acetylcholine, etc..) that bind to specific receptors (Mayo 2004). The neurotransmitter crosses the space between two neurons, the synapse. It is these processes that act on psychoactive substances.

Connection between two neurons

Inside the brain, information travels as electrical activity, called nerve impulses which supplies message through a defined pathways of dendrites to the cell body, where they are processed, and then the cell body to the axon. Whatever the substance, the brain is the first target.

The Path To Addiction And Dependence

Drugs are but used for other reasons and the problem is that they can be abused. The consumers can all too easily, or even dependent on addictive be. He or she will be under very unpleasant psychological and physical withdrawal symptoms suffer if the revenue is lost. This State of dependency can lead to the user has a strong desire for the drug, although this is clearly his work, health and family destroyed. Fortunately, not everyone who recreational drugs takes depends on it (Martini 2004). Drugs differ in their tendency to make dependent. During the development of drug dependence, accustomed the brain gradually repeated on the performance the drug, but what exactly is happening in the brain ...