Thursday, May 22, 2014

Drugs

•Our brain is protected by a layer of capillaries called the blood-brain barrier; drugs that are small enough to pass through are called psychoactive drugs
Drugs are either,

  • Agonists
  • Antagonists
  • Reuptake inhibitors
If a drug is used often, a tolerance is created for the drug.

Thus you need more of the drug to feel the same effect.
If you stop using a drug you can develop withdrawal symptoms

Stimulants:
  • Speed up body processes
  • More powerful ones (like cocaine) give people feelings of invincibility

Depressants:
  • Slows down body processes
  • Alcohol
    • more than 86 billion dollars are spent annually on alcoholic beverages
    • involved in 60% of ALL crimes
    • involved in over 70% of sexually related crimes
  • Anxiolytics (barbiturates and tranquilizers)
  • Opiates:
    • Has a depressive and hallucinogenic quality
    • Agonist for endorphins
    • Derived from poppy plant
    • Morphine, heroin, methadone, and codeine, all these drugs cross the placental barrier to teratogens
Posted by at

1 comment:

  1. UnknownMay 23, 2014 at 12:10 AM

    I find it so interesting that stimulants (such as cocaine) have such a negative impact on the human mind and body ,but can at the same time give one such a positive feeling such as "invincibility"

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)