psychoactive drugs essay

A psychoactive drug is a chemical substance that alters the functioning of the brain, causing changes in the way we think, feel and behave. All drugs can be divided into those that have psychoactive effects and those that don't. Most drugs, for example medications like antibiotics, are not psychoactive. Antibiotics treat infections but they don ...

Psychoactive drugs are drugs that interfere with the proper functioning of the brain leading to unusual behavior, mood swings and unstable state of consciousness. They are classified into three main categories. These are psychedelics, stimulants and depressants (Cherry 1). Drugs that belong to the depressants category like alcohol are among the ...

Cannabis, also called weed, is a type of psychoactive drug that can have the effects of a depressant, stimulant, or hallucinogen. This drug affects everyone differently, but common effects include ...

A psychoactive drug is a chemical that changes our states of consciousness, and particularly our perceptions and moods. These drugs are commonly found in everyday foods and beverages, including chocolate, coffee, and soft drinks, as well as in alcohol and in over-the-counter drugs, such as aspirin, Tylenol, and cold and cough medication.

These drugs are known as psychoactive drugs, and the study of how they affect behavior is a subdiscipline of pharmacology called psychopharmacology. Psychopharmacology is the interface between psychology, neuroscience, and pharmacology. To understand how drugs influence behavior, one must first understand how drugs influence the brain.

Figure 6.1.2 6.1. 2: Ecstasy (MDMA) is most commonly taken in tablet form, like the colorful and decorated tablets shown. Many psychoactive drugs have multiple effects so they may be placed in more than one class. For example, many stimulants also have euphoriant properties, such as MDMA (Ectasy).

Recently, attempts have been made to develop a 'rational' scale to assess and compare the overall harms of psychoactive drugs (Nutt et al., 2007). Their 'harm matrix' included three categories of harm: 'physical', 'dependence-related' and 'social', each with three sub-levels, allowing currently used and new psychoactive ...

Although the term "psychoactive" refers particularly to the mental alterations produced by drugs, most of these alterations appear intimately connected to physical or bodily effects, with many "mental" effects having concomitant physical manifestations, together producing a "global" drug effect. Sedation, for example, is both a ...

Introduction. New psychoactive substances (NPS) are a complex and diverse group of substances often known as either designer or synthetic drugs, or by the more popular but misleading colloquial term of 'legal highs'. 1,2 They tend to be either analogues of existing controlled drugs and pharmaceutical products or newly synthesised chemicals, created to mimic the actions and psychoactive ...

Anti-psychotic drugs selectively affect 5-HT2 receptors and D2 (dopamine) receptors and influence various areas of the brain, thus providing multiple therapeutic effects depending on dosage (Zhou et al., 2015). Similarly to antidepressants, anti-psychotic drugs also lack precise clinical justification of results and are at the stage of ...

The purpose of this essay is to create a detailed account of a wide variety of topics pertaining to psychoactive drugs. I will discuss the creation of the main drugs under the category of psychoactive drugs and will embody the principles of criminality all the way to the therapeutic value of these drugs in modern medicine.

Psychoactive Drugs essay example for your inspiration. ️ 3101 words. Read and download unique samples from our free paper database. ... Path to Dependence on the Psychoactive Drugs. Before a person is dependent on psychoactive drugs, one has to use them over an extended period. The body makes physiologic adjustments when an individual is ...

Positive psychology and psychoactive drug use. The field of positive psychology -which studies the states, traits, and institutions that foster health and wellness - grew. from an imbalance in ...

The basal ganglia, which play an important role in positive forms of motivation, including the pleasurable effects of healthy activities like eating, socializing, and sex, and are also involved in the formation of habits and routines.These areas form a key node of what is sometimes called the brain's "reward circuit." Drugs over-activate this circuit, producing the euphoria of the drug high.

Negative Impacts of Psychotherapeutic Medication. The use of psychotherapeutic drugs is associated with a variety of effects, both favorable and unfavorable. The adverse effects of psychoactive substances can be broken down into seven categories, which are as follows: Symptoms that manifest in the body, such as a headache or a dry mouth.

Psychoactive Drugs The drug chosen is Cocaine, and it is listed to be "… a psychomotor stimulant, this class of drug produces their effect on the brain by simulating the actions of certain neurotransmitters, such as epinephrine, norepinephrine, dopamine and serotonin." (Emery, & Oltmanns, 2010) These effects would be known as the "pleasure" aspect of the drug, but there is also a second ...

Psychotropic Drugs and Popular Culture is a collection of essays that also draws heavily on poststructuralist theory, and reading it, psychiatrists may feel as bitter as said bloggers. In fact, psychiatrists may not want to read this book at all. They will have to contend with its "postmodern constructivist bias" (p.

The role of mass culture and its impact on the audience is discussed. It presents an overview of drug representations in the content of mass culture, e.g., in film, music, literature, and the occurrence of drug references in everyday products, e.g., food, clothes, and cosmetics. Attention was drawn to liberal attitudes of celebrities and their ...

Psychoactive substances, including nicotine, alcohol, and marijuana, can pass the blood-brain barrier. They are fat-soluble (lipophilic), and the brain is mostly fatty, it readily absorbs fat-soluble substances. When an individual uses a psychoactive drug, most often it is the old brain that remembers the experience and how it felt. Motivation ...

Introduction. Drug and substance abuse is an issue that affects entirely all societies in the world. It has both social and economic consequences, which affect directly and indirectly our everyday live. Drug addiction is "a complex disorder characterized by compulsive drug use" (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2010).

Introduction. The use of illicit psychoactive substances is not a minority activity amongst young people in the UK. Results from the most recent British Crime Survey show that some 50% of young people between the ages of 16 and 24 years have used an illicit drug on at least one occasion in their lives (lifetime prevalence) (Ramsay and Partridge, 1999).

Participants were then asked questions about the perceived safety and therapeutic value of a variety of different psychoactive substances. There was a significant main effect for drug type in the question examining the perceived safety of different drugs, F(3.2, 1153.8) = 309.65, p < .001, partial eta squared = .46.

In medicine, the benzodiazepine groups of psychotropics are amongst the most widely prescribed drugs (Blackwell, 1973). The first true benzodiazepine was chlordiazepoxide and was marketed as Librium in 1960. Valium (diazepam) was developed and marketed around the same time. We will write a custom essay on your topic.