Drugs and Consciousness

• Tolerance: user needs more and more of a substance to get “high”– High vs. low tolerance

• Physical dependence: need drug or else experience physical withdrawal symptoms.

• Psychological dependence: need drug or else don’t feel like yourself.

• Withdrawal: psychological or physical reaction to absence of drug, after dependence.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaMgdlUcsko

Stimulants, Depressants, and the CNS• Stimulants – speed up CNS activity

• Depressants – reduce CNS activity

Drugs and Addiction 3 Myths

1. Taking addictive drugs leads to immediate and irrevocable addiction.

Even morphine taken as painkiller doesn’t usually lead to addiction. (only about 10% of reported cases)

2. Addiction can’t be overcome alone. Many people simply age out of addiction or quit on

there own. Programs have little or no more success than individuals trying on their own.

Drug and addiction-Myths

3. The definition of addiction can be extended to other repetitive, pleasure-seeking behaviors. – “Shopoholics” are not the same as

alcoholics. Please… c’mon now.

Drugs and Alcohol

• Experience strongly affected by expectations/reasons for use.

Depressants: Alcohol

• depresses the sympathetic nervous system.

• Alcohol tends to magnify all our tendencies.– Helpful people become more helpful, aggressive more

aggressive, sexual or sexual wannabes, more sexual.

• People become more self-disclosing.

Korsakoff’s Syndrome

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDcyBXJAZNM

A case of confusionNote – the final part of the clip is this psychologists personal hypothesis, the conclusion was not proved.

Alcohol addicts

• Alcohol addicted people experience debilitating withdrawal symptoms– diarrhea, vomiting and hallucinations.

• Children of alcoholics can hold more liquor in their first experience than non COAs – suggests a genetic link.

Addiction correlates• Risk taking boys more likely than others.• Mice have been bred to prefer alcohol to water.• Children of alcoholics have a 4X higher rates (about 60%)

– Adopted Children of alcoholics still have 4x greater rate.

• Age of first use correlates:– Under 15, 60% chance of alcohol problems– Over 21, drops to 7%.

Rat Studies: Duke University

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWRMOKvb_xU

Depressants: Barbiturates or Downers• Quaaludes, tranquilizers, valium sleeping pills.

• All act to suppress the sympathetic nervous system– Taken with alcohol = coma

Depressants: Opiates

• Heroin, morphine, opium.• Depress the entire neural system.• Give feeling of “blissful pleasure”

– some first time users report having orgasms from use.• Highly physically addictive.

– Tolerance builds quickly. Withdrawal creates awful symptoms.

• Brain stops producing endorphins.

Psychoactive Drugs: Stimulants

• Nicotine, Methamphetamines, cocaine, ecstasy.• Increase heart rate, respiration,

breathing,pupils dilate, appetite diminishes, creates energy boost.

• Feelings of euphoria, confidence, well-being followed by a corresponding crash.

Stimulants: Speed/Coke

• high doses can deplete natural stores of neurotransmitters. (serotonin, dopamine).

• Acts on pleasure system by blocking the reuptake of Serotonin and Dopamine.

• Chronic users, heavy doses creates extreme paranoia.

Stimulants: Cocaine and Speed

• The most highly psychologically addictive.

• Rats will hit a lever 1000s of times to get cocaine to the exclusion of food.

Ecstasy: MDMA

• Ecstasy: amphetamine with mild hallucinogenic effects– can cause dehydration. – Repeated use = brain damage in serotonin system.

• Associated with extreme sociability: hugging, touching, etc.

• Extreme Euphoria.

Hallucinogens

• LSD, ecstasy, peyote, mescaline, psilocybin, Marijuana.

• Virtual high: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHwwdUOQL8Q

• Common to see visual distortion of things that are there.

• Heavily influenced by emotional state, and personality: explaining bad trips.

Marijuana

• 2nd most used drug, about 20% of high schoolers.

• Active Ingredient is THC. Can be ingested by eating or smoking.

• Mild hallucinogen: distorts time perception, makes it particularly dangerous for driving.

Drugs and Consciousness Cheat Sheet

• Stimulants – speed up the activity of the CNS – Amphetamines– they increase the release and decrease the

removal of norepinephrine and dopamine at synapses causing increased activity at the receptors. They also reduce the activity of GABA

– Cocaine – like amphetamines– Caffeine – Nicotine – enhances the action of acetylcholine, increases the

release of glutamate, the brain’s primary excitatory neurotransmitter

– MDMA (methylenedioxymethamphetamine) or Ecstasy – similar to amphetamines

Drugs and Consciousness Cheat Sheet• Depressants – reduce the activity of the CNS – they increase the

availability of GABA , which reduces the activity of many neural circuits.– Alcohol– Tranquilizers– Barbiturates

• Opiates/narcotics – agonists for endorphins, HIGHLY addictive because they stimulate glutamate receptors and physically change the neuron structure – neuron comes to require the drug to function properly

– Morphine - (an ingredient of opium which is derived from the poppy plant)- Percodan, Demoral

– Heroin – derived from morphine but 3x more powerful– Tylenol 3, codeine, percoset, vicodan, oxycotin, Advil

Drugs and Consciousness Cheat Sheet

• Hallucinogens/psychedelics– LSD – lysergic acid diethylamide 1938 Swiss chemist Albert

Hofmann synthesized it from a rye fungus• Hallucinations – time is distorted, sounds cause visual sensations,

leave the body• Stimulate serotonin and dopamine receptors in the brain• Flashbacks, trips, not addictive

– PCP (Angel Dust)– MDMA (Ecstasy) - hallucinations– Mescaline (mushrooms)– Ketamine – “Special K” an anesthetic used by veterinarians,

produces hallucinogenic effects, dissociative experiences. Can also cause enduring amnesia and memory loss.

– Marijuana, Mary Jane, weed, Reefer, grass, etc., etc., etc.• Main ingredient is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)