Health Care

Explain, specifically and in your own words, how psychoactive drugs affect the functioning of the brain and nervous system. How, exactly, can these effects lead to addiction?

ANSWER

How Psychoactive Drugs Affect The Functioning of The Brain and Nervous System. 

The central nervous system is made up of the brain and spinal cord, which control most bodily functions. Psychoactive drugs alter regular activity by affecting the brain and the central nervous system. They cause changes in an individual’s behaviour, mood and awareness, such as space and time, which influence the state of consciousness (Basu and Basu, 2015). These drugs include hallucinogens, depressants and stimulants.

All the psychoactive drugs affect the functioning of the brain and the nervous system by interacting with neurotransmitters’ receptors in the brain(Basu and Basu, 2015). The mind-changing drugs affect the central nervous system and autonomic functions by slowing or speeding up activities. Stimulants affect the central nervous system by enhancing it; depressants impair or slow down the nervous system, while hallucinogens alter the sensory perception by altering the messages carried in the central nervous system. Psychoactive drugs impact the central nervous system through the modification of regular activities. They lead to a person changing their behaviour, mood and awareness.

Ideally, psychoactive drugs influence the brain and the nervous system by disrupting neurotransmission, the communication process between neurons in the brain. The psychoactive drugs affect a neurotransmitter or a class of neurotransmitters. Some psychoactive substances can mimic the effects of the neurotransmitter, while others alter the way the neurotransmitters are released, stored and removed, thus blocking the normal brain function (Basu and Basu, 2015). For instance, Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in the brain that controls cognition, movement, motivation and regulates the feelings of pleasure. Psychoactive drugs increase Dopamine levels that control the neurons to communicate and control movement. This occurs through a neurochemical reaction that increases the dopamine levels that are released by neurons in the brain. High levels of Dopamine affect brain function leading to an effect on memory, movement and focus. The effect of psychoactive drugs on neurotransmitters such as dopamine lead to addiction. Ideally, dopamine trains the brain to avoid unpleasant experience through seeking pleasurable ones with the use of drugs. It adjusts the brain request for please which leads to drug addiction. Therefore, the drugs lead to changes in the brain that function and structure the way the brain promotes and sustains addiction.

References

Basu, S., & Basu, D. (2015). The relationship between psychoactive drugs, the brain and psychosis. Int Arch Addict Res Med, 1(003).