Answer the following questions:
1. Why do some people become addicted to drugs while others don't ?
2. Harmful effects of Cocaine.
3. What are the feelings which occur when a person injects Heroin?
4. What is paracetamol responsible for?
5. What properties in drugs make them addictive?
Answers
ANS1
There are several reasons for this question.Aside from family history of addiction and the age a person began using drugs or alcohol, these include:
- Environment: Those who grow up around peers who use drugs and alcohol are more likely to begin using themselves.
- Potency of substance used: Certain drugs, such as fentanyl and heroin, are stronger and more addictive than others.
- How a substance is consumed: Injecting a drug produces a greater dopamine rush, making a user that much more likely to become dependent on it.
- Mental health: Those already struggling with mood disorders, such as anxiety and depression, may be more likely to seek out unhealthy coping mechanisms for dealing with stress, including drinking or using drugs.
ANS2
short-term effects of cocaine may include:
- Extreme sensitivity to touch, sound, and sight
- Intense happiness
- Anger/irritability
- Paranoid feeling
- Decreased appetite
People who use cocaine often may also have more serious side effects and health problems, like:
- Headaches
- Convulsions and seizures
- Heart disease, heart attack, and stroke
- Mood problems
- Sexual trouble
- Lung damage
- HIV or hepatitis if you inject it
- Bowel decay if you swallow it
- Loss of smell, nosebleeds, runny nose, and trouble swallowing, if you snort it
ANS3
People who use heroin describe a feeling of warmth, relaxation and detachment, with a lessening sense of anxiety. It is a powerful sedative, and due to its analgesic qualities, physical and emotional aches and pains can also be diminished.
ANS4
Paracetamol as Poison
Because paracetamol is a potent drug that is available without prescription, it is often used in suicide attempts, and in this respect it is potentially more dangerous than other over-the-counter drugs such as aspirin. This is because paracetamol overdoses often cause liver failure, and there have been many cases where attempted suicides have awakened from an overdose and changed their minds, yet still died a few days later from liver damage.
The reasons for this poisoning are to do with the process by which paracetamol is eliminated from the body. It is first metabolised to a quinone imine:
This compound is extremely toxic, and like other such compounds is eliminated in the liver by reaction with a tripeptide, glutathione. If insufficient glutathione is available, the toxic quinone will not be eliminated and begins to react with cellular proteins and nucleic acids in the liver, eventually causing irreparable damage.
However, two compounds, methionine and N-acetylcysteine can boost levels of the vital glutathione in the liver, and so can be used as antidotes for paracetamol poisoning if the overdose is discovered in time. A new formulation of paracetamol is now being marketed in the UK which incorporates methianine, such that the drug carries its own antidote with it!
ANS5
Why Do People Get Addicted?
Most people are of the mindset that addiction is a brain disease, while others reason with science in that addiction is a learned behavior from reinforcing properties that drugs contain.
The disease theory would better explain why some people get addicted while others do not. Both theories of why people get addicted are congruent. The factors that seem to be present in all people who face addiction are:
- Biological – This includes risk factors attributed to genes, gender, ethnicity as well as any kind of mental disorders that may be present.
- Environmental – People, places, and things are huge influences on people who decide to pick up drugs or alcohol. The prevalence poverty, abuse, exposure, and peer pressure can all play a major role in the development of addiction.
- Neurological – The impact that drugs have on neurotransmitters inside of the brain is perhaps of the biggest underlying causes of addiction.
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1. It’s natural for us as human beings to be curious about the underlying causes of health issues so we can treat – and when possible, prevent – negative outcomes. But it’s also important to note that with new studies in addiction literature being published all the time, the way we conceptualize and understand the condition needs to be adoptive and flexible in order to remain relevant.
2. This study has as main objective assessing the toxicity of crack-cocaine combined with different scenarios of ocean acidification on fertilization rate and embryo-larval development of Echinometra lucunter sea urchin. Effects on early life stages were assessed at five.
3. After a hit of heroin, a variety of chemical changes flood the brain, instantly giving people a feeling of intense pleasure. This rush of euphoria feels very important to those who do not feel good in the first place. This is despite the rebound effect, which actually worsens unpleasant feelings over time.
4. Acetaminophen (paracetamol or N-acetyl-p-aminophenol) is an important pharmacological agent and is very useful as a antipyretic or analgesic drug.
5. Addiction is defined as a chronic, relapsing disorder characterized by compulsive drug seeking, continued use despite harmful consequences, and long-lasting changes in the brain.