3- Consciousness-altering drugs

Question 1

Depressants

Answer 1

• Increased activity of GABA Receptor (inhibitory nt)
• Alcohol, barbiturates, benzodiazepines

Alcohol

• people drink at parties so not nervous about interacting w/ others
• also increases dopamine = reward/pleasure
• -enhance qualities already there; angry drunks are normally kinda angry usually by removing social restrictions

(less dopamine = movement; more dopamine = reward)
(recall- dopamine- basal ganglia; parkinsons (less) & schizo / ocd / hallucinations (more)

Barbiturates- anti-anxiety; too addictive, replaced by benzodiazepines which are less addictive and less prone to overdose

Question 2

Stimulants

Answer 2

• increase arousal by increasing dopamine, norEpi, and serotonin
• dopamine and serotonin = pleasure, norEpi = energy
• increase release, decrease reuptake
• amphetamines, cocaine, ecstasy/MDMA
• cocaine is anesthetic, vasoconstrictor
• ecstasy is a hallucinogen + amphetamine

Question 3

Opium/Opiates/opioids

Answer 3

Opium- poppy plant derivative
Opiates = morphine, codeine
Opioid= codones (oxycodone, hypercodone), heroin

Opioids are SYNTHETIC

-pain relief, but highly addictive

Question 4

Hallucinogens

Answer 4

• oxygen deprivation
• substances

begin w/ geometric patterns (STRAITE CORTEX = occipital lobe/visual cortex, different zones of activation/deactivation- shapes and lines correspond to receptors areas)

-gets more vivid, auditory hallucinations, images, actual words

-then get abstract, such as out of body experience
(near-death experience = variation on this)- oxygen deprivation, brain death

LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), peyote, mescaline, ketamine, psilocybin mushrooms, ayahuasca

Question 5

Marijuana

Answer 5

Cannabis sativa/indica
THC = tetrahydrocannibinol

increase GABA activity = neural inhibition = repression repressor, just like in alcohol
also, like alcohol, increase dopamine (pleasure)

marijuana based on mood
-anxious person smoking = paranoid; relaxed = more relaxed

eye redness, dry mouth, fatigue, STM impaired, increased HR and appetite, low BP

-stimulant, depressant, hallucinogen

Question 6

Drug addiction

Answer 6

mesolimbic reward pathway

• brain becomes used to chemicals in the synapse (usually w/ dopamine)
• drug causes release and lack of re-uptake
• when drug isn’t used, person feels low
• instead of using drug to get high, need drug to feel normal

Nucleus accumbens (NAc), Ventral tegmental area (VTA) and Medial Forebrain Bundle (MFB) - involved brain regions

*remember, substantia nigra makes dopamine
(corpus striatum in basal ganglia)