B1.3 The Use And Abuse of Drugs Flashcards
Give a definition of the term ‘DRUG’:
- Substance taken into the body that modifies or affects chemical reactions in the body.
- Some drugs are harmful.
What are illegal drugs?
- Classified from Class A to Class C.
* (Class A are the most dangerous and Class C are the least dangerous).
What are some examples of illegal drugs?
- Class A: Meth, heroin
- Class B: Skunk, special k
- Class C: Smileys, exodus
What are some examples of legal drugs?
•Alcohol, caffeine, nicotine.
What are stimulants?
- Increases nerve and brain activity.
- By causing more neurotransmitter molecules to diffuse across the synapse.
- Treat depression.
- Make you feel more alert and awake.
What are some examples of stimulants?
•Nicotine, caffeine, ecstasy
What are performance enhancers?
•Improves muscle development.
Give an example of a performance enhancer?
•Anabolic steroids.
What are painkillers?
•Block nerve impulses.
What are some examples of painkillers?
•Aspirin, paracetamol
What are hallucinogens?
•Alters what we see and hear.
What are some examples of hallucinogens?
•LSD, cannabis
What are depressants?
- Slows down nerve and brain activity by stopping the next neurone sending nerve impulses.
- They bind to the receptor molecules the next neurone that needs to respond to the neurotransmitter molecules.
What are some examples of depressants?
Alcohol, solvents, temazepam
Why is nicotine addictive?
- Nicotine is a stimulant, so it makes you feel better.
- Once it reaches the brain it changes the balance of the chemicals dopamine and noradrenaline, this then affects the mood and concentration levels.
- Since this reduces negative feelings as it is smoked more it becomes more and more addictive and harder to stop.
- It effects the chemicals in the brain.
What parts of the body are damaged by alcohol?
- Liver
* Brain
What are the short term effects of alcohol?
- Disorientation.
- Slurred speech.
- No sense of reality.
How is the liver affected by alcohol?
- Liver cells are damaged and replaced by scar tissue because of chronic inflammation.
- The inflammation can develop because of chronic viral hepatitis, fatty liver disease, unsafe consumption of alcohol, some drugs and harmful substances.
What are the long term effects of alcohol?
- Damage to the liver and brain.
* Alcohol damages the liver and, over time, this leads to cirrhosis.
What do drugs impact?
- Profession.
- Health.
- NHS.
- Relationships.
- Mood.
- Money.
What is are the basic stages of testing medicinal drugs?
1) . Drugs are tested on human cells and tissues in a lab.
2) . Drugs are tested on live animals (two different live animals).
3) . Drugs are tested on healthy human volunteers.
4) . The drugs are tested on the patients that are unhealthy patients- there are two groups- placebo (ineffective fake drug) and the new drug. This is done blind.
Why are drugs tested?
- To check the toxicity and side effects.
- To see how they work.
- To be able to calculate the right amount to use.
- To prevent problems, such as the thalidomide pill.
What are the types of drugs?
- Medicinal: prescribed and non-prescribed.
- Recreational drugs: legal and illegal.
- Performance enhancers.
- Hallucinogens.
- Stimulants.
- Depressants.
What are the advantages of performance enhancer drugs?
- Athletes have a right to make their own decisions about whether taking drugs is worth the risk or not.
- Different athletes have more access to better training facilities, coaches, equipment etc.
What are the disadvantages of performance enhancer drugs?
- It’s an unfair advantage towards other people.
- Athletes may not be informed about the risks. E.g. steroids cause hight blood pressure, anabolic steroids stimulate muscle growth and stimulants increase heart rate.
What is thalidomide?
•A drug initially used as a sleeping pill.
What was thalidomide found useful in treating?
•Morning sickness.
What was the harmful effect of thalidomide?
•It causes damage to the development of unborn babies.
Why had the harmful effect of thalidomide not been detected during the clinical trialling of the drug?
•It may not have been tested on pregnant animals.
What are the effects of alcohol?
- Affects nervous system by slowing down reactions.
- Helps people relax.
- Too much can lead to lack of self control, unconsciousness or a coma.
- Damage to liver and brain.
What do drugs do?
- They change the body’s chemistry.
* This leads to the body becoming addicted and can suffer from withdrawal symptoms if it isn’t taken.
What type of drugs are there?
- Medicinal.
- Recreational.
- Depressants.
- Stimulants.
- Painkillers.
- Performance enhancers.
- Hallucinogens.
What are statins?
•Prescribed drugs used to lower risks of heart and circulatory disease.
What was thalidomide intended to be used as?
•A sleeping pill.
What were the negative effects of thalidomide?
- It hadn’t been tested for morning sickness.
- It could pass through the placenta and affect the fetus resulting in abnormal limb development of babies.
- It hadn’t been tested on pregnant animals.
What is thalidomide used for now?
- Leprosy.
* Some cancers (myeloma cancer).
How is the brain effected by alcohol?
- It causes dehydration.
* This damages cells in the body including the brain.
How is drug use abused?
- Drugs are used recreationally.
- Some recreational drugs are more harmful than others.
- Some of these drugs are legal.
- Some of these drugs are illegal.
- Prescribed drugs cannot be taken sensibly.
What are drug trials?
•When new medicinal drugs are devised, the have to be extensively tested and trialled before being used.
In which order are medicinal drugs tested?
- Human cells and tissues in the lab.
- Live animals- to see if the drug works, its toxicity and dosage.
- Human volunteers (clinical trial).
What happens in clinical trials?
- The drug is first tested on healthy volunteers to test for harmful effects.
- At the start of the test, a small dosage is given which is then increased.
- If the drugs are safe, further trials a carried out on patients to find the optimum dose.
- A double blind trial is carried out.
What does a double blind trial involve?
- Patients are put into two groups: one where they are given the new drug; one is given a placebo.
- The test is ‘blind’ neither the doctor nor the patient know if they are taking the drug or placebo until the results are obtained.
What is a placebo?
•Designed to appear exactly the same as the drug being tested, but has no effect.
What is the control group in a trial?
•A group that doesn’t receive the treatment, in order to determine the effectiveness of the drug, supplement or treatment being tested.
Why are clinical tests ‘blind’?
- To ensure doctors monitoring patients aren’t subconsciously influenced by their knowledge.
- To prevent biased results.
