Chapter 11: Substance Abuse Disorders Flashcards
What is substance intoxication?
- reversible and temporary condition due to the recent ingestion of a substance
What is disordered substance use?
- used to describe a recurrent substance use that results in significant adverse consequences in social or occupational functioning
→ interpersonal functioning may deteriorate and the substance may be used in dangerous situations - also refers to lack of control over substance use
What is drug tolerance?
- neuroadaptation caused by decreased sensitivity to a drug as a consequence of exposure to it
→ decrease in response
→ increase in amount needed
→ shift dose-response curve (exponential increase in dose:response ratio)
What are the characteristics of addiction?
- abuse
- reinforcement
- dependence
- rebound
- tolerance
What is drug abuse?
- use of a drug that causes culturally determined conflict
What is drug reinforcement?
- the reward obtained by performing the addictive behavior
What is drug dependence?
- neuroadaptation to the addictive substance, promoting craving and withdrawal symptoms
What is drug withdrawal?
- feelings of restlessness and irritability
- time will be spent obtaining or using the substance.
- usually involves opposite effect of drug
→ e.g., extreme sensitivity following prolonged exposure to opiods
What is polysubstance use disorder?
- simultaneous misuse or dependence upon two or more substances
- dangerous since the effects are often synergistic
- the drug that presents the most significant health problems is focus of treatment
What doe “synergistic” mean?
- combined effects of drugs exceeds or are significantly different from the sum of its effects
What is the societal cost of substance abuse?
- in Canada, alcohol and illicit drugs costs 14 billion dollars a year
- there are 86,000 admissions to Canadian hospitals each year for
alcohol‐related health reasons - alcohol is associated with more than half of traffic deaths and
homicides and 30% of all suicides. - in 2002, 19.3% of all deaths in Canada were attributed to alcohol,
tobacco, or illicit drugs
What are the major classes of abused drugs?
- amphetamines
- ecstasy
- LSD
- heroin
- prescription medications
- alcohol
What are the effects of amphetamines?
- feelings of euphoria and alertness
- cause high body temperature
→ heart problems and seizures
What are the effects of ecstasy?
- produces both stimulant and mind‐altering effects
- neurotoxic effects, increased metabolic activity and stress
What are the effects of LSD?
- one of the most potent hallucinogenic, or perception‐altering, drugs
- unpredictable hallucinations, many somatic side effects
What are the effects of heroin?
- powerful opiate drug that produces euphoria, slows respiration
- other opioid drugs include morphine, OxyContin, Vicodin, and Percodan
What are common prescription medications that are abused?
- painkillers
- sedatives
- stimulants
What is the limit on daily/weekly alcohol intake?
- daily → 2 drinks
- weekly → 14 drinks for men, 9 for women
What is the Alochol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT)?
- screening tool indicating relationship between individual’s consumption and risk of alcoholism
What are the short-term effects of alcohol?
- vary with level of concentration in bloodstream
→ biphasic effect - drowsiness, deficits in eye‐hand coordination, and decrease in steadiness
- decreased sensitivity to taste, smell, and pain.
- slowed reaction time
- drinking large amounts of alcohol quickly can cause memory blackouts
Why do people get thirsty when hungover?
- related to alcohol’s ability to cause the fluid inside the body’s cells to move outside the cells
What are the long-term effects of alcohol abuse?
- low‐grade hypertension
- alcohol‐induced persisting amnesic disorder
- Wernicke’s encephalopathy
- Korsakoff’s psychosis
- alcohol‐induced dementia
- deficits in memory, abstract thinking, problem solving; paranoia
- fetal alcohol syndrome
What is Wernicke’s encephalopathy?
- presence of neurological symptoms caused by biochemical lesions of the central nervous system after exhaustion of B-vitamin reserves, in particular thiamine (vitamin B1)
- characterised by the triad:
→ ophthalmoplegia (weakness/paralysis of muscles involved in eye movement)
→ ataxia (lack of voluntary coordination of muscle movements)
→ confusion
What is Korsakoff’s psychosis?
- neurological disorder caused by a lack of thiamine (vitamin B1) in the brain
- characterized by: → anterograde amnesia → retrograde amnesia → confabulation (invented memories which are then taken as true due to gaps in memory sometimes associated with blackouts) → minimal content in conversation → lack of insight → apathy
What is Fetal Alcohol Syndrome?
- prenatal and postnatal growth retardation and CNS dysfunction due to alcohol consumption during pregnancy