Chapter 14 - Quiz 5 Flashcards
14.1: Substance abuse: Drug mechanisms
What is an antagonist drug?
-a drug that blocks a NT when it binds to a receptor (inhibit)
14.1: Substance abuse: Drug mechanisms
What is an agonist drug?
-a substance that binds to a receptor and activates it causing the drug to either mimic or increase the effects of a NT (activate)
14.1: Substance abuse: Drug mechanisms
When would you say a drug has an affinity for a receptor? What strength do affinities vary between? (2)
-a drug has an affinity for a receptor if it binds to it, like a key into a lock
-affinities vary from strong to weak
14.1: Substance abuse: Drug mechanisms
What is a drug’s efficacy? A drug that binds to a receptor but fails to stimulate it would have a what? (2)
-efficacy is the drugs tendency to activate the receptor
-it would have a high affinity but low efficacy
14.1: Substance abuse: Drug mechanisms
Why does a drug effect one person more than another?
-we have different amounts of receptors, one person may have more D4 receptors than another
14.1 Substance abuse: Genetic Influences
Discuss the gene that has a well-confirmed influence on alcohol abuse. What does it control? Describe this pathway. What happens in people with this gene to this pathway? What are the symptoms of this? (4)
-it controls the metabolism of alcohol
-after anyone drinks ethyl alcohol, enzyme in the liver turn it into acetaldehyde (toxic) and then an enzyme (acetaldehyde dehydrogenase) turns it into acetic acid (energy chemical)
-people with this gene metabolize acetaldehyde very slowly
-symptoms include flushing of the face, increased heart rate, nausea, headache, abdominal pain, impaired breathing and tissue damage
-nicknamed Asian flush
14.1 Substance Abuse: Environmental influences
Discuss what studies have shown about the prenatal environment and substance abuse.
-a mother who drinks alcohol during pregnancy increases the probability that her child will develop alcoholism later, independetly from the effect of how much she drinks as the child is growing up
14.1 Substance Abuse: Environmental influences
Describe the general rule for early-onset alcoholism and people with a later-onset. (2)
-As a rule, people with early-onset alcoholism (before age 25) have a family history of alcoholism, a genetic predisposition, and a rapid onset of the problem.
-People with later onset are more likely to have reacted to life difficulties, less likely to have a family history of alcoholism, and more likely to respond well to treatment
-Childhood environment is critical also. Children who grow up in families with careful parental supervision are much less likely to develop impulse problems, even if they have genes linked to alcohol abuse or antisocial behavior
14.1 Substance Abuse: Behavioral Predictors of Abuse
How do sons of alcoholics differ behaviorally, on average, from sons of nonalcoholics? How does this relate with substance abuse later in life? (2)
-Sons of alcoholics show less intoxication, including less body sway, after drinking a moderate amount of alcohol.
-Follow-up studies have found that men who report low intoxication after moderate drinking are more likely than others to abuse alcohol throughout their lives
-other studies looking at behavioral predictors identify these in childhood: Such studies find that alcoholism is more likely among those who were described in childhood as impulsive, risk taking, easily bored, sensation seeking, and outgoing
14.1 Synaptic Mechanisms: The Role of Dopamine
What did Olds and Milner discover and how does this relate to self-stimulation of the brain? (2)
-they discovered an area in rats brains (nucleus accumbens) that relates to reward and the release of dopamine
-they gave rats the options to self-stimulate their brain and rats did this a lot
14.1 Synaptic Mechanisms: The Role of Dopamine
List some of the things that prolong or increase the release of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens. (7)
-stimulant drugs such as cocaine and amphetamine
-sex
-music
-sugar
-imagining something pleasant
-gambling activates this area for habitual gamblers
-same for habitual video gamers
-these reults suggest that dopamine release might be essential for all addictions and substance abuse
14.1 Synaptic Mechanisms: The Role of Dopamine
What evidence shows that researchers hae been overemphasizing the role of dopamine? (2)
-although alcohol, marijuana, nicotine and opiates do generally increase dopamine release, they do not icnrease it by much and the amount of dopamine release does not correlate strongly with the pleasantness of the experience of the probability of addiction
-pharmaceutical companies have failed to find drugs that would alleviate addictions via effects on dopamine and drugs that block dopamine synapses do not reduce the reward properties of opiate drugs and they do not decrease use
-although dopamine certainly contributes to reinforcement it no longer appears to be as central as previously believed
14.1 Synaptic Mechanisms: Cravings
During a period of abstinence from cocaine, what happens in the nucleus accumbens? What is the result? (2)
-Certain glutamate synapses in the nucleus accumbens become more responsive, causing increased excitation in response to cues associated with the substance.
-The result is craving, which increases for some time during abstinence and then decreases
14.1 Synaptic Mechanisms: Tolerance and Withdrawal
Define tolerance
-as an addiction develops, many of its effects, especially the enjoyable effects, decrease. This is tolerance.
14.1 Synaptic Mechanisms: Tolerance and Withdrawal
What is withdrawal?
-when the body reacts strongly when a drug is absent because it has come to expect the drug under certain circumstances
14.1 Synaptic Mechanisms: Tolerance and Withdrawal
Someone who is quitting an addictive substance for the first time is strongly counseled not to try it again. Why?
-Taking an addictive drug during the withdrawal period is likely to lead to a habit of using the drug to relieve other kinds of distress as the drug relieves the stress of withdrawal
14.1 Treatments: Medications to Combat Alcohol Abuse
What is the drug disulfiram (Antabuse) and what does it do? (2)
-it antagonizes the enzyme that metabolizes acetaldehyde
-anyone who takes it becomes nauseated after drinking alcohol
14.1 Treatments: Medications to Combat Alcohol Abuse
What have most studies found about Antabuse? Does it work well for quitting alcohol abuse? (2)
-it is about equal to a placebo, because when people think the placebo might be Antabuse it makes the placebo effective
-Someone who takes an Antabuse pill and then drinks alcohol anyway becomes ill, and in most cases quits taking Antabuse instead of quitting alcohol.
14.1 Treatments: Medications to Combat Alcohol Abuse
What are the treatments listed in the textbook for combatting alcohol abuse?
-Antabuse
-A drug that produces nauseau after drinking
-naloxone and naltrexone
14.1 Treatments: Medications to combat opiate abuse
What are the two medications used to combat opiate addiction? (2)
-methadone
-Buprenorphine and Levomethadyl acetate (LAAM)
-however these drugs do not end the addiciton. They merely satisfy the craving in a less dangerous way
14.1 Treatments: Medications to combat opiate abuse
What are the benefits of methadone? (3)
-it activates the same brain receptors as heroin and morphine and produces the same effects
-can only be taken orally (no needles)
-it gradually enters the blood and is metabolized slowly so the withdrawal symptoms are gradual
14.2 Major Depressive Disorder:
What do people with MDD feel? What happens to their nucleus accumbens? What cognitive problems do they show? (3)
-sad and helpless most of the day every day for weeks at a time, wrothless, contemplate suicide and have trouble sleeping
-their nucleus accumbens becomes less responsive to reward
-low motivation, attention problems, impaired memory and impaired sense of smell
-studies have found people with depression more have an absence of happiness rather than increased sadness, they report less happy moments
14.2 Major Depressive Disorder: Genetics
What evidence suggests two types of depression are influenced by different genes?
-Relatives of people with early-onset depression have a high risk of depression and many other psychological disorders. Relatives of people with late-onset depression have a high probability of circulatory problems.
14.2 Major Depressive Disorder: Genetics
What did Caspi and colleagues report to be the relationship between depression and genetics?
-People with the short form of the gene controlling the serotonin transporter are more likely than other people to react to stressful experiences by becoming depressed. However, in the absence of stressful experiences, their probability is not increased.
-this gene also caused people to be more emotionally reactive to any event including happy ones or angry ones
14.2 Major Depressive Disorder: Abnormalities of Hemispheric Dominance
What have studies of people without depression found?
-a fairly strong relationship between happy mood and increased activity in the left prefrontal cortex
14.2 Antidepressant Drugs: Types of Antidepressants
List the antidepressant drugs in the textbook. (5)
-tricyclics
-selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors
-serotonin noreprinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs)
-monoamine oxidase inhibitors
-atypical antidepressants
14.2 Antidepressant Drugs: Types of Antidepressants
Describe Tricyclics. What is the mechanism? What are the effects? What are the side effects? What is its usage? What is an example of this? (5)
Mechanism: block reuptake of serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine by inhibiting transporter proteins
Effects: Prolong NT presence in synaptic cleft.
Side Effects: drowsiness (blocks histamine receptors), dry mouth, difficulty urinating (blocks acetylcholine), heat irregularities (blocks sodium channels)
Usage: Limited due to its side effects
Example: Imipramine (Tofranil)
