Drugs Flashcards
What can drugs do?
Drugs can change your body chemistry. They can lead the body to becoming addicted to the drug. If the drug isn’t taken, an addict can suffer physical withdrawal symptoms
What are medical drugs?
Medically useful drugs, like antibiotics. For these drugs you don’t need a prescription (paracetamol) but for others such as morphine you do because they can be dangerous if misused
What are recreational drugs?
Drugs that are used for fun. These can be legal or illegal
What are performance enhancing drugs?
Drugs that can improve a persons performance in sport
What are the health impacts of performance enhancing drugs?
Anabolic steroids increase muscle size and stimulants increase heart rate. Some drugs can lead to a high blood pressure
What are the ethical problems with performance enhancing drugs?
For:
1. Athletes have the right to make their own decision on whether taking the drugs is worth the risk.
2. Drug-free sport isn’t fair anyway as different athletes have different access to training facilities, coaches etc
Against:
1. It’s unfair if people gain an advantage by taking drugs, not just through training
2. Athletes may not be fully informed of the serious health risks of the drugs they take
What are statins?
Prescribed drugs that are used to lower the risk of heart and circulatory disease
What evidence is there to support statins?
There is evidence that statins lower blood cholesterol and significantly lower the risk of heart disease in diabetic patients - it is reliable because the sample was big (6000 patients)
What is cannabis and what problems does it involve?
Cannabis is an illegal drug. Scientists have investigated whether the chemicals in cannabis smoke cause mental health problems. The results vary and are sometimes open to different interpretations. Not enough scientific evidence has been found to prove these claims
What is the first stage of drug testing?
- Drugs are tested on human cells and tissues in a lab.
What is the second stage of drug testing?
- To test the drug on live animals to see whether the drug works, to find out about its toxicity (how harmful it is) and what the best dosage is to give
What are the different attitudes to animal testing?
Some people think it’s unfair but others believe it is the safest way to make sure a drug isn’t dangerous before it is given to humans. However. Others also think that animals are different to humans so testing on them is pointless
What is the third stage of drug testing ?
- It is tested on human volunteers in a clinical trial
- first the drug is tested on healthy volunteers to ensure it doesn’t have any harmful side effects when the body is working normally
- a low dosage is given which is then gradually increases
- if the results on the healthy volunteers are good, the drugs can be tested on people suffering from the illness. The optimum dose is found
- to test how well the drugs work, the patients are put Into two groups, one group is given the actual drug and the other is given the placebo
What classes are illegal drugs divided into?
Soft and hard. Hard drugs are usually thought to be seriously addictive and more harmful.
The terms ‘soft’ and hard’ are not scientific descriptions and soft drugs can still cause heart and circulatory problems
Why do people use recreational drugs?
- enjoyment
- relaxation
- stress relief
- relieve pain (cannabis)
- hard personal life
