Drugs

Question 1

What is a psychoactive drug?

Answer 1

Substances that act to alter mood, thought, or behavior

Influence chemical signaling in the synapse

Question 2

What type of drug suppresses mental function and produces calming effects through low doses, or results in intoxication through high doses?

Answer 2

CNS Depressant

Question 3

What type of drugs stimulate arousal by giving your body a rapid, but temporary, boost of energy and clarity?

Answer 3

CNS Stimulants

Question 4

What type of drug alters perceptual experience and disturbs your sense of reality?

Answer 4

Hallucinogen

Question 5

What is an example of a CNS Depressant?

Answer 5

Alcohol, opiates, anxiolytics

Question 6

What is an example of a CNS Stimulant?

Answer 6

Amphetamine, cocaine, caffeine, nicotine

Question 7

What is an example of a Hallucinogen?

Answer 7

Marijuana, LSD, MDMA

Question 8

The ingestion of psychoactive substances in moderate amounts in which the substance does not interfere with everyday function.

Answer 8

Substance Use

Question 9

The use of a substance significantly interferes with the users life.

Answer 9

Substance Abuse

Question 10

The state in which the user is psychologically and physiologically dependent on a drug - showing tolerance and withdrawal.

Answer 10

Substance Dependence

Question 11

What is an Addiction?

Answer 11

Uncontrolled drug use that persists in spite of negative consequences associated with taking or obtaining the drug.

Question 12

What is Tolerance?

Answer 12

The increase in required dose to obtain desired effect.

Question 13

What is Withdrawal?

Answer 13

Physical and psychological behaviors that are displayed by an addict when drug use ends.

Question 14

Withdrawal and Homeostasis

Answer 14

1. Brain normally exists in a state of drug-free homeostasis
2. Taking drug leads to an imbalance
3. Compensatory adaptations attempt to restore homeostasis
4. Quitting drugs leads to an imbalance in opposite direction - withdrawal

Question 15

What is the term for diagnosing an addiction?

Answer 15

Substance Use Disorder

Question 16

Whats are the DSM-5 requirements for diagnosing a Substance Use Disorder on top of maladaptive patterns of use?

Answer 16

1. Failure to fulfill major role obligations due to substance use
2. Spend great deal of time trying to get drug
3. Legal problems associated with substance
4. Cravings
5. Tolerance
6. Withdrawal

Question 17

What is Reward?

Answer 17

Desirable or positive stimuli that can affect behavior

Question 18

What is Intracranial Self-Stimulation?

Answer 18

A research model where a rat is fitted with an electrode located in certain parts of the brain which is connected to a level in the rat’s cage.

Question 19

What type of behavior did rats used in the ICSS model exhibit?

Answer 19

They would press the lever almost endlessly
They would ignore everything around them (food, water, sex) and focus only on the lever
They would eventually either collapse or need to be removed

Question 20

What discovery did the ICSS lead to?

Answer 20

The Reward System

Question 21

What is the Reward System?

Answer 21

A circuit in the brain that is responsible for rewarding behaviors and the accompanying sensations of pleasure - Mesocorticolimbic System

Question 22

What is the pathway of the Mesocorticolimbic System and what Neurotransmitter is involved?

Answer 22

Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) contains neurons that produce dopamine and whose axons project to the Prefrontal Cortex, Nucleus Accumbens, and Hippocampus

Question 23

Which area of the Mesocortioclimbic System is involved in the feeling of subjective pleasure?

Answer 23

Nucleus Accumbens

Question 24

Which area of the Mesocortioclimbic System is involved in learned association between rewarding feeling and specific stimuli?

Answer 24

Hippocampus

Question 25

Which area of the Mesocortioclimbic System is involved in the cognitive control necessary to seek or avoid the rewarding stimulus?

Answer 25

Prefrontal Cortex

Question 26

How is dopamine release in the Reward system used as a teaching signal?

Answer 26

Rewarding stimuli lead to encoding of associated features of the stimuli - the more we experience the stimuli the stronger these associations get and eventually turn into cues and can trigger an expectation which produces increase in DA release

Question 27

What is the purpose of the Reward System?

Answer 27

Designed to motivate animals to engage in life-sustaining endeavors such as reproducing, eating, and maintaining social relationships

Question 28

What is the effect of drugs on the mesocorticolimbic system?

Answer 28

Supraphysiological dopamine release in reward system leading to over-prioritization of behaviors associated with drug

Question 29

What is cocaine?

Answer 29

A CNS stimulant which produces an increase in neural and behavioral activity

Highly addictive

Question 30

Many physiological and psychological effects of cocaine resemble what happens when which nervous system is activated?

Answer 30

Sympathetic Nervous System

Question 31

How does Cocaine effect dopamine at the synapse?

Answer 31

Cocaine blocks dopamine reuptake transporters preventing the reuptake of dopamine and allowing it to accumulate in the synapse leading to over-stimulation of the mesocorticolimbic system

Question 32

What compensatory adaptations are made to compensate for excess dopamine caused by cocaine?

Answer 32

1. Some dopamine receptors are removed from the postsynaptic membrane
2. Dopamine release from presynaptic terminal is reduced

Question 33

What is Anhedonia?

Answer 33

Inability to experience pleasure