Effect Of Recreational Drugs

Question 1

What is a recreational drug?

Answer 1

Taken and used in the absence of medical grounds but are taken for pleasure and enjoyment

Question 2

What is the general effect of recreational drugs on transmission in the CNS

Answer 2

drugs hijack the rewards system and produce pleasurable feelings without any adaptive function

Question 3

What does cocaine block?

Answer 3

The binding site

Question 4

What does cocaine stop?

Answer 4

The reuptake of dopamine back into the presynaptic receptors

Question 5

What does more dopamine than usual in the reward pathway lead to?

Answer 5

Feelings of euphoria

Question 6

What happens over time to the brain?

Answer 6

It reacts to the over stimulation of dopamine and reduces the number of receptors on the post synaptic neuron

Question 7

What does it mean if there is a reduce of receptors on the post synaptic neuron?

Answer 7

More dopamine will be required to stimulate the postsynaptic neuron

Question 8

Supporting evidence? EFFECT OF RECREATIONAL DRUGS

Answer 8

Recreational drugs create excess dopamine to give a ‘high’.

Question 9

Hard to study? EFFECT OF RECREATIONAL DRUGS

Answer 9

Can’t study the mode of action of recreational drugs at the synaptic level as brain scanning techniques need to be more sophisticated