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PSYC 2200, Brain & Behaviour > Lecture 9 - Drugs & the Brain > Flashcards

Lecture 9 - Drugs & the Brain Flashcards

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1
Q

Psychopharmacology?

A

Study of the way drugs affect the nervous system and behaviour.

Key component: it impacts behaviour!

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2
Q

What is a psychoactive drug?

A

A substance that acts to alter mood, thought, or behavior, used to manage neuropsychological illness.

They must directly impact neurons.

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3
Q

The way a drug enters and passes through the body to reach its target is called?

A

Its route of administration.

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4
Q

Different methods of drug administration?

A
  • Orally.
  • Inhaled.
  • Administered through rectal suppository.
  • Patch absorbtion.
  • Injected into bloodstream, muslce, or the brain.
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5
Q

Which drug administration method has the most barriers to the brain?

A

Oral administration.

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6
Q

Which drug administration method has the least barriers to the brain?

A

Injection directly into the brain [duh].

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7
Q

With each barrier eliminated en route to the brain, what factor can the drug be reduced by?

A

Factor of ten, which also increases the risk of overdose.

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8
Q

Where is the only place that has nerve endings that go directly into the brain?

A

Your nose.

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9
Q

Blood-Brain Barrier?

A
  • The last barrier for psychoactive drugs.
  • Endothelial cells surrounded by the feet end of astrocytes, they grab onto the capillary wall and cover about 80% of it, so most substances cannot go in.
  • It protects the brains ionic balance, preventing most substances from entering the brain via the bloodstream.
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10
Q

What are the principles of psychoparmacology?

A
  • Once they are in the brain, they are actively metabolized from that point until excretion.
  • Excreted into the bloodstream, down to the kidneys, out through the urine.
  • Cytochrome P450, an enzyme family involved in drug catabolism [grab a substance, take off small parts of the drugs, toss them into your kidneys for easier excretion].
  • Substances that cannot be removed may build up in the body and become toxic.
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11
Q

Most psychoactive drugs exert their effects by?

A

Influencing synaptic chemical signaling.

[When behavior changes because of drugs, synapses change].

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12
Q

Agnoist?

A

A substance that enhances the function of a synapse.

It activates the receptor.

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13
Q

Antagonist?

A

A substance that blocks or decreases the function of a synpase.

It basically turns off the receptors, so it is unable to activate.

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14
Q

Steps in neurotransmission at a synapse that are a potential site of drug action?

[five of them]

A
  1. Synthesis of neurotransmitters in the cell body, axon, or terminal.
  2. Packaging and storage of neurotransmitter in vesicles.
  3. Release of the transmitter from the terminal’s presynaptic membrane into the synpase.
  4. Receptor interaction in the postsynaptic membrane, as the transmitter acts on an embedded receptor.
  5. (a) inactivation by reuptake into the presynaptic membrane OR (b) inactivation by enzymatic degradation of the excess neurotransmitter.
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15
Q

Points of influence?

[drug action at synpases]

A

A drug can modify major chemical processes, any of which result in enhances or reduced synaptic transmission, depending on agonist or antagonist.

Some drugs only impact certain steps, it is very diverse.

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16
Q

Categorize into agonist or antagonist:
- ACh.
- black widow venom.
- botulin toxin.
- nicotine.
- curare.
- physostigmine & organophosphates.

A

Agonists:
- ACh.
- Black widow venom.
- Nicotine.
- physostigmine & organophosphates.

Antagonists:
- Botulin toxin.
- Curare.

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17
Q

Tolerance and its subclasses?

A

A learned behaviour results when a response to a stimulus weakens with repeated presentations [ie. alcohol].

Three subclasses:
- Metabolic tolerance.
- Cellular tolerance.
- Learned tolerance.

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18
Q

Metabolic tolerance?

A

Increase in the number of enzymes in the liver, blood, or brain used to break down a substance.

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19
Q

Cellular tolerance?

A

Activities of brain cells adjust to minimize the effects of the substance.

20
Q

Learned tolerance?

A

People learn to cope with being intoxicated.

21
Q

Sensitization?

A

The opposite of tolerance.

Neural basis lies in part in changes at the synpase, resulting in an increased behavioural output after repeated exposure to a drug.

More likely to develop with intermittent use.

22
Q

How can psychoactive drugs be grouped?

A

Based on the primary neurotransmitter system they are known to affect.

23
Q

Adenosinergic?

A

ie. Caffeine, which is the most widely consumed psychoactive drug.
- Acts as adenosine antagonist.
- Daily intake = a mild form of drug dependence.

24
Q

Cholinergic?

A

ie. Nicotine.
- Unique in that it is biphasic.
- first drug that was shown to have both the psychological and physical aspects.
- huge psychological component, hard to quit.

25
Q

GABAergic?

A
  • Excitation of the GABAA receptor produces an influx of Cl- through its pore.
  • Alcohol removes the inhibition that your frontal lobe is screaming at you NOT to do certain things, so then u do stupid stuff, alcohol 1, frontal lobe 0
26
Q

Alcohol consumption, amounts and effects?

A
  • Small doses = overall improvment in mood, decreased anxiety & such.
  • Medium doses = lethargy, sedation, balance issues, & blurry vision.
  • High doses = profound confusion, slurred speech, dizziness, & vomiting.
  • Very high doses = memory loss, unconsciousness, life-threatening respiratory depression, & inhalation of vomit.
27
Q

Drugs that act on GABA receptors also affect?

A

Brain development, as GABA is one of the substaces that regulate brain development.

28
Q

Drug effects at the GABAA receptor?

A

These receptors have a binding site for alcohol (left) and a different binding site for benzodiazepines (center). When taken together (right), these two types of drugs can be lethal.

Allows for multiple interaction of drugs on these receptors, leading to highly Increased inhibition in the brain

29
Q

Glutamatergic?

A

System receptors:
- NMDA.
- AMPA.
- Kainite.

  • Antagonists for the NMDA receptor and ketamine.
  • These drugs can produce hallucinatoins and out-of-body experiences.
30
Q

Dopaminergic?

A

Dopamine agonists are commonly used recreationally, such as cocaine, meth, and amphetamine.

Medically prescribed too.

Dopamine antagonists medically presecribed for schizophrenia and drug-induced psychosis:
- Clozapine
- Haloperidol

31
Q

Serotonergic?

A

Most agonists have adrenergic activity.
Most of them affect adrenaline too, as it agonizes epinephrine.
Psilocybin stimulates 5-HT 2A receptors on pyramidal cells in neocortical layer 5 [motor cortex].

These drugs effect output regions

32
Q

Serotonergic agonists that are commonly prescribed to treat major depressive disorder?

A
  • Monoamine oxidase [MAO] inhibitor.
  • Tricyclic.
  • Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor [SSRI].
33
Q

Opioidergic?

A

Opioids are any endogenous or exogenous compound that binds to opioid receptors to produced morphine-like effects.
The four receptors in which they bind to are:
- delta.
- kappa.
- mu.
- nociception.

34
Q

What are the three sources of opioids?

A
  1. Isolated:
    - From a natural source [morphine, codeine].
  2. Altered:
    - Semi synthetic, form of the isolated [heroin, oxycodone].
  3. Synthetic:
    - Fentanyl and methadone.
35
Q

What are the five classes of opioid peptides?

A
  1. Dynorphins.
  2. Enkephalines.
  3. Endorphines.
  4. Endomorphines.
  5. Nociceptin Receptors.

All five of these are the ones already floating around our bodies indogenously.

36
Q

What is naloxone?

A

It is a competitive inhibitor, a drug used to treat overdoses and opioid addiction, and that acts quickly to block opioid action by competing with the opioid for binding sites.

37
Q

Cannabinergic?

A

Cannabinoids have extremely low toxicity.
Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC): One of 84 cannabinoids and main psychoactive constituent in cannabis.
THC alters mood primarily by interacting with the cannabidiol 1 (CB1) receptor found on neurons, and it also binds with the CB2 receptors located on glial cells and in other body tissues.

38
Q

What is a substance use disorder [SUD]?

A

A pattern of drug use in which people rely on a drug chronically and excessively, allowing it to occupy a central place in their life.

Four categories:
1. Impaired control.
2. Social impairment.
3. Risky use.
4. Pharmacological indicators.

39
Q

Addiction?

A
  • A complex brain disorder characterized by escalation, compulsive drug-taking despite all negative consequences, and relapse.
  • It is pretty broad and is not really used in research, as it fluxgates so much and is not operationally defined.
  • t seems to be something that is turned into a marginalized population, it has turned into a ‘bad’ term,
40
Q

Who is more likely to use vs abuse psychoactive drugs?

A
  • Use = men.
  • Abuse = women.
41
Q

What is the hedonia hypothesis?

A
  • Early neuropsychological explanations centered on the pleasure associated with natural experiences produced by psychoactive drugs.
  • A pleasurable rush leads to a variety of impulse control disorders, such as repeated drug taking.
42
Q

Wanting and liking theory?

A
  • Wanting sensitizes with repeated drug use, craving increases, and it involves the mesolimbic dopamine system.
  • Liking involves a tolerance development with repeated drug use, and pleasure decreases. It involves opioid neurons.
  • Cellularly they are different, they involve the firing of different neurons.
43
Q

Where in the brain is the decision to take a drug made?

A

The frontal cortex.

44
Q

What is the decision making process behind taking a drug?

A
  • You have those whole red system light up once the frontal cortex says take the drug!!!!
  • At the same time in parallel, the wanting system activates, and it springs all of that want
  • As you give into unconscious processes, your frontal cortex is no longer making this decision,
  • Once all the drug goes away, your brain says take more drugs.
44
Q

Why doesn’t everyone become addicted to drugs?

A

Genetics?
- No genes/ gene set has been found that links alcolism.
Epigenetics:
- It can account both for the enduring behaviors that support addiction and for the tendency of drug addiciton to be inheritied.

45
Q

Chronic alcohol use can be associated with damage to the ?

A

It can be associated with damage to the thalamus and limbic system.
- Alcohol, however, does not directly cause this damage.
- Alcoholics typically obtain low amounts of thiamine (vitamin B1) in their diet, and alcohol interferes with the intestinal absorption of thiamine.
- Thiamine plays a vital role in maintaining cell membrane structure.

46
Q

When is medical intervention needed?

[drug misuse]

A

It is necessary for the treatment of dopaminergic, GABAergic, and opioid misuse.

PSYC 2200, Brain & Behaviour (12 decks)

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