AP Psychology Module 25

Many teens believe that recreational use of drugs does not have negative long-term effects. Explain a negative long-term effect, other than addiction, for each of the following drugs: -alcohol -marijuana -nicotine

-Alcohol acts asa disinhibitor as it slows brain activity which controls judgement and inhibitions. An excessive use of alcohol shrinks the brain. It also increases the risk for lung, brain, and liver damage. -Marijuana has side effects including agitation and hallucinations. It also impairs motor coordination, perceptual skills, and reaction time. Users also are at a higher risk of traffic accidents, chronic bronchitis, psychosis, social anxiety disorders, suicidal thoughts, and underachievement. -Nicotine leads to heart disease and cancer.

What are opiates?

-Opium and its derivatives such as morphine and heroin depress neural activity, temporarily lessening pain and anxiety -A blissful pleasure replaces pain and anxiety, the users pupils constrict, breathing slows, and the person becomes lethargic -Those who become addicted to this short-term pleasure may pay a long-term price: a gnawing craving for another fix, a need for progressively larger doses (as tolerance develops), and the extreme discomfort of withdrawal

*Three major categories of psychoactive drugs

-depressants -stimulants -hallucinogens

What are barbiturates?

-drugs that depress central nervous system activity, reducing anxiety but impairing memory and judgment -Barbiturates such as Nembutal, Seconal, and Amytal are sometimes prescribed to induce sleep or reduce anxiety -In larger doses, they can impair memory and judgment. If combined with alcohol, the total depressive effect on body functions can be lethal

Alcohol impairs

-memory disruption: Alcohol can disrupt memory formation and heavy drinking can also have long-term effects on the brain and cognition. -Alcohol suppresses REM sleep which is needed for memory consolidation -reduced self-awareness: Those who consume alcohol are more likely to be caught mind-wandering yet not realize they had -People who want to suppress their awareness of failures or shortcomings are more likely to drink

Research on tobacco use

-those who smoke lose 12 minutes of life every time the smoke -smokers' life expectancy is at least 10 years shorter compared to nonsmokers -By 2030, annual tobacco deaths are expected to increase to 8 million. That means that 1 billion twenty first-century people may be killed by tobacco

How teens keep the cigarette industry in business

-virtually nobody starts smoking past the vulnerable teen years. -eager to hook customers whose addiction will give them business for years to come, cigarette companies target teens

Which of the following statements is true of alcohol?

Alcohol is a depressant, because it calms neural activity and slows body function.

What are stimulants and what are their effects?

Drugs such as caffeine, nicotine, and cocaine, amphetamines, methamphetamine, and Ecstasy excite neural activity and speed up body functions

How can tolerance lead to a substance abuse disorder?

Due to neuroadaptation, brain chemistry changes to offset the effects of the drug. Users require larger and larger doses which increases the risk of becoming addicted and developing a substance abuse disorder

Which stimulant causes high energy, emotional elation, dehydration, and damage to serotonin-producing neurons?

Ecstasy

Expectancy effects

Expectations influence behavior -simply believing we're consuming alcohol can cause us to act out alcohol's presumed influence

How does alcohol interact with neurotransmitters?

GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter and glutamate an excitatory neurotransmitter both interact w/ alcohol to produce the effects we associate with drinking -GABA malfunctions: undersupply linked to seizures, tremors, and insomnia -When alcohol enters the body, it acts as an agonist with inhibitory GABA receptors making them more inhibitory -Glutamate malfunction: oversupply can overstimulate the brain producing migraines or seizures -Alcohol acts as an antagonist to glutamate receptors and prevents glutamate from exciting the cell

After taking a psychoactive drug for many years, Carl stops taking it. He finds withdrawal to be physically painful, because the drug that he had been taking caused his brain to stop producing its own endorphins. Which drug was he taking?

Heroin

Why do tobacco companies try so hard to get customers hooked as teens?

It is easy to make life long customers by hooking teens on tobacco. Nicotine is addictive, expensive, and deadly, and it is extremely difficult to stop using it.

Which of the following represents drug tolerance?

Jacob had to increase the dosage of his pain medication when the old dosage no longer effectively controlled the pain from his chronic back condition.

How does alcohol use disorder change the structure of the brain?

MRI scans show brain shrinkage (enlarged ventricles) in women with alcohol use disorders compared with women in a control group

What is nicotine?

a stimulating highly addictive psychoactive drug found in tobacco -tobacco products including cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco, pipe tobacco, snuff, and e-cigarettes (vaping)

Why use stimulants?

People use stimulants to feel alert, lose weight, or boost mood or athletic performance

How does alcohol impair reaction time?

Slowed neural processing causes reactions to slow, speech to slur, and skilled performance to deteriorate

What withdrawal symptoms should your friend expect when she finally decides to quit smoking?

The friend would have symptoms that include craving, insomnia, anxiety, irritability, and distractibility.

What can be expected in someone who is a frequent user of marijuana?

They will experience vivid hallucinations.

What does research show about human's awareness of drunken states?

When drunk, people aren't aware how drunk they are. -sober people agree that they won't drive drunk but then they do: reasoning skills compromised

How can an opiate addiction lead to death?

When repeatedly flooded with an artificial opiate, the brain eventually stops producing endorphins, its own opiates. If the artificial opiate is then withdrawn, the brain will lack the normal level of these painkilling neurotransmitters. -In recent years, more and more people have been unable or unwilling to tolerate this state and have paid an ultimate price--death by overdose

Alcohol

central nervous system (CNS) depressant -It slows neural activity in the brain and spinal cord

Psychoactive drugs

chemical substances that alter perceptions and moods

zDe[ressamts

drugs (alcohol, barbiturates, opiates) that reduce neural activity and slow body functions

What is withdrawal?

the discomfort and distress that follow discontinuing an addictive drug or behavior -most ex-smokers have kicked the habit on their own