Class notes (Substance Use)

Stimulants: Cocaine

• Cocaine intoxication: symptoms include mania, paranoia, and impaired judgement

  • some people use

Cocaine Dangers

• Physical dangers: Greatest risk of overdose, excessive doses depress the respiratory center of the brain and stop breathing

• Heart arrythmias and brain seizures that can lead to cardiac arrest

• Over 10,000 people die from o.d. a 50% increase over a decade ago

• miscarriage, childhood learning and attention problems, predisposition to later drug use

Amphetamines

• manufactured in the laboratory (pill, capsule most common; inject/smoke for a quicker more powerful effect)

• Increase alertness, energy, reduced appetite when taken in small doses

• Rush intoxication and psychosis in high doses

• Emotional letdown as they leave the body

Methamphetamine or “Meth”

• Surge in popularity in recent years. Since 1989, usage increased rapidly and now accounts for 24% of all admissions to drug treatment programs

• 42% of all meth users are women

• Most of the nonmedical meth is made in “stovetop” laboratories” - dangerous

• Chronic use = meth mouth open body sores decline in cognitive functioning brain damage

• 1/3 develop methamphetamine-induced psychosis delusions, paranoia, hallucinations

Caffeine

• Acts as a stimulant in the CNS, producing a release of dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine in the brain

  • More than 250 milligrams (2-3 cups of brewed coffee, 6-pck of cola, or 3 Red Bulls) can lead to caffeine intoxication (twitching, increased heart rate, nervousness, anxiety

Hallucinogens, Cannabis, and combinations of substances

• other kinds of substances

  • Hallucinogens

    • Produce delusions, hallucinations, and other sensory changes

  • Cannabis substances

    • produce sensory changes, but have both depressant and stimulant effects.

    • Combinations of substances

  • More than 14% of Americans have used hallucinogens at some point in their lives

  • Tolerance and withdrawal are rare

  • but the drugs do pose physical dangers

  • users may experiences a “bad trip”- the experiences of enormous unpleasant perceptual, emotional, and behavioral reactions

  • Another danger is the risk of “flashbacks”

  • Can occur a year or more after last drug use.

    Combinations of Substances

• people often take more than one drug at a time, a pattern called polysubstance use

• Researchers have examined the ways in which drugs interact with one another

  • Cross tolerance

    • Sometimes two or more drugs are so similar in their actions on the brain and body that as people build a tolerance for one drug, they are simultaneously developing a tolerance for the other (even if they have never taken it)

    • Users displaying this cross-tolerance can reduce the symptoms of withdrawal from one drug by taking