Exploring the Impact of Drugs on Human Behavior and the Nervous System

This essay provides an overview of the effects of drugs on human behavior, focusing on addiction and the impact on the nervous system. It discusses how drugs affect the brain, spinal cord, and neurotransmitters, leading to mental and physical health issues. The essay explores the different classes of drugs, including alcohol, tranquilizers, nicotine, stimulants, opiates, marijuana, hallucinogens, antidepressants, and antipsychotics, detailing their specific effects on the body and behavior. It highlights the importance of understanding the risks associated with drug consumption and concludes that drug use is harmful to overall health and behavior, advocating for reduced consumption. Desklib offers a platform to access similar essays and study resources for students.

Drugs and Behavior
Effects of Drugs on human behavior

Drugs and behavior
In the present scenario, people are more attracted towards the consumption of drugs. It
can be seen that if a person is not consuming drugs, somehow, he or she will be targeted by the
effects of drugs (Aronson, 2015). The effect of drugs is not confined to a person who is
consuming it, but it also affects the person who is sitting or standing nearby. So, it can be stated
that drugs affects everyone who is nearby, doesn't matter whether he or she is consuming it or
not, they will be affected in some or other way. Therefore, in this paper, the discussion will be
made on the topic "effects of drugs on human behavior" by taking into consideration the topic
related to addiction.
Consuming drugs can be harmful in many ways, and some of the major effects are health
issues, losing focus on life goals and becoming antisocial. A person who consumes drugs on a
regular basis develops a mentality where he or she does not bother about all the social activities
and other public situations happening around him or her. By consuming drugs it can be seen that
people feel that they are in the totally different world where he or she is all alone and helpless.
In the recent scenario, it has been seen that most of the individuals start taking drugs
when they are into their student life, as at this stage, a person is eager to try out new things
without having knowledge about the effects. During this stage, people think that they have a
great control over themselves and unlike others; they won't be addicted to drug consumption.
They don't understand that why and how people get addicted to the drugs. People think that they
possess a great willpower and can stop consuming drugs whenever they want. But this is not true
because drug addiction is a complex disease and can take time and dedication to quit (Levinthal
& Hamilton, 2015).
Drugs other than addiction can cause some serious deformities in the nervous system as
well. Drugs can directly affect the brain, spinal cord, and many other body parts to a great extent.
There are two major processes through which drugs affect the nervous system. First
pharmacodynamics and the other one is pharmacokinetics. Pharmacodynamics deals with the
effect of chemical properties of drugs in the brain and spinal cord, whereas pharmacokinetics
deals with the process of how the drug enters into the body. Metabolism and absorption of the
drug by the body is also included in the pharmacokinetic process.
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Drugs and behavior
A human brain has around 13 billion nerve cells or neurons. These neurons consist of
receptor sites which are sensitive to a particular drug. The proactive drug enters the human brain
through blood, as the drug is consumed by the person, the drug enters the bloodstream and
through this bloodstream it enters the brain, where it can cause damage to the neurons.
There are many drugs which disturb the neurotransmitters as well. Neurotransmitters are
associated with the chemicals which are responsible for the transmission of electrical impulses
from nerves to the brain. This disturbance in the neurotransmitters can cause mental disturbance
due to the wrong reaction is given by the brain and it can be dangerous. Sometimes, it has been
examined that the person who has consumed drugs has no senses or fewer senses to pain and this
is because of this disturbance in the neurotransmitters. Example for such type of drug is an opiate
drug such as heroin.
Other than the disturbance in neurotransmitters, increase and decrease in the speed of
transmission of electrical signals from nerves to the brain is also caused by the consumption of
some drugs. This can be caused when the hallucinogenic drug is consumed by the person. In
addition to the disturbance in neurotransmitters and increase and the decrease in the speed of
signals, consumption of drugs also affects directly on the pleasure centers in our brain. This
effect of drug consumption on the pleasure center is responsible for developing the sense of drug
dependency inside the person (Volkow & Morales, 2015).
It has been investigated that there are various effects and different classes of the drugs
which include Alcohol, tranquilizers, nicotine, stimulants, opiates, marijuana, hallucinogens,
antidepressants and antipsychotics. Alcohol has many adverse effects on the human body as well
as on the nervous system. Consumption of alcohol can result in less communication between the
brain and nervous system. Blurred speech is one of the effects of alcohol consumption. Alcohol
consumption alcohol reduces the ability of the brain to make decisions, have emotional control
and to make proper judgments.
Tranquilizers are the drugs which are prescribed by the doctors many times. This is
because these drugs help in relieving from the stress and also helps to sleep, but long
consumption of these drugs can have adverse effects on the human body. Problems like the
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Drugs and behavior
eating disorder, lower inhabitation, reduction in the performance level or production are the
common causes of the consumption of tranquilizers (Lehnich et al., 2016).
Nicotine is the type of drug which is made by Tabaco and can be dangerous for the
person health if consumed on regular basis. Consumption of nicotine can have the direct effect
on heart, hormones and gastrointestinal system. Consumption of nicotine also causes the
pancreas to produce less quantity of insulin, and this can result in increased blood sugar.
A stimulant is a type of drug that increases the energy, activities of the brain, and
alertness when dopamine releases. Stimulants increases or it can be said that it modifies the
signal transfer process and thus amplifying the various body processes. Some of the adverse
effects of stimulants are increased heart rate, increase in the blood pressure, shaking muscles and
agitation.
Opiates drugs can have a bad effect on the human body in which it can be seen that
disturbance takes place in neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are associated with the chemicals
which are responsible for the transmission of electrical impulses from nerves to the brain. This
disturbance in the neurotransmitters can cause mental disturbance due to the wrong signal is
given by the brain and it can be dangerous. Sometimes, it can be investigated that the person who
has consumed drugs has no senses or fewer senses to pain; it is because of this disturbance in the
neurotransmitters (Aronson, 2015).
Marijuana is like a Tabaco in which there are many toxic chemicals and if smoking can
cause many serious disease-like lungs cancer. It has been seen that it effects on the nervous
system, so it can be stated that marijuana drug can disturb the information processing technique
of the brain, and this can be dangerous in many ways. This drug also affects the reflex response
which can be harmful in many cases. The examples of marijuana drug are weed, hash, pot, and
dozens.
Another type of drug is the hallucinogenic drug and is responsible for increasing and
decreasing the speed of transmission of electrical signals from nerves to the brain. This can be
caused when the hallucinogenic drug is consumed by the person. Blurred vision, dizziness,
increase in heart rate and blood pressure are some the effects of consuming the hallucinogenic
drug.
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Drugs and behavior
Antidepressants drug is used in the treatment of various illness like depressive disorder,
pain from the damaged nerve, bipolar disorder, childhood bedwetting. But a long-term use of
antidepressants can cause a change in the functionality of neurotransmitters. Some of the side
effects of antidepressants are sexual problems, weight gain and the feeling of emotionally numb
((Badiani, Berridge, Heilig, Nutt & Robinson, 2018).
So, it can be concluded by the paper that drugs are harmful to the health of a person and it
also affects the overall behavior. Therefore, the consumption of drugs should be less by
individuals.
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Drugs and behavior
References
Aronson, J. K. (Ed.). (2015). Meyler's side effects of drugs: the international encyclopedia of
adverse drug reactions and interactions. Elsevier.
Badiani, A., Berridge, K. C., Heilig, M., Nutt, D. J., & Robinson, T. E. (2018). Addiction
research and theory: a commentary on the Surgeon General's Report on alcohol, drugs, and
health. Addiction biology, 23(1), 3-5.
Lehnich, A. T., Kowall, B., Kuß, O., Schmidt‐Pokrzywniak, A., Weinreich, G., Dragano, N., ...
& Stang, A. (2016). Do patients with intake of drugs labelled as sleep disturbing really
sleep worse? A population based assessment from the Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study. British
journal of clinical pharmacology, 82(3), 869-877.
Levinthal,C.F.& Hamilton,T.(2015).Drugs, behavior & Modern society (First Canadian Edition)
Toronto: Pearson.
Volkow, N., & Morales, M. (2015). The brain on drugs: from reward to addiction. Cell, 162(4),
712-725.
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