What do prescription drugs do to the brain

Over time, people who overuse stimulants can become dependent on them. If they try to quit, they may have withdrawal symptoms like depression, thoughts of suicide, intense drug cravings, sleep problems, and fatigue. The health risks aren't the only downside to study drugs. Students caught with illegal prescription drugs may get suspended from school, have to pay fines, and even do time in jail. If you need to focus, there are better choices than study drugs. Here are some proven ways to boost concentration and beat stress:.

Reviewed by: Mary L. Gavin, MD. Larger text size Large text size Regular text size. What Are Study Drugs? Two prescription stimulants are used as study drugs: amphetamines like Adderall, Dexedrine, or Vyvanse methylphenidates like Ritalin or Concerta Most people get study drugs from a friend or relative who has a prescription. These include: high blood pressure irregular heartbeat heart failure seizures stroke Using stimulants too often can lead to intense anger, paranoia, heart problems, and mental health problems.

Alternatives to Study Drugs If you need to focus, there are better choices than study drugs. All drugs, including cough and cold medicines, change the way the brain works by changing the way nerve cells communicate. A single high dose of DXM can cause hallucinations imagined experiences that seem real.

Ketamine and PCP are called "dissociative" drugs, which means they make you feel separated from your body or your environment, and they twist the way you think or feel about something or someone. Codeine attaches to the same cell receptors as opioids like heroin. High doses of promethazine-codeine cough syrup can produce a high similar to that produced by other opioid drugs. Over time, it takes more and more of the drug to get that good feeling.

This is how addiction starts. Both codeine and promethazine slow down activities in the central nervous system brain and spinal cord , which produces calming effects. When heroin enters the brain, it attaches to molecules on cells known as opioid receptors. These receptors are located in many areas of the brain and body, especially areas involved in the perception of pain and pleasure, as well as a part of the brain that regulates breathing. Short-term effects of heroin include a rush of good feelings and clouded thinking.

These effects can last for a few hours, and during this time people feel drowsy, and their heart rate and breathing slow down. When the drug wears off, people experience a depressed mood and often crave the drug to regain the good feelings.

The lungs absorb inhaled chemicals into the bloodstream very quickly, sending them throughout the brain and body. Nearly all inhalants except nitrites produce a "high" by slowing down brain activity.

Nitrites, in contrast, expand and relax blood vessels. Many brain systems may be involved in producing effects of different inhalants.

Knowing how the brain functions helps us understand what happens during drug use. Inhalants often contain more than one chemical. Some chemicals leave the body quickly, but others stay for a long time and get absorbed by fatty tissues in the brain and central nervous system. Over the long term, the chemicals can cause serious problems:.

When marijuana is smoked or vaporized, THC quickly passes from the lungs into the bloodstream, which carries it to organs throughout the body, including the brain. Its effects begin almost immediately and can last from 1 to 3 hours. This can affect decision making, concentration, and memory for days after use, especially in people who use marijuana regularly. As it enters the brain, THC attaches to cells, or neurons, with specific kinds of receptors called cannabinoid receptors.

Normally, these receptors are activated by chemicals similar to THC that occur naturally in the body. They are part of a communication network in the brain called the endocannabinoid system. This system is important in normal brain development and function. Most of the cannabinoid receptors are found in parts of the brain that influence pleasure, memory, thinking, concentration, sensory and time perception, and coordinated movement. Marijuana activates the endocannabinoid system, which causes the "high" and stimulates the release of dopamine in the brain's reward centers, reinforcing the behavior.

Other effects include changes in perceptions and mood, lack of coordination, difficulty with thinking and problem solving, and disrupted learning and memory. An evidence based review of acute and long-term effects of cannabis use on executive cognitive functions. Journal of Addiction Medicine ; Once an MDMA pill or capsule is swallowed, it takes about 15 minutes for the drug to enter the bloodstream and reach the brain.

MDMA produces its effects by increasing the activity of three neurotransmitters the chemical messengers of brain cells : serotonin , dopamine , and norepinephrine. Let's take a look at the importance of these chemicals:. Because MDMA increases the activity of these chemicals, some users experience negative effects. Your mind is wired to remember and seek out the activities that stimulated your reward center and teaches you to do these things again and again to get the same euphoric rush.

Due to this, your brain can form a dependence to opioids quite rapidly. Stimulants include illicit drugs like cocaine or methamphetamine, and prescription amphetamines, such as Adderall and Ritalin. This collection of drugs affects the brain by acting as central nervous system stimulants.

Stimulants increase the activity of the brain chemicals dopamine and norepinephrine. While the increase in dopamine causes a rush of pleasure among uses, the hyperstimulation of norepinephrine can cause:. When taken in high dosages, the irregular chemical balance in the brain caused by stimulants can lead to a dangerously high body temperature, an irregular heartbeat, seizures and heart failure.

Over a long period of time, this chemical imbalance could also cause you to develop depression, anxiety, psychosis or extreme paranoia. Additionally, the hyperstimulation throughout the brain and body makes you feel stronger, more self-assured and energized. The extra confidence and energy allow those who abuse stimulants to accomplish more than they usually would without the drug. The feeling of accomplishment leads many back to the use of stimulants time and time again.

These are sedatives, hypnotics or anti-anxiety drugs known as anxiolytics, also known as central nervous system CNS depressants. They reduce the neural excitation by potentiating the effects of an inhibitory neurotransmitter known as gamma-aminobutyric acid GABA. These GABA-mediated effects help to increase relaxation, relieve anxiety, and manage certain sleep conditions like insomnia. Much like chronic opioid abuse, long-term abuse of prescription depressants can lead to the development of severe physical dependence.

Individuals have become physically dependent in as little as 4 weeks. This means that they likely will experience some degree of acute withdrawal should they try to stop taking the drug on their own. Many people who try to stop taking these drugs relapse because the brain creates intense cravings for them. This increase in dopamine then assists with motivation, pushing the user to become more productive.

It also increases cognitive function. Common prescription stimulants, such as amphetamines and methylphenidate, have molecular structures that are similar to certain brain chemical messengers, such as dopamine and norepinephrine. Prescription stimulants increase the activity of the brain chemical dopamine and norepinephrine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter which regulates how a person perceives and experiences pleasure. In short, Dopamine affects feelings of pleasure.

During pleasurable moments or situations, this neurotransmitter is released, which causes a person to seek out a desirable activity over and over again. For example, eating sugary foods are stimulants of dopamine being released in the brain.

This is the reason why sugary foods like chocolate and cakes are usually enjoyable and why people continuously engage in them. Similarly, Norepinephrine affects blood vessels, blood pressure and heart rate, blood sugar, and breathing.

In the short term, individuals using stimulants feel euphoric or a rush. They also experience the following:. At high doses, prescription stimulants can lead to a dangerously high body temperature, an irregular heartbeat, heart failure, and seizures. In fact, stimulants can cause a person to become very sensitive to some of their effects instead of building a tolerance. What this means is that after repeated stimulant abuse, a previously harmless dose can more easily result in severe consequences, such as a seizure.

Addiction can cause a loss of emotional control, because most people under the influence of drugs do not feel their emotions. Once the drugs wear off, the emotional pain can be too much to process. An abuser will often act out those emotions until he can calm them with more drugs.