Unit 3: Effect of Drugs on the Brain

Student Guide Lesson 2

1. What are the objectives of today’s lesson?

 describe how drugs work

 summarize addiction
 summarize reasons to do them
 explain them
2. Define addiction.

the repetitive compulsive use of substance

3. What increases the risk of addiction?

 home and family
- Parent or family members who use alcohol or drugs, or who are involved in criminal
behavior, can influence a young person’s risk for developing a drug problem
 peers and school
- Friends and acquaintances who use drugs can sway young people to try drugs for the first
time.
- academic failure or poor social skills can also put a person at risk for drug use.
 early use
- Although taking drugs at any age can lead to addiction, research shows that the earlier a
person begins to use drugs, the more likely they are to progress to more serious use
 method of use
- Smoking a drug or injecting it into a vein increases it’s addictive potential
- Both smoked and injected drugs enter the drain within seconds, producing powerful rush
of pleasure
- Scientists believe that low feeling drives people to repeat drug use in an attempt to
recapture the high pleasurable state
4. Why do people take drugs?
 They want to feel good or better
 social pressure
 They are used to it – someone uses at home
 They are curious – they see it around them, in school, in stores
 advertising

5. How do drugs work in the brain?

U3L2 Student Guide 1

 There are hundreds of ways drugs work in the brain
 Imitating or preventing the brain’s natural chemical messengers
 addictive drugs affect the brain’s reward circuit

6. Describe the neural basis of addiction.

 Anytime the reward system is kick-started, the brain notes that something important is
happening that needs to be remembered
 organizes behavior; attention, planning and emotional anticipation
 teaches us to do it again
 Drugs hijack the brain’s reward center and people learn to use drugs in the same way

7. Explain how drugs attach to receptors.

 Almost all drugs work in the brain by attaching to a “receptor” that the brain uses for regular
n__________________
 It can be for the receptor that the neurotransmitter normally acts on or it can be at the places
where the neurotransmitter is made or i____________

8. Why are dopamine receptors decreased in addicts?

 Drugs increase d____________, which o_____-s__________ its receptors and causes them to
decrease in number
 As a result, addicts experience a less efficient reward system
 The lacking dopamine boost given by drugs leads to dopamine deficit

9. Why does tolerance occur before dependence?

 Tolerance occurs when it takes a d_____ of the drug to achieve the s_____ l______ of
response achieved initially
 Areas within the brain change in function, ability, and structure, thus changing the brain’s
ability to p_________ m__________
 Drug use causes a change with the brain’s r________ s_________
 This may result from an increased d_____ t___________ which ultimately causes the brain’s
reward system to function l_____ e____________
 Users take more drugs to reach the same “_______” they previously got from f_______ drugs
 D____________ on drugs occur

10. What drug dependence?

U3L2 Student Guide 2

 Areas within the brain change in function, ability and structure which change the brain’s
ability to process neural messages in the areas related to motivation an executive function
 dependance develops when the neurons adapt to the repeated drug exposure and only
function normally in the presence of the drug
 When the drug is withdrawn, several physiologic reactions occur

11. Explain the effects of a withdrawal and give an example.

 A person’s withdrawal experience depends on what their drug of choice does
 Withdrawal symptoms are drug specific
 Withdrawal symptoms are opposite of what the person experiences when on the drug
- Example: alcohol is a depressant and makes a person sleepy
- The way the brain adapts to prolonged alcohol uses is that it begins to adapt itself to
receiving too many inhibitor impulses
- When a person stops using alcohol, the adaptation the brain made from the prolonged
use of alcohol remain
- The brain that was accustomed to alcohol is then left with an abundance of excitatory
impulses, which causes the person to have withdrawal symptoms such as shaky hands
and seizures

12. Why are adolescents more at risk for developing an addiction to drugs?
 Adolescents may respond to peer pressure and feel as if they need to experiment to “fit in”
 Teens are more apt to take risks
 Teen brain are likely more susceptible to the effect of drugs
 The teen brain is still developing
 Drugs can affect learning and the cortex
 Addiction may develop faster in teens

13. What are some facts about teens and drug use?
 Adolescent value reward more than punishment
- The reward outweighs the risk
- Adolescents respond more to reward, less to punishment
- Risk taking and novelty seeking/ experimentation is more likely
 First drug exposure and peer group have a growing influence on behavior
 genetics
- family history
- E____________ also plays a role

14. What are the greatest dangers of drugs?

U3L2 Student Guide 3

 Areas within the brain change in function, ability and structure thus changing the brain’s
ability to process messages
 Drugs that inhibit breathing or interfere with normal h______ r_________ are most likely to
be lethal
 overdose and possible death

15. What is the summary?

 The effects of drugs change over time so drugs that make a person feel stimulated when
sleepy, calmer when nervous do so in the short term only
 The long-term effect of drug use on a person’s life far outweigh the short-term effects
 There is a neural basis for addiction
 Drugs of abuse target the brain’s reward system because they increase dopamine
 Drug users develop tolerance and then dependence and without the drug, users experience
withdrawal
 There are specific risks and effects to teens that use drugs
 Drug use can end in death

U3L2 Student Guide 4