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Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Introduction to Drugs

Drugs
Definition: By the definition, the term drug can be defined as any substance used in the composition of a medicine. In medical terms a drug is defined as any chemical substance which taken into the body, alters the way the body functions. It means a drug may modify one or more of the body's physical or mental functions.

Uses of Drugs
Drugs are used in a number of ways.
Drugs are prescribed as medicines to prevent or cure a variety of disease. Some drugs help to fight against infections.
Drugs may be used to promote better physical and mental health.
A number of drugs are used to alleviate anxiety, reduce pain or insomnia.
Drugs may be used to alter the mood. Such drugs are termed as mood – altering drugs.

The drugs should be used under medical advice only. Self – medication may be very harmful because drugs do have harmful side – effects. Some drugs like mood – altering drugs have a particular risk of a patient becoming totally dependent on them called drug dependence. They are habit forming drugs, also called as psychotropic drugs.
In this topic we will only come to know about the habit forming drugs in detail.

Psychotropic Drugs
(i) Psychotropic drugs act on the brain and affect its normal functioning. They slow down and interfere in the functioning of the nervous system.
(ii) Psychotropic drugs alter behavior, consciousness and powers of perception. They alter the mood of a person, hence are called as mood – altering drugs.
(iii) Psychotropic drugs have a visible effect on the behaviour of a person.
(iv) Psychotropic drugs impair the person's judgments.
(v) Psychotropic drugs make a person increasingly dependent on them. Therefore they are called as habit forming or addictive drugs. They lead to both physical and mendrugstal addiction.
Certain Terms Related to Habit Forming Drugs
Given below are certain terms to drug addiction which will often used in this topic.

Tolerance: - Tolerance to a drug means less response to a specific dose with repeated use. That means body has developed resistance to the effect of the drug. Now the person needs more of the drug to get the desired effect. For example, when a person takes 1 microgram of a drug for the first time, the response he gets is far more than when he takes it the hundredth time. Now he needs to take much more the amount for the same effect.

Drug Addiction: - Drug addiction means that after a drug has been taken for some time, it is very hard to give up its use. It is state of periodic and persistent urge, deterimental to the health of individual and society. The person who becomes addicted is known as addict.
An addict shows the following characteristics:
(i) A strong urge to continue taking the drug.
(ii) Progressive tolerance to the drug, that is increasing the dose of drug to get desired effects.
(iii) Physical and mental dependence on the drug.

Withdrawal Symptoms: When a drug is taken regularly for sometime, two types of addiction may occur – physical and emotional or psychological.
In physical addiction the body develops a need for the drug. When drug supply is cut off, the body reacts violently and a number of withdrawal symptoms starts appearing. These include:
(i) Severe abdominal pain or severe body ache
(ii) Muscular cramps
(iii) Headache
(iv) Fever
(v) Watering of eyes and nose
(vi) Vomiting and pain in stomach
(vii) Sleeplessness, difficulty in breathing, irregular heartbeat, etc. Such a person gets relief only when he gets more of the drugs.

Emotional or Psychological addiction:
It means a person has a strong craving or urge for the drug either for pleasure r to avoid the intense physical disturbance. If the drug is not given, the addict faces severe depression and derangement. If a person is not physically addicted to a drug, he may overcome his addiction without suffering from withdrawal sickness. But usually people are addicted to a drug physically as well as emotionally. They need proper medical care to overcome their addiction.

Psychological Drug Dependence:
It refers to the state of mind of a person who is so dependent on the drug that his life or activities are centered around in ensuring the supply of drug. The drug itself may or may not be addictive but the person wants to take it continuously just to enjoy its effects or to avoid the discomfort caused by its absence. Repeated use of the drug makes a patient totally dependent on them. World Health Organization (WHO) suggested the use of the term drug dependence to include the terms drug addiction or drug abuse. The drugs that cause drug dependence are called as psychotropic drugs as they act on the brain and alter behavior, consciousness power of perception.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

What is going on? I purchased some Trip2night from narcomundo.com and it is in a powder now? What the heck! I bought it years ago and they were red capsules. I have not taken the new powder as of yet, it just came in the mail; and I am going to wait until I get some feed back to get a heads up on how much to take. The directions do not give a good explanation towards what I am looking for.

Roshan Gupta said...

I didn't get your problem. After all what are you trying to say please make it clear. If their will be anything for me to do i will surely try to help you.

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