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Effects of Psychotropic Medication

Psychotropic medication is any kind of meditation that can affect mind, emotions and behavior. Such types of drugs are taken by a great number of people all over the world for various reasons and in some cases it is impossible to do without them. Consequently it is very important for people to know the side effects of every type of psychotropic medication or drugs they take. Probably that may help to avoid the addiction.

 

There exist different types of drugs. Drugs may be classified as hallucinogens, stimulants, depressants and tranquilizers, narcotics and inhalants (Hoeger, 2009).
Hallucinogens are the type of drugs that affect a person’s sensations, perceptions, thinking and emotions. Sometimes their affect on humans’ body may be unpredictable. It includes higher body temperature, increased blood pressure and the loss of appetite, insomnia and dilated pupils.

On the contrary people who take stimulants seem to comprehend everything around but to show a poor judgment. They may be hyperactive and exhausted at the same time. This group includes such popular products as nicotine, tobacco and caffeine.
Depressants and tranquilizers have an affect similar to alcohol intoxication. The person loses the sense of judgment, may become disorganized and confused. A person’s speech may be incoherent. In some cases drug abusers may become allergic to this type of drugs and this allergy may be fatal.

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Opiates are the most addictive drugs. They depress the activity of central nervous system and, the opiate abusers may seem sleepy and hardly able to react. Pupils have a little reaction to the light. If people use these drugs chronically they become psychologically and physically addicted to them. Even after the recovery from the addiction some main body functions do not return to normal functioning for six month.

Local anesthetic as cocaine also falls in the group of drugs. As well as opiate it stimulates the central nervous system and may lead to depressed, low energy and indifferent state. It causes damages to nasal membrane and may result in heart attacks.
Inhalants have an effect of anesthetics. Initial effects include sneezing, coughing and nose bleeding, loss of appetite and heavy breath. Long lasting effects include decrease of breathing rate and can lead to heart attack, permanent damage of nervous system and even death.

Obviously drugs alter the people’s behavior and the way of thinking and disrupt the process of communication between the brain cells. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that transmit messages from one nerve cell to another. Drugs may break one neurotransmitter as well as the whole class of neurotransmitters. For example opiates imitate peptides in the brain that act as neurotransmitters with endorphins caused by opium. Natural endorphins are aimed to kill the pain and provoke the feeling of pleasure and sleepiness. If the endorphins caused by opium come into the conflict with natural endorphins than the brain would produce fewer amounts of the latter ones. As the result the organism becomes addicted to the drugs that are needed to replace the natural endorphins. Some drugs may alter neurotransmission by cooperate with moleculas that are responsible for receiving and sending process other than receptors. Cocaine, for example, alters to the dopamine transporter. In fact the drugs may bring changes into the process of transmission by increasing or decreasing the number of stimulated receptors (Krietemeyer, 2006). They cause the desire of repeated action and people become extremely aggressive if they cannot receive a new portion of medicine.
Long term affects of drugs may include confusion, depression, anxiety, aggression, paranoia and impulsive behavior. Verbal and visual memory may be disrupted after the long-term use. In addition, long term affects can be extremely dangerous because of damages that drugs cause on the neurons that release serotonin. Serotonin regulates appetite, emotions and sleep.

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