What Do Prescription Drugs Do to the Body?
Siobhan Morse, Executive Director of The National Institute for Holistic Addiction Studies discusses what prescription drugs do to the body.
What are some of the commonly abused prescription drugs?
Although many prescription drugs can be abused, there are several classifications of medications that are commonly abused.
The three classes of prescription drugs that are most commonly abused are opioids which are most often prescribed to treat pain, central nervous system depressants, or CNS depressants, which are used to treat anxiety and sleep disorders, and stimulants which are prescribed to treat the sleep disorder narcolepsy, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD.
What do prescription drugs do to the body?
How do opioids affect the brain and body?
Opioids act on the brain and body by attaching to specific proteins called “opioid receptors” which are found in the brain, spinal cord, and gastrointestinal tract.
When these drugs attach to certain opioid receptors, they can block the perception of pain.
Opioids can produce drowsiness, nausea, constipation, and depending on the amount of drug taken, depressed respiration.
Opioid drugs can also induce euphoria by affecting the brain regions that mediate what we perceive as pleasure.
This feeling is often intensified for those who abuse opioids when administered by routes other than those recommended.
For example, Oxycontin is often snorted or injected to enhance its euphoric effects while at the same time increasing the risk for serious medical consequences such as overdose.
How do central nervous system depressants affect the brain and body?
Because all central nervous depressants work by slowing the brain’s activity, when an individual stops taking them, the brain’s activity can rebound and race out of control.
Potentially, they lead to seizures and other harmful consequences.
Withdrawal from prolonged use of other central nervous system depressants can have life-threatening complications. Therefore, someone who is thinking about discontinuing central nervous system depressant therapy, or who is suffering withdrawals from central nervous system depressants, should speak with a physician or seek medical treatment.
How do stimulants affect the brain and body?
As with other drugs of abuse, it is possible for individuals to become dependent upon or addicted to many stimulants.
Withdrawal symptoms associated with discontinuing stimulant use include: fatigue, depression, and disturbance of sleep pattern.
Repeated use of some stimulants over a short period can lead to feelings of hostility or paranoia.
Further, taking high doses of a stimulant may result in dangerously high body temperature and an irregular heartbeat. There is also the potential for cardiovascular or heart failure and lethal seizures.
What do prescription drugs do to the body
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