PSY 250 Lecture 34: Study Guide Exam 2 Chapters 5 - 8
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Study Guide Exam 2 Chapter 5 - 8
- Chapter 5: Drugs, Addiction, and Reward
- Psychoactive Drugs: those that have psychological effects, such as anxiety relief or hallucinations
- Agonists: mimics or enhances the effect of a neurotransmitter
- It can accomplish this by having the same effect on the receptor as the
neurotransmitter, by increasing the transmitter’s effect on the receptor, or by
blocking the reuptake or the degradation of the transmitter
- Antagonists: may occupy the receptors without activating them, simultaneously blocking
the transmitter from binding to the receptors
- It may decrease the availability of the neurotransmitter by reducing its
production or its release from the presynaptic terminals
- Addiction: identified by preoccupation with obtaining a drug, compulsive use of the dug
in spite of adverse consequences, and a high tendency to relapse after quitting
- Withdrawal: a negative reaction that occurs when drug use is stopped
- Due to the nervous system’s having adapted to the drug’s effects, so they are
typically the opposite of the effects the drug produces
- Tolerance: the individual becomes less responsive to the drug and requires increasing
amounts of the drug to produce the same results
- Opiates: drugs derived from the opium poppy
- Analgesic (pain relieving), hypnotic (sleep inducing), euphoria (sense of happiness or
ecstasy)
Morphine
- Used to decrease the pain during surgery, battle wounds, and cancer
Heroin
- Illegal in the US
- Used in a few European countries as a replacement drug in addiction treatment
- Passes through the blood-brain barrier
- Major danger is overdose
Codeine
- Cough suppressant
- Diluted into forms of paregoric and laudanum (used to treat diarrhea, to
alleviate pain, and to quiet fretful children)
- Replaced by synthetics called opioids (OxyContin)
- Alcohol: a drug fermented from fruits, grains, and other plant products; it acts at many brain sites
to produce euphoria, anxiety reduction, sedation, motor incoordination, and cognitive impairment
- Depressant in large amounts but a stimulant in little amounts
- Disinhibitor of social constraints
- Interferes with cognitive and motor functioning and judgement
- Large amounts can shut down the brainstem (coma or death), cirrhosis of the liver, B1
vitamin deficiency (brain damage or Korsakoff’s syndrome)
- Increases the release of GABA
- Fetal alcohol syndrome (alcohol passes easily through the placenta)
- Barbiturates: in small amounts act selectively on higher cortical centers, especially those
involved in inhibiting behavior; in low doses, they produce talkativeness and increased social
interaction, and in higher doses, they are sedatives and hypnotics
- Treat insomnia, prevent epileptic seizures, and from 1912 to 1960 they were used to treat
anxiety and insomnia
- Act at the GABA complex
- Replaced by benzodiazepines: act at the benzodiazepine receptor on the GABA complex
to produce anxiety reduction, sedation, and muscle relaxation
- Suppress activity in the limbic system
- Relaxation (brainstem), confusion (hippocampus), and amnesia (hippocampus)
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- Valium (diazepam), xanax (alprazolam), and halcion (triazolam), rohypnol
(roofies; date rape drug)
- Characteristics/Effects of Stimulants
- Stimulants: activate the central nervous system to produce arousal, increased alertness,
and elevated mood
- Cocaine - Effects and Treatment
- Cocaine: extracted from the South American coca plant, produces euphoria,
decreases appetite, increases alertness, and relieves fatigue
- Produced with hydrochloric acid and can be snorted or injected
- Freebase is pure cocaine
- Not always seen as dangerous because it has been chewed by South American
Indians for centuries
- Used as a local anesthetic in the 1800s and eventually became an over-the-
counter drug and also used to be in Coca-Cola
- Blocks the reuptake of dopamine and serotonin at synapses
- Reduces activity in much of the brain
- End of a bing the user crashes into a state of depression, anxiety, and cocaine
craving the motivates a cycle of continued use
- Withdrawal: anxiety, lack of motivation, boredom, and lack of pleasure
- Users have impairments in memory, impulse control, decision making, and
assessment of emotional stimuli
- Treatment: substitute drugs or behavioral therapy
- Nicotine - Health Risks of Tobacco Use
- Nicotine: primary psychoactive and addictive agent in tobacco
- Smoking, chewing, or inhaling
- Short puffs = stimulating effect and inhaled deeply = tranquilizing or depressant
effect
- Causes lung, larynx, mouth, esophagus, liver, and pancreas cancer
- Buerger’s Disease (constriction of the blood vessels that may lead to gangrene in
the lower extremities, requiring progressively higher amputations)
- Infants born from smokers have lower birth weight, a higher incidence of
asthma, and up to 56% greater mortality
- MDMA/Ecstasy
- Drug developed as a weight-loss compound
- Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)
- Popular among young people (dance clubs and raves)
- Low doses it is a psychomotor stimulant (increasing energy, sociability, and sexual
arousal) and at higher doses it produces hallucinatory effects
- Stimulates the release of dopamine and serotonin
- High doses of MDMA destroys serotonergic neurons in monkeys
- Health effects are minimal but there are still a small amount of reported deaths each year
- Psychedelic drug
- Effects of Heavy Marijuana Use
- Marijuana: dried and crushed leaves and flowers of the Indian hemp plant (cannabis
sativa)
- THC is a cannabinoid (a group of compounds that includes 2 known endogenous
cannabinoids, anandamide and 2-arachidonyl glycerol *2-AG*)
- Long-term heavy users have various brain anomalies, including reduced volume in the
hippocampus and amygdala and impaired white matter connectivity in the hippocampus
and corpus callosum
- Individuals who smoked 5 joints a day had an average 4 point decline in IQ from
childhood to young adulthood
- Behavioral problems such as impulsiveness and hyperactivity; decreased performance on
visual-spatial tasks; and deficits in attention, memory, and language comprehension
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- Reduces pain, the nausea of chemotherapy, and the severity of the eye disease glaucoma
- Dopamine and Reward
- Drugs increase dopamine levels in the nucleus accumbens (opiates, barbiturates, alcohol,
THC, PCP, MDMA, nicotine, and caffeine) and this plays an important role in addiction
- Example: rats given drugs that block dopamine activity do not learn to press a lever for
amphetamine or cocaine injections; if they have learned previously, they do not continue
lever pressing after receiving the dopamine blocking drug
- Food, water, and sexual stimulation also increase dopamine levels in the nucleus
accumbens
- Chronic drug users have diminished dopamine release and numbers of dopamine
receptors
- While most of the abused drugs trigger the release of dopamine, dopamine cannot
account for all reward
- Dopamine is crucial for the rewarding effects of cocaine and amphetamines, but not as
crucial for the effects of opiates, nicotine, cannabis, and ethanol, and questionable in the
case of benzodiazepines, barbiturates, and caffeine
- Genetic and Environmental Influences in Addiction
- Heritability of addiction was first established with alcoholism (controversial because
studies yielded inconsistent results)
- Robert Cloninger
- Studied 862 men and 913 women who were all adopted around 4 months
- Divided the alcoholics of the adoptees into two groups
- Type 1 (late-onset alcoholics): typically begin their problem drinking
after the age of 25, after a long period of exposure to socially
encourage drinking (ex: lunch with coworkers)
- Abstain from drinking for long periods of time, but binge
drink and have guilt about their behavior
- Cautious and emotionally dependent
- Rearing environment made a lot of difference so it is
dependant on the environment they were raised in
- Type 2 (early-onset alcoholics): begin drinking at a young age
- Drink frequently and feel little guilt about their drinking
- Antisocial behavior and get into bar fights and arrested for
reckless driving
- Impulsive and uninhibited, confident, and socially and
emotionally detached
- Rearing environment made no difference so it is highly
genetic
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- Chapter 6: Motivation and the Regulation of Internal States
- Motivation: “to set in motion,” refers to the set of factors that initiate, sustain, and direct
behaviors
- Various kinds of motivation (hunger or achievement need)
- Motivation is a concept psychologists have invented and imposed on behavior
- There is not one single “motivation center” in the brain or even a network that has a
primary function of motivation
- Instinct: a complex behavior that is automatic and unlearned and occurs in all the
members of a species (migration and maternal behavior)
- Humans were guided by instincts (waging war because of aggressive instincts and caring
for their young because of maternal instincts)
- Instincts as a motivation was studied by William McDougall (proposed that human
behaviors such as reproduction, gregariousness, and parenting are instinctive)
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Document Summary
Study guide exam 2 chapter 5 - 8. Psychoactive drugs: those that have psychological effects, such as anxiety relief or hallucinations. Agonists: mimics or enhances the effect of a neurotransmitter. It can accomplish this by having the same effect on the receptor as the neurotransmitter, by increasing the transmitter"s effect on the receptor, or by blocking the reuptake or the degradation of the transmitter. Antagonists: may occupy the receptors without activating them, simultaneously blocking the transmitter from binding to the receptors. It may decrease the availability of the neurotransmitter by reducing its production or its release from the presynaptic terminals. Addiction: identified by preoccupation with obtaining a drug, compulsive use of the dug in spite of adverse consequences, and a high tendency to relapse after quitting. Withdrawal: a negative reaction that occurs when drug use is stopped. Due to the nervous system"s having adapted to the drug"s effects, so they are typically the opposite of the effects the drug produces.
