ASSESMENT:

EXTENDED ESSAY
TOPIC: BIOLOGY
TITLE: What are
the potential
effects of pain
killers and such
drugs on harming

the human brain

and physical body?

Abstract.
The aim of this essay was to identify the effects of drugs
such as pain killers on the human brain and the physical
effects of it as well. The physical effects can be seen and
identified through various experiments but the brain
activity is much more complex to analyze, therefore I will
be evaluating emotional, psychological and mental
abnormalities.
In my experiment I conducted a series of test whereby I
identified several people being ill of a headache. Firstly I
had to be exactly sure what was the cause of the
headache (Lack of sleep, hunger, fatigue etc.) I
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conducted a survey on 12 people. 6 male and 6 female,

to ensure gender balance. I also made sure to use equal
numbers of male and female to see whether there could
be certain effects affecting one gender only. The
experiment was repeated three times, each time with a
different pool of people.
I was testing three different drugs, one for each group.
There being three, I felt this was adequately reasonable
to identify their effects.
All painkillers carry risks even OTC(Drugs that are safe
and effective for use by the general public without a
prescription are defined as over-the-counter (OTC) drugs)
ones but it's the narcotic painkillers that carry the highest
risk of addiction. My experiment involved three drugs:
Aspirin, acetaminophen and ibuprofen. These are OTC
drugs and are not used for recreational purposes. Also
these drugs do not need prescriptions to purchase.
From the results of my experiment I was able to deduce
that painkillers have minor side effects (physical effects)
a few effects on behavior. The patients seemed to have
diarrhea, nausea, indigestion and dizziness. The
behavioral changes noticed where that a few became too
dependent on these drugs and taking them quite often
afterwards. All painkillers carry risks even OTCs but it's
the narcotic painkillers that carry the highest risk of
addiction

Word count: 319

CONTENTS PAGE
1. INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS

2. APPARATUS AND METHODOLOGY

3. PICTURE OF EXPERIMENTS

4. DATA ANALYSIS

5. CONCLUSION AND EVALUATION

6. APPENDIX

7. WORKS CITED LIST AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

Introduction and hypothesis.

The purpose of my experiment was to find out
what the effects of painkillers are on the brain and
body.
The reason why I chose this topic is because in the
IB syllabus we dont study much about human
brain. It is part of the options in IB, but I wanted to
do a little bit of investigation on this topic for my
own understanding of it. Ive always been curious
about drugs what makes them so dangerous. The
abuse of drugs was what fascinated me to choose
the topic, I wanted to find out more about them.
How over dosage kills and what percentage of the
world is addicted to drugs, these interesting facts
are key to further understanding how they work
and maybe even enhance them. Growing up I
hated taking medicine and I still do. I disliked the
idea of taking medicine to feel better. As I grew up I
realized that indeed drugs make your immune
system weaker.
Over the course of the summer I asked several
individuals suffering from headaches who took
particular drugs to fill in a form. The form simply
asks two questions and symptoms that the person
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has detected or irregularities in usual routines and

the second question was any mental fatigue.
Headaches are very common; very few of us really
know what they mean or what is wrong when we
have a headache. Its actually quite simple, there
are four possible reasons for a head ache and the
diagram 1.1 will illustrate them.

When part of your body is injured, special nerve

endings send pain messages back to your brain.
Painkilling drugs interfere with these messages,
either at the site of the injury, in the spinal cord or
in the brain itself; they have a wide range of side
effects.