Universidad Catlica Santo Domingo

(U.C.S.D.)

Faculty of Health Sciences.

School of Psychology.

Career:
Clinical psychology

Subject:
English for clinical psychology.

Section: 200.

Teacher:
Giovanni Baez.

Final work:
Neurotransmitters and Drugs
Student:
Anthony Ismael Aguasviva Arias. 2016-0039
 Neurotransmitters and Drugs
So far there are only 100 neurotransmitters
discovered, interacting in our brain non-stop,
one of them is pleasure-related dopamine
which increases in our body when we
consume forbidden substances (drugs) and
the problem with addiction lies in that
neurotransmitter.
A persons experiences when using a drug
reflect the functional roles of the particular
neurotransmitter(s) it disrupts. Each individual
neuron manufactures one or more
neurotransmitters: dopamine, glutamate,
serotonin, acetylcholine, and/or any of dozens
of others that scientists have identified to
date. Each neurotransmitter is associated with
particular effects depending on its distribution
among the brains various functional areas.
Dopamine, for example, is highly
concentrated in regions that regulate
motivation and feelings of reward, and is a
strong motivator for drug use. A
neurotransmitters impact also depends on
whether it stimulates or dampens activity of
its target neurons.
Some drugs primarily affect one
neurotransmitter or class of
neurotransmitters. For example, prescription
opioids and heroin produce effects that are
similar to (but more pronounced than) those
produced by the neurotransmitters endorphin
and enkephalin: increased analgesia,
decreased alertness, and slowed respiration.
Other drugs disrupt more than one type of
neurotransmitter. Cocaine, for example,
attaches to structures that regulate
dopamine, leading to increases in dopamine
activity and producing euphoria; it also
produces changes in norepinephrine and
glutamate systems that cause stimulant
effects.

Because a neurotransmitter can stimulate or

inhibit neurons that produce different
neurotransmitters, a drug that disrupts one
neurotransmitter can have secondary impacts
on others. In fact, a key effect that all drugs
that cause dependence and addiction appear
to have in commona dramatic increase in
dopamine signaling in a brain area called the
nucleus accumbens (NAc), leading to euphoria
and a desire to repeat the experienceis in
many cases an indirect one. For example,
nicotine stimulates cells directly by activating
their receptors for acetylcholine, and
indirectly by inducing higher levels of
glutamate, a neurotransmitter that acts as an
accelerator for neuron activity throughout the
brain.
As described above, neurotransmission is a
cyclic process that transpires in several steps
utilizing specialized components of the
sending and receiving neurons. Identifying the
precise step that a drug disrupts, and how,
provides crucial insight into its impact on
users, and is key to developing medical and
behavioral interventions to inhibit, counter, or
reverse the disruption.

Some drugs mimic neurotransmitters. Heroin

and prescription opioids, for example,
chemically resemble the brains natural
opioids (endorphin and enkephalin)
sufficiently to engage and stimulate their
specialized receptors. Since heroin stimulates
many more receptors more strongly than the
natural opioids, the result is a massive
amplification of opioid receptor activity.
Marijuana mimics cannabinoid
neurotransmitters, the most important of
which is anandamide. Nicotine attaches to
receptors for acetylcholine, the
neurotransmitter for the cholinergic system.

Other drugs alter neurotransmission by

interacting with molecular components of the
sending and receiving process other than
receptors. Cocaine, for example, attaches to
the dopamine transporter, the molecular
conduit that draws free-floating dopamine out
of the synapse and back into the sending
neuron. As long as cocaine occupies the
transporter, dopamine cannot re-enter the
neuron. It builds up in the synapse,
stimulating receiving-neuron receptors more
copiously and producing much greater
dopamine impact on the receiving neurons
than occurs naturally. The section How
Cocaine Motivates Drug Use and Causes
Addiction.
Finally, some drugs alter neurotransmission
by means other than increasing or decreasing
the quantity of receptors stimulated.
Benzodiazepines, such as diazepam or
lorazepam, produce relaxation by enhancing
receiving neurons responses when the
inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA attaches to
their receptors.
Bibliography
https://www.drugabuse.gov/news-events/nida-
notes/2017/03/impacts-drugs-
neurotransmission
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PM
C80880/
https://lasvegasrecovery.com/how-drugs-
affect-neurotransmitters-and-the-brain-the-
basics/