Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Addiction is a brain disorder characterized by compulsive drug use despite adverse consequences. [36] [56] [57] [58] Addiction involves the overstimulation of the brain's mesocorticolimbic reward circuit (reward system), essential for motivating behaviors linked to survival and reproductive fitness, like seeking food and sex. [59]
“The brain changes, and it doesn’t recover when you just stop the drug because the brain has been actually changed,” Kreek explained. “The brain may get OK with time in some persons. But it’s hard to find a person who has completely normal brain function after a long cycle of opiate addiction, not without specific medication treatment.”
The latter reflects physical dependence in which the body adapts to the drug, requiring more of it to achieve a certain effect (tolerance) [25] and eliciting drug-specific physical or mental symptoms if drug use is abruptly ceased (withdrawal). Physical dependence can happen with the chronic use of many drugs—including even appropriate ...
Opioids work in the brain to produce a variety of effects, including pain relief. As a class of substances, they act on opioid receptors to produce morphine-like effects. [2] [3] The terms 'opioid' and 'opiate' are sometimes used interchangeably, but there are key differences based on the manufacturing processes of these medications. [4]
It's no secret that heroin, of the opioid drug family, is a dangerous epidemic in the United States. The number of U.S. deaths from heroin per year has spiked from roughly 3,000 in 2008 to roughly ...
Drug addiction, which belongs to the class of substance-related disorders, is a chronic and relapsing brain disorder that features drug seeking and drug abuse, despite their harmful effects. [28] This form of addiction changes brain circuitry such that the brain's reward system is compromised, [ 29 ] causing functional consequences for stress ...
In psychopharmacology, researchers are interested in any substance that crosses the blood–brain barrier and thus has an effect on behavior, mood, or cognition. Drugs are researched for their physiochemical properties, physical side effects, and psychological side effects.
The heroin and opioid abuse epidemic is hitting America hard with heroin use more than doubling in the past decade among young adults, according to the CDC. While the dire statistics tell the ...