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The gateway drug effect (alternatively, stepping-stone theory, escalation hypothesis, or progression hypothesis) is a comprehensive catchphrase for the often observed effect that the use of a psychoactive substance is coupled to an increased probability of the use of further substances.
A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. [1] Consumption of drugs can be via inhalation, injection, smoking, ingestion, absorption via a patch on the skin, suppository, or dissolution under the tongue.
Drug misuse is a term used commonly when prescription medication with sedative, anxiolytic, analgesic, or stimulant properties is used for mood alteration or intoxication ignoring the fact that overdose of such medicines can sometimes have serious adverse effects. It sometimes involves drug diversion from the individual for whom it was prescribed.
The drug riluzole is a neuroprotective drug that blocks sodium ion channels. Since these channels cannot activate, there is no action potential, and the neuron does not perform any transduction of chemical signals into electrical signals and the signal does not move on. This drug is used as an anesthetic as well as a sedative. [8]
In adverse drug reactions involving overdoses, the toxic effect is simply an extension of the pharmacological effect (Type A adverse drug reactions). On the other hand, clinical symptoms of idiosyncratic drug reactions (Type B adverse drug reactions) are different from the pharmacological effect of the drug.
In Europe as of 2007, Sweden spends the second highest percentage of GDP, after the Netherlands, on drug control. [12] The UNODC argues that when Sweden reduced spending on education and rehabilitation in the 1990s in a context of higher youth unemployment and declining GDP growth, illicit drug use rose [13] but restoring expenditure from 2002 again sharply decreased drug use as student ...
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. [31] This form of addiction changes brain circuitry such that the brain's reward system is compromised, [ 32 ] causing functional consequences for stress ...
When two drugs affect each other, it is a drug–drug interaction (DDI). The risk of a DDI increases with the number of drugs used. [1] A large share of elderly people regularly use five or more medications or supplements, with a significant risk of side-effects from drug–drug interactions. [2] Drug interactions can be of three kinds: