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U3L1 Student Guide

This document discusses how drugs affect the developing adolescent brain. It explains that initiation of substance abuse typically progresses from alcohol and tobacco to illegal drugs in later teen years. The adolescent brain is still maturing and has differing sensitivity to drugs compared to adult brains. Drug exposure during adolescence can lead to long-term changes in brain structure and function. Nicotine exposure may sensitize the teen brain to other drugs. The document also describes how drugs disrupt normal brain communication and how dopamine release can reinforce drug cravings and addiction. Different drugs have varying impacts on the brain depending on their chemical structures and routes of administration.

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Josie
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428 views

U3L1 Student Guide

This document discusses how drugs affect the developing adolescent brain. It explains that initiation of substance abuse typically progresses from alcohol and tobacco to illegal drugs in later teen years. The adolescent brain is still maturing and has differing sensitivity to drugs compared to adult brains. Drug exposure during adolescence can lead to long-term changes in brain structure and function. Nicotine exposure may sensitize the teen brain to other drugs. The document also describes how drugs disrupt normal brain communication and how dopamine release can reinforce drug cravings and addiction. Different drugs have varying impacts on the brain depending on their chemical structures and routes of administration.

Uploaded by

Josie
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Unit 3: Effect of Drugs on the Brain

Student Guide Lesson 1

1. What are the objectives?


 create a mind map
 contrast physical changes
 describe ways drug work
 why they cause different effects
2. How does current drug use negatively progress over time?
 Initiation of substance abuse in teen years typically progresses from alcohol and tobacco use
use to illegal substances at later ages
 The rapidly changing immature adolescent brain has differing sensitivity to drugs.
 Drug exposure in adolescence can lead to long-term changes in brain and behavior
 Nicotine exposure, increasingly occurring as a result of e-cigarette use, may induce changes
that sensitize the teen brain to other drugs and prime it for future substances.

3. How do drugs affect the brain?


 Drugs are chemicals
 When someone puts chemicals in their body, either by smoking, injecting, inhaling, or eating
them, they disrupt the brain’s communication system and tamper with the way nerves cells
normally send, receive, and process information
 Different drugs – because of their chemical structures – work differently

4. How does dopamine cause addiction?


 Normal, non-drug circumstances – the reward circuit responds to healthy, pleasurable
activities by releasing the neurotransmitter dopamine, which teaches other parts of the brain
to repeat those activities
 With drug use – drugs take control releasing large amounts of dopamine – first in response to
the drug but later mainly in response to other cues associated with the drug
 The brain remembers this feeling and sends out an intense motivation to seek and use the
drug again
 dopamine reinforces the desire to use drugs.

5. Define what a drug is.


Any chemical put into the body that changes mental state or body function

U3L1 Student Guide 1


6. How do drugs work in the brain?
 There are hundreds of ways drugs work in the brain
 Imitating or preventing the brain’s natural chemical messengers
 addictive drugs affect the brain’s reward system

7. How do different drugs have different effects?


 Drugs that affect behavior do so by getting into the brain, and affecting the normal process of
transmission
 Drugs vary significantly regarding the impact they have on the brain
 In fact, drugs are classified based upon their psychological impact on the brain and body
 They can slow the brain down or speed things up, make you feel sleepy, anxious, euphoric,
dizzy, and more
8. Fill in the table below.

Administration Route Description Example

inhalaion into the lungs smoking

Injection Intramuscular – into a steroids


skeletal muscle

Intravenous – delivered
directly into circulation

Subcutaneous – under the


skin

oral By mouth pills

Absorption Transdermal – absorbed into Path or paste


systemic circulation for long
term continuous delivery Eyedrops, nasal
decongestant, powder, lotion,
ointment

Topical – effect occurs at the


site its applied to

U3L1 Student Guide 2


9. What is the summary?
 The teen brain is still developing
 drugs can interfere with proper brain development
 Different drugs and routs of administration have different effects on the brain
 Some drugs affect the regions of the brain responsible for new learning
 addiction may develop faster in teens

U3L1 Student Guide 3

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