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Essay On Prescription Drug Abuse

1563 Words7 Pages

Addiction and abuse of prescription drugs is a problem that can easily develop unnoticed. Abuse of prescription drugs includes taking more pills than the assigned dosage, combining the pills with other substances such as alcohol, and seeing multiple doctors to re issue a prescription without it being necessary. The users might even use the prescription correctly for a short period before transitioning to experimentation and finally abuse. ( Aschenbrenner, & Venable (2009), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) reports that 52 million people older than the age of 12 in the United States have at one time in their lives used prescription drugs for nonmedical reasons. Continuous abuse of drugs as pain killers(opiates), sedatives, tranquilizers, and other stimulants is what generally, leads to addiction. The addiction affects motivation, memory, and reward centers in the brain and this is manifested through social biological, and psychological symptoms. However, the focus is on the physiological symptoms which include long- term prescription drug abusers experiencing changes in neurotransmitters and receptors in the brain. These changes are directly associated with changes in mental functioning and behavior which makes recovery difficult. Any type of drug can change the way people act, feel, and think …show more content…

This is where drug abuse is associated with an individual’s daily routine or an indicator in the environment. When the individual is exposed to these indicators, irresistible cravings for the drug are triggered whether the drug is available or not. The exposure to the indicators makes the dopamine rise in the reward circuit which in turn reawakens powerful desires to consume the drug. This ‘reflex’ that is learnt over a period can be extremely strong that they can affect a former drug user who has abstained from the drug for many

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