Results From The 2014 NSDUH Report

In 2016 alone, more than 64,000 Americans died from a drug overdose, a sharp increase in the 52,404 deaths in 2015 (“Overdose Death Rates”). Substance abuse is an epidemic in this country and seems to be getting worse, despite various anti-drug campaigns. Surely there must be an effective way to stop this trend from increasing? In order to effectively stop this epidemic, the underlying causes of why people abuse drugs must be addressed. Treating the underlying causes of addiction is the best way to combat it because addiction is often caused by mental illnesses; drugs are able to affect one’s brain, resulting in a continued craving for a substance; and those struggling with substance abuse issues were aided by integrated therapy programs that

The text states, “Results from the 2014 NSDUH report showed that of those adults with any mental illness, 18.2% had a substance use disorder, while those adults with no mental illness only had a 6.3% rate of substance use disorder in the past year” (“Prevention of Substance Abuse and Mental Illness”). There is a strong correlation between those with substance abuse disorders also having a mental illness. Although this is only a correlation, if one were to address and treat the mental illness(es), then there may be a decrease in the rate of substance abuse among those with mental illnesses. In “Drugs, Brains,

When one abuses drugs, their brain is altered and affected in a way that causes them to continue to use drugs. In “Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction”, published by the NIDA, drugs are able to influence and alter the brain in many ways that may lead to addiction. The article states, “Most drugs of abuse directly or indirectly target the brain’s reward system by flooding the circuit with dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter present in regions of the brain that regulate movement, emotion, motivation, and feelings of pleasure [...] Overstimulating the system with drugs, however, produces euphoric effects, which strongly reinforce the behavior of drug use—teaching the user to repeat it” (“Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction”). When someone uses a drug, it causes the user to feel strong feelings of euphoria. Since the user is feeling such overwhelming amounts of euphoria, the user will continue to abuse the drug in order to have those feelings again. This leads to drug addiction in the user, as they will continuously use the drug in order to replicate the pleasure that they felt. In the text, it states, “[...] the brain adjusts to the overwhelming surges in dopamine (and other neurotransmitters) by producing less dopamine or by reducing the number of receptors that can receive signals. As a result, dopamine’s impact on the reward circuit of the brain