After all, what is the relationship between drug use and mental disorders?Drug use is the cause of a large number of deaths each year worldwide. In 2017, the UN prepared a comprehensive report on drug use. In the previous year, the number of deaths from consumption was found to have increased by 114%.
The pleasurable effects they have on the brain, somehow diverting the reward system, lead the person to become dependent. Prolonged use can lead to neuronal impairment that affects motivation, emotions, cognition and executive control. All of this, in some cases, can result in the development of a mental disorder.
- And what is a mental disorder? According to the clinical definition of DSM-5.
- Mental disorder can be understood as a syndrome characterized by a clinically significant change in an individual’s cognitive.
- Emotional regulation and behavior that reflects a dysfunction of the underlying psychological.
- Biological or developmental processes.
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter released by the brain, of all its functions, the most important for us on several occasions is the reward of pleasure, that is, when we do something that we love, dopamine is released, which generates a pleasant feeling. Then our body tends to repeatedly look for these activities that cause good sensations to feel this feeling of fullness again.
Food and sex are elements that release dopamine, like drugs, all will release amounts of dopamine in very specific areas, such as the nucleus accumbens, this nucleus will have a great participation in the brain reward system and the integration of motivation into the action. This area maintains strong connections to the limbic system and hippocampus.
Neurons are the cells of the nervous system responsible for receiving, managing and storing information, between neurons there is a space called synaptic space, this space is very important because it releases neurotransmitters that allow chemical communication between neurons, release dopamine and found in this synaptic space.
This implies that when an addictive substance is consumed dopamine levels increase in synaptic space, in this sense drugs can increase the release of dopamine in this space, but they can also partially block reception, so the result is the same. This increase in dopamine levels in synaptic space will cause pleasurable and euphoric effects.
Basically, drugs have the same physiological effect as any natural reinforcement, such as an complicit conversation with a great friend, the problem is that the intensity of their effect is much greater, so the rest of natural reinforcements end up being insufficient?Then feeling the sensations that the drug brings us, there is its great appeal.
Assumptions that have always emerged without numerous studies to support them – they claim that a deficit in dopamine levels either naturally, whether for lack of reinforcements, sources of pleasure or well-being – would make us more predisposed to drug use.
In this way, by not being able to release enough dopamine, the person could abuse these dopamine release activities to achieve the same pleasurable effects, however, it should not be forgotten that even if a good volume of research is beginning to be generated, it is a theory that still needs a lot of empirical support to consolidate.
As we announced at the beginning of the article, drug use can be the trigger for a mental disorder, whether temporary or permanent.
DSM-V refers to substance poisoning and withdrawal as a disorder in itself; however, there are other types of mental disorders induced by this type of substance, some have a higher incidence than others or appear at specific times, the most characteristic are: psychotic, bipolar, depressive and anxiety disorders, all occur not only at the time of intoxication (the immediate effects of medications), but also during withdrawal. Even in some cases, some medications may even generate spectra of schizophrenia.
In this sense, psychotic disorders are characterized by impaired cognitive functions of the brain, which can lead to loss of intellectual abilities. Such abnormalities in cognitive components are of different types.
These are changes that affect the senses
They can be divided into two types:
Drugs have harmful effects at different levels or levels of the person, so their effects are so devastating, not only cause serious damage to the physical condition of the body, but, as we have seen, can lead to serious alterations or mental limitations. The treatment of these people should be individualized, depending on the specific pathology they suffer and taking into account the social, environmental and psychobiological circumstances that led them to consume and maintain consumption.