Approximately 20 percent of the U.S. population have taken prescription drugs for a nonmedical reason at least one time in their lives, according to the National Institutes of Health. Although prescription medications are considered safe for short-term use, extended use can alter the brain's activity and cause serious side effects. Stimulants, opioids and central nervous system depressants---commonly prescribed for sleep disorders and anxiety---represent the three categories of the most frequently abused prescription drugs.
According to MedlinePlus, a medical information resource established by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, drug abuse is defined as the use of illegal drugs or the misuse of prescribed or over-the-counter medication for at ...
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, psychotropic medications are not intended to cure psychiatric conditions, but rather facilitate symptom management depending on the brain chemicals targeted. In brief, psych...
Drugs such as narcotics and pharmaceutical or prescribed medications can be abused by people and result in severe effects on the brain. Abuse can cause short-term memory impairment, damage cognitive abilities of the brain and ...
A pain medication, fentanyl binds to the opioid receptors in the brain. The National Institute on Drug Abuse explains that when fentanyl binds to these receptors, it increases the amount of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which ...
Dopamine, according to the University of Utah's Genetic Science Learning Center, is the brain's own "feel-good" chemical that triggers the reward system response. This reward system gives off the euphoria associated with drugs ...
Psychoactive, psychotropic or mind-altering drugs change behavior by acting on the central nervous system, or CNS, which includes the brain and spinal cord. Psychopharmacology is the study of how psychoactive drugs affect the ...
Researchers believe that medications that act on the brain do so by affecting the way nerves transmit signals. However, each type of drug acts by a different mechanism. A variety of chemical substances in the brain serves as ne...
While hallucinogenic drugs come from a variety of sources, such as plants, fungi, chemicals and even the occasional poisonous frog, they all work by manipulating the chemistry of the human brain. Due to the prohibition of hallu...
Both drugs and alcohol affect the brain as soon as a person uses them, altering neurotransmitter levels in the brain, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse. Neurotransmitters send signals throughout the brain, and a...
Barbiturates are depressants that have a variety of medical uses. Their therapeutic use has declined in recent years, however, because of the possibility of abuse. Like many medications that work as depressants, the pharmacolog...
According to the National Institutes of Health, marijuana is the most abused illegal drug in the United States. Derived from the hemp plant Cannabis sativa, the active ingredient in marijuana is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, wh...
