Download The Teenage Brain and Substance Abuse

Remember, your brain grows until what
age ____???
 Also, the amygdala is
_______________which makes your brain
more sensitive to new, exciting,
dangerous experiences
 Habit formation peaks now!

Your Brain is STILL GROWING


You have COMPLETE
control over your
decisions
Alcohol and Drugs
do impact:
› your brain growth
› Memory
› Learning
› Judgment
› Your life!

Drugs affect 3 main areas of the brain:
› 1. Brain stem (medulla oblongata)
 in charge of “4 B’s”: breathing, heart beat,
body temp and blood pressure
› 2. Limbic system (amygdala is in here)
 Links together brain structures that control
emotions like pleasure and pain
› 3. Prefrontal cortex
 Decision making center
Brain is very complex with billions of neurons
that control all we feel, think & do.

Drugs are chemicals and work by interfering with
the way the brain and neurotransmitters work
› What we saw on the last slide

Some drugs can change the brain temporarily,
others change it permanently
› Marijuana and heroin activate neurons because they
mimic neurotransmitters and send abnormal messages
to brain
› Amphetamines and cocaine cause neurons to release
excessive amounts of natural neurotransmitters or
prevent transporters from recycling; causing
exaggerated messages in the brain

All drugs affect the brain’s “reward” circuit in the
limbic system

Normally the reward circuit responds to pleasurable
experiences by releasing certain neurotransmitters
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Endorphins: the feel good, warm fuzzy one
Dopamine: pleasure, positive, motivation
Theobromine: stimulant, energy
Anandimide: cannabinoid, hallucinogenic
Phenylthylamine: “love drug”
Drugs hijack this system, causing unusually large
amounts of neurotransmitters to flood the brain  this
is the “High”
At first, people tend to feel positively about
the high and they feel in control over their
use
 Most common reasons teens say they do
drugs or alcohol:

› Risky, curious, adult-like, funny, exciting, cool,
why not?, nothing better to do
› “experimentation”, “I’m not going to get
addicted”, I know how to control myself and still
have fun
› Makes them forget about their “issues” for awhile
What’s so wrong with getting
high?

TOLERANCE (know this term)
› Over time, you need more and more of the drug
to achieve the same high
› Drugs then become necessary for the person to
feel “normal”

Drug users have physical changes in their
brain that are critical to judgment, decisionmaking, learning, memory, and behavior
Marijuana Use
Before
After
Key Point: Because your brain is still
growing, addiction can happen very fast
 Addiction: is a disease which typically
begins in childhood or adolescence


A complex brain disease characterized
by:
› Compulsive or uncontrollable
› drug craving, seeking, & use
› that continues despite negative
consequences

Drugs disturb a person’s normal hierarchy
of needs and desires and substitutes new
priorities concerned with obtaining and
using the drug.



It depends:
› How long did they use?
› What drug and how much of it?
› Brain is a vital organ so repair and recovery of the
addicted brain depends on targeted and effective
treatments that must address the complexity of the
disease.
› Research continues to gain new insights into ways to
optimize treatments to counteract addiction's powerful
disruptive effects on brain and behavior
What works best: prolonged abstinence, our brains can
recover some of their former functioning, enabling people to
regain control of their lives.
However, relapsing to drug abuse is not only possible but
likely
Drug Identification Test

http://www.bbc.co.
uk/suffolk/content/i
mage_galleries/drug
_awareness_2007_ga
llery.shtml

National Institute of Health (NIH) (2010). Addiction.
http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements/nih2/Addiction/guid
e/essence.htm

National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) (2010). Drug Abuse and
Addiction.
http://drugabuse.gov/scienceofaddiction/addiction.html

Markowski, M. (2010). Education in Human Development and Family
Science at Penn State University and Texas Women’s University.
1.
Neurons in the brain communicate with
each other by:
›
›
›
2.
A. passing axons
B. releasing chemicals
C. instant messaging
When do you something you enjoy, you
________ system is activated
›
›
›
A. limbic
B. digestive
C. nervous

3. When someone uses drugs repeatedly,
their brain ________________
› A. becomes trained to crave the drug
› B. Becomes smaller than before
› C. is not changed

4. After a prolonged period of drug abuse,
the brain _______________
› A. needs less drug to get the same effect
› B. needs more drug to get the same effect
› C. experiences increasing amounts of dopamine

5. The brain’s reward system is part of the
____________
› A. sensory cortex
› B. limbic system
› C. spinal cord

6. Brain cells or neurons turn electrical
impulses into ___________› A. chemical signals
› B. movement
› C. axons

7. Drugs work in the brain because they have
similar _____________
› A. electrical charges as brain cells
› B. size and shape as natural brain chemicals

8. Drugs of abuse create intense feelings
because they __________-.
› A. depress the nervous system
› B. cause a rise in dopamine in the limbic system

9. drug abusers develop “tolerance” for drugs,
meaning they need ______________
› A. more drug to get same effect
› B. less drug to get same effect