Typically, most prescription drugs within this category can result in euphoric feelings that prompt you to up their usage. Ultimately, stimulants will raise your heart rate and blood pressure upon consumption. As such, consuming excessive amounts of stimulants can lead to heart failure or irregular heartbeat. However, it’s essential to fully understand that these prescriptions usually determine the symptoms you may exhibit. An increasingly prevalent issue in Canada, prescription medication abuse affects all age groups, including teenagers.
Emotional effects of prescription drugs abuse
All prescription drugs have numerous effects and side effects, it is important to understand the impact these effects can have on you as an individual. Prescription drug addiction can have a profound impact on prescription drug abuse mental health, potentially leading to depression and other psychological challenges. Additionally, the use of stimulant drugs can contribute to the development of anxiety issues, further complicating one’s mental well-being. Besides unwanted side effects, risks of prescription drugs may include drug interactions, allergic reactions, the development of drug resistance, and the possibility of dependence or addiction. Some prescription medications affect brain function by attaching to receptors, which control how the brain sends, receives, and interprets signals. By attaching to the receptors, the drugs prevent the body’s own neurotransmitters from attaching to the receptors.
- A report from the Lown Institute shows that 42 percent of older adults take five or more prescription medications.
- Sometimes, the side effects can cause severe damages to your system capable of bringing death.
- Using certain prescription medications changes the way the reward system in the brain functions.
- And medications like anticholinergics, tricyclic antidepressants, antihistamines and anti-Parkinson’s drugs can trigger or worsen its symptoms.
- There are also people like you undergoing recovery in rehab with professionals helping them achieve wonderful results.
Why Do Teens Abuse Prescription Drugs?
- Simply put, a drug can become addictive when you use the drug against your doctor’s instructions.
- Teens are especially susceptible to the side effects of depressants as prescription drug abuse affects them on an increasing level each year in the US.
- It can even expose you to taking more significant risks that may lead to injuries.
- A model for reduced use as an endpoint exists with treatments for alcohol use disorder.
Common brand-name prescription stimulants include Adderall, Ritalin, Dexedrine, and Benzedrine. Get evidence-based treatment to overcome prescription drug addiction at Renaissance Recovery. Although sundowning syndrome – a state of confusion or agitation that occurs late in the afternoon and stretches into evening – is typically linked to Alzheimer’s, it can occur with any type of dementia. And medications like anticholinergics, tricyclic antidepressants, antihistamines and anti-Parkinson’s drugs can trigger or worsen its symptoms. Other substances – alcohol and nicotine, for example – can also cause sundowning, says Merrey. A report from the Lown Institute shows that 42 percent of older adults take five or more prescription medications.
Addiction Treatments
This can lead to decreased cognitive function, impairing many of the activities that you engage in every day. But what many people don’t realize is that a number of commonly prescribed drugs also can interfere with memory. Here, we’ll delve into seven types of drugs that may cause memory loss and explore alternative treatment options. Little research has been conducted on alternative endpoints in opioid use disorder treatment, but it will be needed to advance medication development in this area.
Depressant prescription medications can make you depressed, confused, and irritable. And prescription drug addiction in the form of depressants increases your chances of more dangerous outcomes drug addiction and withdrawal symptoms like overdose, slowed breathing and heart rate, and even death. When abused, prescription drugs can be just as dangerous, and as deadly as illegal drugs and cause drug dependence and eventually addiction.
Physical effects of drug misuse
Drugs that affect short-term memory can interfere with a person’s ability to focus and process information. These medications disrupt so-called messenger pathways in the brain, Merrey says, “changing the short-term memory processing.” Once a person stops taking the medications, however, short-term memory improves. For many people trying to recover from a substance use disorder, perhaps for the majority, abstinence may be the most appropriate treatment objective.
