Legalization of Drugs Discussion Paper.
1. Should marijuana be legalized, yes or no?
2. Support your answer with facts found in the chapter, the video, the slides or some other source you find.
3. You post should be a minimum of 150 words.
4. Give an informed response to two of you classmates as to whether you agree or disagree with their position. Legalization of Drugs Discussion Paper.
What is consciousness?
Consciousness = Awareness; Selective attention to ongoing perceptions, thoughts and feelings.
Selective attention: The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus.
“cocktail party effect” The ability to attend selectively to one voice among many.
TYPES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
1. Consciousness as sensory awareness: Sensory awareness of the environment ( vision, hearing, etc.).
2. Consciousness as direct inner awareness: Knowledge of one’s own thoughts, feelings and memories without use of sensory organs.
3. Consciousness as personal unity: Refers to the sense of self. We differentiate us from that which is not us. Self = The totality of our impressions, thoughts and feelings.
TYPES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
4. Consciousness as the waking state: Refers to the waking state as opposed to the state of sleep.
Altered states of consciousness: Those states other than the normal waking state. (sleep, meditation, hypnosis and drug induced altered states). Legalization of Drugs Discussion Paper.
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SLEEP QUIZ
TRUE OR FALSE?
Some people never dream.
Dreams have special or symbolic meaning.
It has been proven that people need 8 hours of sleep to maintain mental health.
When genital arousal occurs during sleep, it is an indication that the sleeper is having a sexual dream.
SLEEP QUIZ CONTINUED
5. Dreams are only experienced in black and white.
6. If we lose some sleep, we will eventually make up all the lost sleep the next night or another night.
7. No one has been able to go for more than 48 hours without sleep.
SLEEP QUIZ CONTINUED
8. Our muscles are the most relaxed of the night when we are dreaming.
9. Sleep enables the brain to rest because minimal brain activity takes place during sleep.
10. Drugs have been proven to provide a long term cure for sleeplessness.
11. Blind people do not dream.
Answers: They are ALL False
FUNCTIONS OF SLEEP
1. Rest: sleep enables us to recharge our physical and psychological batteries.
2. Energy conservation: Our metabolism slows down during sleep.
3. Memory consolidation and emotional discharge:
4. Safety: Sleep provides a respite from the food chain.
FUNCTIONS OF SLEEP CONTINUED
5. Growth and repair: Human growth hormone (HGH).
SLEEP DEPRIVATION:
Mood changes
Decline in cognitive functions
Weight gain: in ghrelin & in leptin
Impaired immune system
Decrease in motor skills
TYPES OF SLEEPERS
1. Long sleepers (need 9 or more hours) vs short sleepers (fine with 6 or less)
2. Rigid sleepers (have to sleep at the same time every night) vs flexible sleepers
3. Nappers vs non nappers
4. Larks (up at the crack of dawn) vs owls (come alive at night, cannot go to bed early)
HOW IS SLEEP STUDIED?
electroencephalogram: Converts the brains electrical activity into visible waves.
Additional monitors:
– heart rate
– respiration
– body temperature
– blood pressure
eye movements
muscle tone
BRAIN WAVES
Brain waves produced during the awake state:
Alpha waves: Associated with a relaxed but awake state. (sitting at a park bench, relaxing at the beach, etc.)
2. Beta: Associated with an alert, concentrating, and problem solving state. (Taking a test, etc.)
STAGES OF SLEEP
Stage 1= Theta wave sleep: This is the lightest stage of sleep. We remain in this stage for approximately 15 minutes.10% of total sleep time is spent here. Myoclonic jerks are common.
Stage 2 = Sleep spindles: Rapid bursts of electrical activity. An occasional K-complex may appear. This occurs in response to some external sound that the brain picks up but does not awaken us. Makes up 45% of total sleep time. High thalamic activity occurs during this stage.
STAGES OF SLEEP
Stage 3 = Delta wave sleep: Muscles are limps, breathing is very shallow.
Stage 4 = Delta wave sleep: At least half of the brain activity is composed of delta waves.
Stage 3&4 make up 25% of one’s total sleep time. HGH is released during deep sleep.
** Stage 4 is the deepest stage of sleep where one is physiologically near death. One remains at this stage for about 15-20 minutes.
REM SLEEP
Stage 5 = REM sleep: Following stage 4. The brain waves of the earlier stages begin to appear. Stage 3, Stage 2, and even Stage 1. After this, the person begins to manifest Rapid Eye Movement (REM), and this marks the entrance into the final sleep stage. Comprises 25% of our total sleep time. Low hippocampus activity observed.
** REM sleep is the stage where vivid dreams occur.
Watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNlp0UMqUtM
SLEEP CYCLE
– Going from stage 1 to stage 4 = 30 to 45 minutes.
Following stage 4, the order is reversed, 3,2,1, then REM.
The brain waves produced at stage 1 are not the same a when one started to fall asleep.
They are bursts of very rapid, irregular waves.
Going from stage 1 to REM sleep = 1 sleep cycle.
SLEEP CYCLE
– It takes approximately 90 minutes to complete one sleep cycle.
– We undergo about 5 trips through the sleep cycles every night.
Sleep Architecture: The structural organization of sleep (NREM vs REM sleep, stage progression)
** As the night progresses, sleep tends to become lighter and REM periods become longer.
DEEP SLEEP
Most deep sleep occurs during the first two sleep cycles, especially the first.
As the night progresses, deep sleep declines and is replaced by the lighter stage 2 sleep, and increased REM time.
Deep sleep is extremely effective in decreasing the sleep drive that builds steadily over the course of the day.
DEEP SLEEP and NAPS
Taking a short nap (20 minutes) may not affect nighttime sleep because one does not have enough time to cycle into deep sleep.
Taking a longer nap (45 minutes) may result in a decrease of the sleep drive, making it harder to fall asleep at night.
Access to deep sleep is affected by stress, aging, drugs and sleep disruption.
REM SLEEP
– REM sleep is also called Paradoxical sleep because certain areas of the brain and various body systems are quit active.
– Heart rate, blood pressure and respiration all increase during REM sleep.
– Small twitches in the face and fingers may occur.
– In males, erection of the penis and in females vaginal lubrication.
REM SLEEP
– Both males and females experience increased blood flow (tumescence) to the pelvic region.
– Most of ones muscles are limp, preventing the brain from producing physical movement.
– In the later parts of the night, stages 3 and 4 become shorter or disappear.
– The sleep cycles become very irregular. The person may go from 4 to 2 or from REM to 2 to REM.
REM SLEEP
– REM sleep takes up about 20 to 25% of the total sleep time.
– The first REM period may be 10 minutes long. The last one, 60 minutes.
– Brain metabolism increases by as much as 20% during REM sleep.
– The brain’s electrical activity during REM is similar to the waking state.
SLOW WAVE SLEEP VS REM SLEEP
SWS REM
Heart rate slow decline variable with high bursts
Respiration slow decline same as above
Temp. control maintained impaired
Brain temp. decreased increased
Cerebral blood reduced high
flow
SLOW WAVE SLEEP VS REM SLEEP
SWS REM
Postural tension progressively eliminated reduced
Knee jerk reflex normal suppressed
Phasic twitches reduced increased
Eye movements Infrequent; slow rapid
Cognitive state vague thoughts vivid dreams
Hormone secretion high low
SLEEP AND THE BRAIN
– During REM sleep the level of Acetylcholine increases in the brain.
– During REM sleep the levels of norepinephrine and serotonin decrease.
Melatonin: A hormone secreted by the pineal gland and is involved in getting the body ready for sleep. Causes increased activity in the thalamus.
– The body starts melatonin secretion around 9 P.M.
DREAMS
– During REM dreams, the right hemisphere is very active as well as the primary visual cortex.
– The prefrontal cortex is suppressed during REM sleep.
– Memory areas (hippocampus) are also suppressed during REM sleep.
– The REM state appears to be controlled by neural mechanisms in the brainstem.
DREAMS
– The vivid and often complex mental experiences we call dreams appear to be associated with the forebrain.
– Dream reports of REM sleep are characterized by visual imagery, whereas dream reports of non REM sleep are of a more “thinking” type.
DREAMS
– REM dreams are more likely to include a story that involves odd perceptions and the sense that “you are there” experiencing sights, sounds, smells and acts.
– Subjects awakened from non- REM dreams report thinking about problems rather than seeing themselves in a stage presentation.
Lucid dream: A dream in which the dreamer is aware of dreaming.
THEORIES OF DREAMS
1. Freud’s view: Dreams = wish fulfillment ( to satisfy unconscious sexual and aggressive desires). Manifest content: The remembered part of the dream. Latent content: The true meaning of the dream.
2. Activation synthesis hypothesis: Dreams = the brains attempt to make sense of the random firing of neurons.
THEORIES OF DREAMS
3. Cognitive theory: Dreams = Thinking while sleeping. (The dream is an expression of the dreamer’s concerns. They focus on the manifest content).
4. Evolutionary theory: Dreams = Protective function. (Dreams provide the dreamer with an opportunity to rehearse strategies for possible real life situations).
SLEEP TERMS
Sleep latency: The amount of time it takes to fall asleep after the lights have been turned off.
Sleep latency is related to sleep efficiency: the amount of time one spends in bed actually sleeping. 85% sleep efficiency= normal; above 90% = very good. Lower than 85% = poor.
SLEEP TERMS
sleep debt: the overall effect of not getting enough sleep. Sleep debt can accumulate over time leading to mental and physical fatigue, in cortisol.
– Sleep debt can cause someone to fall asleep quickly. Falling asleep almost immediately after lying down is a sign of sleep debt and a sign that one needs to get more sleep on a nightly basis.
Sleep latency scale: 0-5 severe; 5-10 troublesome; 10-15 manageable; 15-20 excellent. Best if tested either at 10 AM, 12:30 P.M. or 3 P.M.
SLEEP-WAKE DISORDERS
Insomnia: The most common sleep disorder.
– Involves dissatisfaction with sleep quantity or quality with complaints of difficulty initiating sleep (sleep onset greater than 20-30 minutes) or maintaining sleep (time awake after sleep onset of greater than 20-30 minutes)or early awakening (at least 30 minutes before scheduled time).
Nonrestorative sleep: A complaint of poor sleep quality that does not leave the individual rested upon awakening despite adequate duration. Often due to lack of deep sleep (delta wave sleep).
SLEEP-WAKE DISORDERS
About one third (33%) of the adult population report insomnia symptoms.
Symptoms of insomnia can occur at any time in life, but first episode is more common in young adulthood (20s-30s).
Course of insomnia can be episodic and likely to accompany stressful occurrences.
Females > Males suffer from insomnia
2. Hypersomnolence Disorder: Excessive sleepiness (hypersomnolence) despite a main sleep period lasting at least 7 hours, with at least one of the following symptoms:
HYPERSOMNOLENCE DISORDER
1) recurrent periods of sleep or lapses into sleep within the same day.
2) A prolonged main sleep episode of more than 9 hours per day that is nonrestorative.
3) Difficulty being fully awake after abrupt awakening.
– The hypersomnolence occurs at least 3 times per week, for at least 3 months.
NARCOLEPSY
3. Narcolepsy: Uncontrollable sleep attacks occurring at least 3 times/week over the past 3 months. Accompanied by one of the following: 1.cataplexy: brief(seconds to minutes) episodes of bilateral loss of muscle tone with maintained consciousness that are precipitated by laughter or joking. 2. Hypocretin deficiency (Low levels of hypocretin in the brain may be a possible cause).
Watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OuEDV1hBYw
SLEEP DISORDERS
3. Hypnogogic hallucinations. 4. Automatic behavior: Person continues to function (talking, putting things away, etc.) during sleep episodes but awakens with no memory of performing such activities.
4. Sleep apnea: Characterized by the temporary cessation of breathing during sleep and consequent momentary re-awakenings. Three types: obstructive, central & complex sleep apnea.
SLEEP DISORDERS
Parasomnias: Characterized by abnormal behavioral or physiological events occurring in association with sleep.
– Most occur during stages 3 and 4.
1. REM sleep behavior disorder: Person acts out their dreams.
2. Sleep terror disorder: (night terrors): Occurs within two to three hours of falling asleep.
SLEEP DISORDER
Characterized by high arousal and an appearance of being terrified. The sufferer very seldom awakens fully and recalls little or nothing the next morning.
– The person may sit up or walk around, talk incoherently, experience elevated heart rate and breathing. The person appears terrified.
** Night terrors are not nightmares, which occur during REM and are recalled.
SLEEP DISORDER
3. Sleepwalking (somnambulism): Typically occurs during deep sleep (stages 3 and 4). Person usually has their eyes open in a stare. The person is unable to respond during the event and does not remember the event. Sleep walking is most common during middle childhood (6-12). Boys>Girls. Sleepwalking tends to run in families and occurs more frequently among identical twins. Legalization of Drugs Discussion Paper.
SLEEP DISORDER
4. Sleeptalking: (somniloquy): Occurs in all stages of sleep. The talk usually involves the sleepers life concerns. No deep secrets are revealed during the event.
5. Nightmare disorder: (dream anxiety disorder): The repeated experience of unpleasant dreams or nightmares.
MEDITATION
– helps relieve pain, anxiety and stress related illnesses.
– Meditator assumes a comfortable position in a quiet environment and focuses on his/her breathing or on a word, sound or phrase known as a mantra, that is repeated during meditation.
– Most common form of meditation in the United States is Transcendental Meditation (TM)
– The goal of TM is to expand consciousness
MEDITATION
– Herbert Benson (1975), from Harvard Medical School studied practitioners of TM and found no evidence that TM expands consciousness.
– Benson did find that TM produces what is called a Relaxation Response: A group of responses produced by meditation (lowered heart rate, blood pressure, metabolic rate and an increase in alpha waves).
TECHNIQUES OF MEDITATION
1. Opening up approaches:
– meditator seeks to clear his/her mind in order to receive new experiences.
2. Concentrative meditation:
– the person actively concentrates on an object, word or idea called a mantra.
– sometimes the person concentrates on a riddle called a koan.
TYPES OF MEDITATION
1. yoga
2. Zen
3. Transcendental meditation
4. Mindfulness meditation: Helps with severe pain.
EFFECTS OF MEDITATION:
Helps people relax (alpha waves); lowers respiration, heart rate, blood pressure and muscle tension; lowers cholesterol levels; alleviates depression.
HYPNOSIS
comes from the Greek word=sleep.
Hypnosis: A state of apparent heightened suggestibility.
When one is under hypnosis:
– your attention is more focused
– you are deeply relaxed and calm
– you are more open to suggestions and less critical or disbelieving.
HYPNOSIS
– The purpose of hypnosis is to help one gain more control over one’s behavior, emotions or physical well being.
– All hypnosis is self hypnosis, the hypnotist does not hypnotize the individual. Rather, the hypnotist serves as a coach or tutor whose job is to help the person become hypnotized.
– Very young children are relatively unresponsive to hypnosis.
HYPNOSIS
– People cannot be hypnotized against their will.
– Hypnotizability reaches a peak at about the onset of adolescence and then drops off among middle age and the elderly.
– About 15% of adults are very susceptible to hypnosis while 10% are not at all hypnotizable. Most adults fall somewhere in between.
– People who are highly hypnotizable will still be 25 years later ( “fantasy prone” people who become easily absorbed in imaginative activities).
HYPNOTHERAPY
Hypnotherapy: The use of hypnosis for therapeutic purposes.
– Hypnosis has been shown to be effective in the treatment of: headaches, asthma, warts, alcoholism, cigarette smoking, and weight reduction,
** Hypnosis has been most effective in dealing with pain management. Legalization of Drugs Discussion Paper.
HYPNOTIC SUGGESTION
posthypnotic suggestion: A suggestion given during a hypnosis session to be carried out after one is no longer hypnotized.
posthypnotic amnesia: Failure to recall what one experienced during a hypnosis session.
age regression: The supposed reliving of earlier experiences.
** Hypnotically refreshed memories tend to combine fact with fiction.
HYPNOSIS AND THE BRAIN
When one is hypnotized, one is first guided into a state of mental relaxation, here activity in the thalamus slows down.
Next, the person is guided into a state of mental absorption, here, cerebral blood flow and neural activity picks up.
– When hypnosis is used to anesthetize or reduce pain, the anterior cingulate cortex becomes more active.
DRUGS AND CONSCIOUSNESS
Drug: Any substance that modifies body functions such as the nervous system.
Psychoactive drugs: Substances that affect the central nervous system and alter consciousness and/or perceptions.
Licit drugs: Legal drugs (coffee, alcohol, tobacco, etc.).
Illicit drugs: Illegal drugs (marijuana, cocaine, LSD, etc.).
DRUGS AND CONSCIOUSNESS
Gateway drugs: Drugs that usually lead to stronger and more dangerous substances.
– Alcohol, tobacco and marijuana are three common gateway drugs.
Medicines: Drugs prescribed by a physician to prevent or treat symptoms of an illness.
SUBSTANCE ABUSE VS SUBSTANCE DEPENDENCE
substance abuse: A maladaptive pattern of substance use leading to significant impairment or distress.
Characteristics of substance abuse (past 12 months): 1. impairment in functioning (work,)
2. interpersonal or social impairment
3. substance related legal problems ( DUI,etc)
4. Use in situations in which it is physically hazardous (driving, operating heavy machinery,)
SUBSTANCE DEPENDENCE
Substance dependence: Continued use of a substance despite efforts to cut down or stop all together.
– characterized by tolerance and withdrawal
tolerance: The requiring of increasingly higher doses of a drug in order to achieve the same effect.
withdrawal (abstinence): A cluster of symptoms that result from the sudden decrease in the level of use of an addictive drug (anxiety, tremors, increase in pulse and blood pressure, restlessness, etc.)
SUBSTANCE DEPENDENCE
– substance dependence is more dangerous than substance abuse.
substance dependence = addiction
psychological dependence = habituation
** All drugs that are addicting also produce habituation, but not all drugs that produce habituation produce addiction.
CLASSIFICATION OF DRUGS
Psychoactive drugs are classified according to their effect on the Central Nervous System.
1. Depressants: Drugs that reduce the rate of activity in the CNS.
2. Stimulants: Drugs that increase the rate of activity in the CNS.
3. Hallucinogens: Drugs that give rise to distorted perceptions (hallucinations, etc.) Legalization of Drugs Discussion Paper.
DEPRESSANTS
1. Alcohol: Initially, it depresses subcortical inhibitions of the control center in the cerebral cortex, resulting in dis-inhibition.
– In higher doses, alcohol depresses the cerebellum, resulting in slurred speech and staggering gait.
– In very high doses, alcohol can depress the respiratory centers of the medulla, resulting in death.
DEPRESSANTS
– Alcohol alters the production and functioning of the neurotransmitters dopamine, serotonin, GABA, and the endorphins.
– Alcohol aggravates psychiatric conditions such as depression and schizophrenia.
ALCOHOL STATISTICS
11,000 people died in alcohol impaired crashes in 2017. That’s one person every 48 minutes.
Every day, almost 30 people in the United States die in alcohol-impaired vehicle crashes—
BAC legal limit is .08
ALCOHOL AND NEUROTRANSMITTERS
SHORT TERM USE: EXCESS USE:
GABA Glutamate
Serotonin Serotonin
Dopamine Aspartate
Endorphins
Adenosine
Glycine
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ALCOHOL ABSORPTION
Alcohol enters the body through the mouth where it already can enter the blood stream.
From the mouth it goes to the stomach, then small intestines then the blood stream.
95% of alcohol is metabolized by the liver. The other 5% is excreted through one’s breath, urine, sweat, saliva and breastmilk.
The liver metabolizes alcohol at a rate of .5 oz of alcohol per hour. ( 2 hours per every ounce)
ALCOHOL ABSORPTION
Blood alcohol level depends on the following:
Presence of food in the stomach
Rate of alcohol consumption
Concentration of the alcohol
Drinker’s body composition:
-muscle absorbs more alcohol than fat
– women have less of a chemical in the liver which breaks down alcohol so alcohol stays longer in their system.
BINGE DRINKING VS HEAVY DRINKING
Binge drinking = 4 drinks for women and 5 drinks for men within a two hour period.
Heavy Drinking = Engaging in binge drinking 5 times or more in the past month (30 days).
Body’s ability to metabolize alcohol decreases with age.
5oz of wine; 12oz beer; and 1.5 oz standard shot of spirits all have the same amount of alcohol. Legalization of Drugs Discussion Paper.
DEPRESSANTS
2. Barbiturates:
– increase GABA in the motor cortex, RAS,
– Barbital (Veronal) was the first barbiturate used medically.
*** Produce addiction, tolerance and habituation.
– Common Barbiturates: amobarbital(sodium amytal); pentobarbital(sodium nembutal).
DEPRESSANTS
3. Benzodiazepines: Minor tranquilizers
– Increase GABA
– In 1957 first Benzodiazepine was synthesized ( Librium)
– Common Benzodiazepines:
Alprazolam(Xanax); Clonazepam(Klonopin); Diazepam(Valium); Lorazepam(Ativan); Temazepam(Restoril). ** Benzodiazepines do not produce addiction, but do produce tolerance and habituation.
DEPRESSANTS
4. Narcotics: Powerful pain killers (analgesics)
– They target the endorphins
– Stimulate and enhance endorphin receptors
– Common narcotics include:
heroin, morphine, methadone, demerol, codeine, duragesic, dilaudid,
** narcotics produce addiction, tolerance and habituation.
STIMULANTS
1. Cocaine:
– Increase Dopamine, Serotonin, Epinephrine and norepinephrine levels in the brain.
– Produces a pleasurable, euphoric feeling
** Cocaine is not addicting or tolerance producing. But it is extremely habit forming.
STIMULANTS
2. Amphetamines: Increase alertness, excitation, and euphoria.
– Increase dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine and epinephrine levels in the brain.
– In 1970 the FDA restricted Amphetamine use to three medical problems: 1. narcolepsy; 2. ADHD; 3. Short term weight loss programs.
STIMULANTS
3. designer amphetamines: synthesized drugs that can mimic the psychoactive effects of amphetamines.
A. methcathinone ( “cat”): derived from amphetamine and methamphetamine that retains the CNS stimulating effects.
B. methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)
street name Ecstasy. Derived from amphetamine and methamphetamine that has prominent hallucinogenic effects in addition to CNS stimulation
STIMULANTS
4. Ritalin (methylphenidate): Used to treat ADHD in children.
** Amphetamines do not produce addiction but do produce tolerance and habituation.
– Common amphetamines:
dextroamphetamine(dexedrine)
methamphetamine(desoxyn)
phenmetrazine(preludin)
STIMULANTS
5. Nicotine: Increases the release of dopamine in the reward center of the brain (nucleus accumbens).
– Cigarette smoking allows nicotine to enter the brain rapidly, with drug levels peaking within 10 seconds of inhalation.
** Nicotine produces addiction, tolerance and habituation. Legalization of Drugs Discussion Paper.
STIMULANTS
6. Caffeine: Classified as a minor stimulant.
– Caffeine decreases the level of adenosine in the brain.
** Caffeine produces limited addiction which is less likely to interfere with normal daily routines.
HALLUCINOGENS
1. Marijuana, PCP and LSD:
– Increase serotonin levels in the brain.
** Produce no addiction or tolerance and only mild habituation.
Other known hallucinogens:
mescaline(peyote); psilocybin(mexican mushroom); dimethyltryptamine(DMT); Legalization of Drugs Discussion Paper.