Substance use disorders (SUDs) can significantly impact brain health and function, potentially leading to long-term brain damage. Drug abuse is detrimental to one’s overall health, prompting cardiovascular problems, neurological effects, respiratory issues, liver and kidney damage, mental health issues, and impaired judgment.
Understanding the Impact of Drugs on Overall Health
The effects of drugs on your health can vary depending on the substance, the dosage, and the frequency of drug use, along with your health status. Whether it’s prescription medication or an illicit substance, when abused, it can lead to severe health issues. The impact of drugs on your physical health can include neurological effects, altering brain function, and provoking problems with memory, decision-making, and emotional regulation. Cardiovascular issues from stimulants like cocaine or methamphetamine can increase blood pressure and heart rate, heightening the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Substances, primarily alcohol, can cause inflammation and damage to the liver and cirrhosis, especially with long-term substance abuse. Drugs are toxic to both the liver and kidneys, affecting their function through dehydration and muscle breakdown. Many substances and medications, including alcohol and opioids, have addictive potential, leading users to crave the drug despite harmful consequences. Battling drug abuse can lead to or exacerbate existing mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and mood disorders.
When taken in high doses or over a long period, some drugs like hallucinogens or methamphetamine can result in hallucinations or paranoia, provoking psychotic episodes. One of the primary effects of drugs on the brain is judgment impairment, which can lead to risky behaviors and decision-making, including driving under the influence.
How Drug Abuse Affects the Brain
Drugs impact the brain by altering its chemistry, structure, and functioning, leading to long-lasting effects. Some of the most commonly abused drugs, alcohol, opioids, tobacco, marijuana, and cocaine, can all affect brain function and behavior when abused. Drug addiction alters brain chemistry and the balance of neurotransmitters, which can lead to impulsive behaviors, mood swings, anxiety, and poor decision-making. Substance use disorders (SUDs) can affect cognitive function, resulting in problems with attention, memory, and emotion regulation.
While these neurological effects can be severe, they aren’t necessarily permanently damaging to the brain. By abstaining from drugs and alcohol, proper treatment, and healthy lifestyle choices, you can restore and improve your brain health and function.
Alteration of Brain Chemistry
Regularly using and abusing drugs impairs neurotransmitter systems by altering the balance of chemicals in the brain. Neurotransmitters in the brain are chemicals that transmit signals, affecting one’s behaviors, mood, and cognition. Many addictive drugs increase dopamine levels, a neurotransmitter associated with reward and pleasure, which generates the euphoric high experienced by drugs. Dopamine is released in the basal ganglia, responsible for motor control, behaviors, and emotions. This alerts other parts of the brain to desire more of the substance, leading to drug dependence and abuse.
Drugs may also interact with neurotransmitters like serotonin, glutamate, and norepinephrine, disrupting the brain’s normal communication pathways. This change in neurotransmitter levels can precipitate anxiety, mood swings, and cognitive impairment.
Neuroplasticity: Changes in Brain Structure and Function
Long-term substance abuse can change the brain’s physical structure and function, also known as neuroplasticity. Drug use affects the brain’s reward system, substituting them as a higher priority than other activities. This change is what triggers the compulsive craving for substances and leads to addiction. The prefrontal cortex, responsible for decision-making, helping you think, and impulse control, is also impaired with drug abuse. This impaired function can lead to poor judgment and life choices, trouble regulating emotions and stress, and impulsive behaviors.
Cognitive Impairment
The cognitive impairment from drug abuse can affect the brain’s ability to think, remember, learn, and reason. These essential cognitive functions control memory, attention, reasoning, learning, and impulse control. Drugs produce cognitive shifts in the brain that make it difficult to stop using, with opioids and cocaine provoking deficits in cognitive flexibility, amphetamines with deficits in attention and impulse control, and alcohol with attention and working memory. The effects of drugs on cognition can also provoke behavioral changes such as impulsivity, risky behaviors and decisions, and social withdrawal. This combination of cognitive dysfunction and drug abuse can affect relationships, work-life balance, and academic and job performance.
Mental Health Disorders
Substance abuse and mental health disorders often overlap, also known as a co-occurring disorder, dual diagnosis, or comorbidity. Many individuals who struggle with drug abuse may experience mental health issues like depression, anxiety, ADHD, schizophrenia, and other mood and psychiatric disorders. Similarly, those with mental disorders are at risk for abusing drugs or alcohol as a means to self-medicate. Drugs affect the extended amygdala, which plays a role in emotion regulation, which can exacerbate symptoms of depression, anxiety, and irritability over time. The brain changes in those with mental health disorders can reinforce the rewarding effects of drugs, leading to continued drug use and dependence.
Treatment and Rehabilitation for Drug Abuse and Brain Health
The first step to treating a drug addiction is recognizing that you have a problem and getting the necessary treatment. Treating drug abuse and addiction while also restoring brain health takes a multifaceted approach to drug rehab. Tailoring rehab programs to address the patient’s individual physical, mental, and behavioral health ensures effective, holistic treatment and healing. Medical detox for drug abuse, whether it’s opiates, heroin, cocaine, marijuana, or fentanyl, offers a safe environment for the withdrawal process. Behavioral therapies like CBT or motivational interviewing (MI) can provide the proper coping mechanisms for drug abstinence and managing triggers in recovery. Patients receive the necessary support and community while in rehab through group and family therapy or recovery support groups.
Holistic therapies like mindfulness and meditation can help better manage stress and emotions in addiction recovery. Additionally, regular physical activity and proper nutrition can facilitate mood improvements, stress reduction, and overall physical health, all supporting brain recovery and health. When recovering from a drug addiction, it’s crucial to continue monitoring your physical, mental, behavioral, and neurological health for optimal healing and recovery process.
Contact Coastal Detox today for more information on our drug detox programs in Stuart, FL!
References:
- PubMed Central, 2014. Substance Use and Associated Health Conditions throughout the Lifespan.
- National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2011. Commonly Abused Drugs.
- Verywell Mind, 2022. What is Neuroplasticity?
- National Library of Medicine, 2012. Functional Neuroanatomy of the Basal Ganglia.
- Thomas J. Gould, Ph.D., 2010. Addiction and Cognition.
- National Insitute on Drug Abuse, 2020. Why is there comorbidity between substance use disorders and mental illnesses?
- National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2020. Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction: Drugs and the Brain.
- National Institute of Mental Health, 2023. Substance Use and Co-Occurring Mental Disorders.