Dr. Drazinic - The Brain and Drugs
Chief Medical Officer of Psychiatry, Jackson Health System Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami
Drugs can alter important brain areas that are necessary for life-sustaining functions and can drive the compulsive drug use that marks addiction. Brain function is immediately altered with drug use. The brain areas most affected by this are the basal ganglia, the extended amygdala, the prefrontal cortex, and the brain stem. The basal ganglia plays an important role in positive forms of motivation, including the pleasurable effects of healthy activities. In addition to forming habits and routines.
The areas called the brain's "reward circuit" are overactivated by drugs. The brain adapts to the presence of drugs and reduces a person's ability to feel pleasure without them. The extended amygdala plays a role in stressful feelings like anxiety, which become withdrawal after the drug high fades and thus motivates the person to seek the drug again. The prefrontal cortex powers the ability to think, plan, solve problems, make decisions, and exert self-control over impulses. This is also the last part of the brain to mature. The brain stem is affected by drugs like opioids and controls basic functions critical to life, such as heart rate, breathing, and sleeping.
