What are drugs? Summary of its characteristics and effects

The term "drugs" is widely used because this class of substances is a reality to which it is difficult to remain totally ignorant.

However, not everyone knows exactly what a drug is and what are the implications of the existence of these products. Here we will briefly explain what drugs are and what effects they can have.

• Related article: "The 14 most important types of addictions"

What is a drug?

The term "drug" in Spanish has several meanings, but in the context of medicine and health sciences it serves to refer to psychoactive substances, that is, those that have the potential to interact with our nerve cells leading to significant changes in our mental and behavioral processes.

Specifically, in most cases it is used to talk about psychoactive substances that are used without therapeutic purposes, either in a context recreational and leisure, in situations in which it is sought to generate altered states of consciousness in religious rituals, or for any other purpose that does not is to improve the health status of those who consume them (something that differentiates this term from the "drugs" used in English, which is also used to talk about psychotropic drugs).

On the other hand, it is necessary to point out that this definition of a drug as a psychoactive substance whose use is total or partially alien to medicine is by no means airtight or infallible: there are aspects that lend themselves to ambiguity. An indication of this is what we have seen: the fact that some people understand that a drug is any psychoactive element, and that for others it is just one part of these, those that do not serve to solve health problems and are not used in a medical context (that is, under the supervision of health professionals Health).

And is that there are psychotropic drugs that are used in treatment for patients and that at the same time are an illegal drug in the recreational context, as for example with codeine. And it is also true that there is no clear line of separation about what works to improve health and what serves simply to enhance the well-being of a person at a time determined. After all, many psychotropic drugs are sometimes used only to alleviate the symptoms of illnesses, that is, to "lower" a certain form of discomfort.

But beyond the terminological and conceptual debates, it cannot be denied that a large number of substances that are considered drugs have enormous harmful potential for health, so much so that beyond constituting problems for the individuals who consume them, they constitute social problems.

For example, alcohol consumption is closely linked to the high mortality that exists due to traffic accidents, as well as many drugs in general (including ethanol) lead to the appearance of domestic violence, the appearance of other diseases (some of them contagious, such as AIDS), and even the appearance of other forms of addiction that occur in parallel in the same person.

That is why it is very important to prevent the use of drugs with harmful potential as well as knowing how to detect in time the first signs that the consumption of a drug is affecting the person, not only through structural physical symptoms in the human body, but mainly through psychological symptoms, which occur before.

What are the effects of these substances?

As the definition of "drug" is very broad, there is no series of emotional, cognitive, physiological and behavioral effects that is common to all this group of substances. However, the most common is that they produce changes in mood and / or state of consciousness, and in some cases, they can lead to delusional thoughts or even hallucinations.

Many of them, in addition, can produce chemical addiction, that is, changes in the brain (when interacting with it) that they make our entire nervous system go to work to keep getting rations of that molecule psychoactive.

Are all drugs addictive?

Technically, not all substances that are considered drugs have significant addictive potential.

An example of this is found, for example, in psilocybin, an alkaloid present in what we usually know as hallucinogenic mushrooms, or in caffeine (the consumption of beverages containing this last substance can generate a certain dependence, but not at the level of brain modification that occurs with many hard drugs and psychotropic drugs, but rather due to their taste and the habit of drinking in certain contexts).

However, while it is good to know that drug does not equal addiction, it should not be forgotten that there are addictions without the need to use drugs, as occurs for example with pathological gambling, which occurs in those who become addicted to certain games of chance in which gambling is involved.

How common is drug use?

The use and development of drugs is a realization that has existed since the beginning of humanity, to the point that it already occurred in nomadic tribes before the appearance of the first settlements and towns. That is why it is not surprising the degree of influence that these products have on the societies of practically the whole world, and the mass consumption of them.

In fact, the economy linked to the sale of drugs rivals the power of the States and is beyond their control, and even in the case of legal drugs such as beverages alcoholic beverages, their use has been and is so normalized that their legal status does not depend on their harmful potential, but on the practical problems that it would have for any country its illegalization.

Thus, the most widely used drugs worldwide are relatively easy products to find in almost any city, and are the following:

• Alcohol
• Tobacco
• Cannabis
• Cocaine
• MDMA

Are you interested in starting a drug and addiction treatment process?

If you suffer from a drug addiction problem, contact us to start a process of treatment through detoxification and rehabilitation with experts in this field. On CITA Clinics we specialize in professional support to people with addictions with and without substance, and we offer both therapy sessions from psychology and medicine as the possibility of entering our fully equipped residential module located in a natural environment, in the Barcelona area.

Bibliographic references:

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• Lingeman, R. R. (1974). Drugs from A-Z: A Dictionary. New York: McGraw-Hill.
• Mahoney A, Evans J (November 6, 2008). "Comparing drug classification systems". AMIA Annual Symposium Proceedings: 1039.
• Nutt, D.J; King, L.A.; Phillips, L.D. (2010). Drug harms in the UK: a multicriteria decision analysis. The Lancet. 376 (9752): pp. 1558 - 1565.
• Sànchez Turet, Miquel (1991). Drug addiction: terminological and taxonomic aspects. Yearbook of Psychology, University of Barcelona, ​​49: pp. 5 - 18.
• Shader, R.I.; Divoll, M., Harmatz, J.S. (nineteen eighty one). Benzodiazepines: a summary of pharmacokinetic properties. British journal of clinical pharmacology.