Substance Abuse Impact on Brain Development and Cognitive Functioning

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Background information (overview of the topic)
Conclusions
References

Introduction

The problem of substance abuse is of great importance for designing various initiatives preventing addiction among different population groups.

The paper aims to examine the reasons why people get addicted to a substance from their psychological and biological perspectives and the effects of substance abuse on the brain, memory, personality, and behavior. Moreover, it considers the difficulties for people to quit drugs due to mental and biological issues.

Long-term substance abuse has a specific psychological and biological precondition negatively affects addicts’ cognitive abilities and is characterized by a complicated healing process.

Background information (overview of the topic)

The issue of substance abuse attracts the particular attention of scholars and causes their attempts to reveal its effects on people’s brains. They are conditional upon the fact that neural processes leading to drug addiction also influence people’s cognitive abilities and, subsequently, result in one’s failure in studying (Juárez‐Portilla et al., 2018). In this way, the consideration of this aspect of the impact of addictive substances in the context of the specified problem is needed for the precision of actions in this direction.

Support for the thesis statement I

The development of an addiction is connected to the presence of various problems consequently worsening the affected people’s mental state.

The biological issues connected with the complications stemming from substance abuse include structural and functional changes in the brain (Juárez‐Portilla et al., 2018).

Long-term substance abuse ultimately correlates with the development of psychosis or schizophrenia which makes these issues interrelated (Bossong & Niesink, 2010).

Support for the thesis statement II

Substance abuse results in damage to one’s brain, memory, personality, and behavior.

Since principal complications are related to the damage of the brain, the crucial signs include memory impairment and difficulties with learning.

The shifts in personality and behavior can particularly be traced to young people who become less sociable and more stubborn (Kalinowski et al., 2020).

Support for the thesis statement III

The issue of substance abuse is significant due to the complicated process of healing.

In substance abuse, rehabilitation is often characterized by reoccurrence (Bossong & Niesink, 2010). In this way, the initial problem is worsened by one’s inability to cope with the consequences of such events.

The recovery period from substance abuse presents a challenge due to the emergence of specific complications, and their elimination takes much time. These issues include continuous distractions and cognitive alterations which, consequently, define the occurring psychological problems (Bossong & Niesink, 2010).

Conclusions

Thus, the psychological and biological mechanisms of acquiring an addiction imply structural and functional changes in the brain and their correlation with psychosis and schizophrenia. Subsequently, they evoke such symptoms as memory impairment as well as difficulties with learning and social interactions. What is more important in this case, substance abuse and addiction stemming from it are challenging in treatment since they are characterized by reoccurrence and a long recovery period. In this way, it can be concluded that further consideration of this problem will allow preventing complications.

The current study is extremely beneficial in terms of presenting the situation of addicts and complications attributed to them. However, it still lacks clarity regarding the methods which can be used to address the problem of substance abuse. It also does not fully describe the perceptions of their situation related to addiction by affected persons. Therefore, this gap in answering the research questions should be covered in future research which should also contain practical measures allowing to eliminate the problem.

References

Bossong, M. G., & Niesink, R. J. (2010). Adolescent brain maturation, the endogenous cannabinoid system and the neurobiology of cannabis-induced schizophrenia. Progress in Neurobiology, 92(3), 370-385. Web.

Juárez‐Portilla, C., Molina‐Jiménez, T., Morin, J., Roldán‐Roldán, G., & Zepeda, R. C. (2018). Influence of drugs on cognitive functions. In B. Bernal-Morales (Ed.), Health and academic achievement (pp. 59–81). Books on Demand.

Kalinowski, L., Connor, C., Somanesan, R., Carias, E., Richer, K., Smith, L., Martin, C., Mackintosh, M., Popoola, D., Hadjiargyrou, M., Komatsu, D. E., & Thanos, P. K. (2020). Brief and extended abstinence from chronic oral methylphenidate treatment produces reversible behavioral and physiological effects. Developmental Psychobiology, 62(2), 170–180. Web.

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