Drugs either therapeutic or psychoactive affect the brain system. This discussion limits itself to the effects of psychoactive drugs in the various cognitive and motor functions of the brain and how it influence the biological and psychological make up of a person. This is in response to the different presentations of how drugs affect the brain in NIDA website. In The Brain: Understanding Neurobiology of Lesson 4 drug abuse and addiction, the long term effects of drugs on the brain were explained through use of visual and audio players. Diagrams and drawings of the brain and its parts were also provided.
There was absolutely no text explanation (NIDA 2000). In Drugs, brains, and behavior- The science of addiction, an abstract presentation was first provided. This gives little explanation on how drugs affect the brain. However, there was a provision at the side for access on its PDF format. It relays drugs as a chronic, relapsing brain disease. The reason it qualifies as a disease because of the change it does to the brain. It was comprehensive in its explanation as to why people takes drugs and its related effects on the brain and behavior forever explaining scientific terms of brain system, limbic and cortex.
A list of drugs was also provided with its corresponding effects on the body including treatment and recovery (NIDA 2007). In Mind over matter: teaching guide, effects of drugs abuse on the brain, an abstract was also provided with little explanation regarding the subject. However, a pdf file was also provided for access at the side of the web page. The pdf file has a kind of comic effect with drawings on teenagers and of the head and of the brain. A list of the different drugs was also made with its corresponding effects. A crossword puzzle, question and answer portion and word puzzle was provided for them to answer.
The layout is also different and it suits fairly the age of the target reader (NIDA 2006). The three web pages are similar in context but differ in presentation. Everything was based on information on how drugs affect the brain, how the brain system works, and the harmful effects of drugs. There are listing of the different drugs with its related effects and is already monotonous. The idea is the same and it uses the same scientific approach and terminology. The approach might prove very relevant to the subject and on the target group of readers but I insist that it is still not clear.
It is like we have to learn everything again in a manner like we are sitting in a science class. How the drugs affect the brain, behavior and health of a person is evident and I prefer listening to a person giving stories as samples of the effects rather than letting me hear and read neurological processes of the brain unless it will be presented in a different manner quite acceptable to an ordinary reader like me. One will be spending lot of time understanding the functions of the brain. The website is good for research material only.
These resources will still prove to be very useful in disseminating information but it will be less strenuous understanding if it was done this way. The layout of the text must explain profoundly how drugs were taken into the body like oral, pulmonary, or injection. The reader must know the route of the drugs that was taken orally explained similar like a road map from starting point to destination point where right after it an explanation of the effects and consequences will follow. This is done to let the readers know in what part of the body the drug has navigated itself to reach the brain and affected behavior.
Let’s take oral administration as a sample. When drugs were swallowed, they enter the stomach which we call as gastro intestinal system (Brick & Erickson 1998). The stomach then alters the bioavailability of the drug by the use of its gastric enzymes. An enzyme either enhances or destroys the drug in the stomach affecting availability to other processes known as bioavailability. In this process, we all understand there are gastric juices in the stomach. The drug then passes from the stomach walls into the upper portion of the small intestine.
It then moves through the walls of the small intestine into the capillaries or small blood vessels surrounding the intestine. The drug then is now in circulation. And the explanation will go forth in detail until it reaches the brain function. The explanation is simpler that even the substance abusers of 12 years of age can understand how the drug travels in our body. Now this makes teaching and issues of work easier. Elementary style of explanation and simple methodology is all it needs to get it clearly across to everybody who reads it.
References
Brick, J. & Erickson, C. (1998). Drugs, the brain, and behavior: The pharmacology Of abuse and dependence. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press. NIDA (2000). The brain: understanding neurobiology. Lesson 4-Drug abuse and addiction. Retrieved April 27, 2007 Website: http://science-education. nih. gov/supplements/nih2/ Addiction/activities/lessons4. htm NIDA (2007). Drugs, brains and behavior – the science of addiction. Retrieved April 27, 2007 Website: http://www. nida. nih. gov/scienceofaddiction NIDA for teens (2006). Mind over matter: Teaching guide. Effects of drugs abuse on the brain. Retrieved April 27, 2007 Website: https://teens.drugabuse.gov/