{"id":481,"date":"2020-09-17T19:01:51","date_gmt":"2020-09-17T19:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/substancemisusepart1\/?post_type=chapter&p=481"},"modified":"2020-12-07T16:18:50","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T16:18:50","slug":"ch-10-1","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/substancemisusepart1\/chapter\/ch-10-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Ch. 11.1: Stimulants and Their Effects"},"content":{"raw":"There exist many forms of stimulant substances, some of which are legal and unregulated in the United States (like coffee and tea), semi-regulated (like age restrictions on tobacco and vaping\/e-cigarette products and stimulant medications requiring health provider prescriptions), or highly regulated (like methamphetamine which is illegal to manufacture, distribute, or possess). Many stimulant substances are synthetically produced; many others occur in nature and may have been used by humans.<\/span><\/span>\r\n

Effects of Stimulant Substances<\/strong><\/h2>\r\nDespite their many differences, stimulant substances share some common effects. Furthermore, when combined, their effects may be amplified\u2014including their side effects (Begun, 2020). Stimulants produce their psychoactive effects through some or all of four major neurotransmitters: serotonin and dopamine (discussed previously), and\u00a0epinephrine<\/em><\/strong>, and norepinephrine<\/em><\/strong>. Epinephrine and norepinephrine have a great<\/span> deal to do with the process\u00a0where the brain (and other organ systems in the body) attempts to maintain a state of homeostasis<\/em><\/strong>. The system responsible for controlling many physiological functions throughout the body, ones we do not have to think about, is called the autonomic nervous system (ANS)<\/em><\/strong>. This includes maintaining proper breathing, heartrate, blood pressure, body temperature, sweating, digestion, and kidney\/urinary functions. The autonomic nervous system regulates these functions under dynamic, changing internal and external circumstances through two complementary divisions: the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.\r\n\r\nThe sympathetic nervous system<\/em><\/strong> usually runs things at a relatively even baseline level while the person is functioning within a normal operational state. The sympathetic nervous system, however, is prepared to gear up, creating a rapid \u201cfight or flight\u201d stress response to perceived threats, events, or stimuli. Once the system is all revved up and the threat has passed, the system needs to calm back down again. That is where the parasympathetic nervous system<\/em><\/strong> engages and helps bring the body back to its homeostatic resting baseline state again.\r\n\r\nHow do stimulant substances play a role in all of this arousal and becalming balance dance? Most stimulant substances trigger the sympathetic nervous system to a state of arousal, as if an event warranting a \u201cfight or flight\u201d stress response truly exists. They do this through their influence on epinephrine and norepinephrine. Together these two neurotransmitters play a role in the body\u2019s stress response; epinephrine is also known as adrenaline and norepinephrine as noradrenaline. \u00a0Use o<\/span>f stimulants can cause release of these neurotransmitters in much greater quantity; additionally, some impede neurotransmitter reabsorption so they hang around in the \u201cactive\u201d synaptic gap\/cleft for an extended duration. This, in turn, keeps the person in a higher state of arousal far longer than nature might have intended as a helpful \u201cfight or flight\u201d response.\r\n\r\nThe major psychoactive effects across the class of stimulant substances include possible:\r\n