Introduction

Alcohol is designated as a depressant, that reduces the brain functioning which leads to the slow reaction, disturbed perception, unsteady movement, slurred speech.  Alcohol consumption reduces the ability of a person to think rationally and renders a person with distorted judgement. The amount of alcohol consumed determines the effect that alcohol will have on the body. Studies reveal that alcohol usage is high among the people that are aged between 18 to 25 years. 15% of people reported to be heavy drinkers, whereas 42% reported to be binge drinkers. Drinking tendencies are also found in 12 to 17 year olds. Among the age group 16% are current drinkers, 10% are binge drinkers and 2% are heavy drinkers. According to American youths aged 12 to 20 year olds- 17% are Asians, 18% African-Americans, 25% Hispanics, 32% white and 28% Alaskan natives (Swendsen et al., 2012).

The illicit drugs can be described as those drugs that are illegal to use, make and sell. These illicit drugs include prescription drugs, inhalants, hallucinogens, heroin, cocaine, hashish and marijuana. People aged around 18 to 25 years are found to abuse the prescription drugs. The usage of non-medical prescription painkillers is high among the 12 years old and up. While cocaine users are only about 0.8 percent of the American population (Degenhardt et al., 2013).

There is a difference between drugs and alcohol and both are used either used for recreational or medical purposes. Depending on the type of usage and the prescription, both the drugs and alcohol are harmful for the human body when taken in excess. While drugs are only restricted to internal usage, alcohol can be used both externally and internally.

Use means to deploy or hold, take something as a means in order to achieve or accomplish something. For example, both alcohol and drug are used in daily life whether for recreational or medicinal purposes. Drugs can also be used for other purposes: self-improvement, religious and spiritual and medicinal. The use of medicinal drugs can be attributed to healing, curing and improvement of the wellbeing (Degenhardt & Hall, 2012).

Misuse means something is used in a wrong way for the wrong purpose. For example, drug is to be used as a drug not and it is not meant to be used for something else. There are drugs like Vicodin which is used for nausea, headache, but when these drugs are taken in high doses without following the medical instructions (Handelsman, 2013).

Abuse means usage of something for bad purposes or for bad effect. Making a habit of excessive usage of something addictive, especially the illegal drugs. People that are abusing drugs generally do not have the prescription for what they are taking. For example, people that take Vicodin without the prescription, experience no symptoms and thus believe that they it more in order to feel better (Smith & Lynch, 2012).

Dependence means the condition of being controlled by something else or being relied upon for something else. Drug dependence is a situation where a person depends on two or more drugs to function properly. It is possible that without getting addicted a person can depend on drugs. Dependence can be attributed to a bodily response to a particular substance. Such kind of situation arises when a person takes medicine to control a chronic medical condition (glaucoma, diabetes, high blood pressure) (Degenhardt & Hall, 2012).

It has been found that around 23.8 million people are found to be abusing the psychotherapeutic drug. The most common abused drugs are benzodiazepines, cocaine, heroin, alcohol, methamphetamine and amphetamines, opioid pain relievers (prescription). Medically, how much alcohol is excess for the body depends on certain factors like body metabolism, food taken and level of body hydration. Blood alcohol content measures the amount of alcohol in a person’s blood. If the dose increases to 0.28, then there is a risk of overdose. There are other quantifications like: consumption of 21 standard drinks at a stretch for 6 hours can lead to overdosing. Every year around 5 thousand people die from cocaine overdose. On an average, if a person is having 1.2 grams is considered too much. However, for certain people 30 milligrams of cocaine can be fatal for some people.  For opioids, there is no such thing called too much. The reason for no such limitation is that, both the body and the brain metabolize things at different rates and it differs from one individual to another (Drugabuse.gov, 2018).

Legally, the concentration of drug in blood are set as limits to distinguish between the legal and the illegal drugs. Certain threshold limits are set for the different drugs that are illegal (Drugabuse.gov, 2018).

The effect of drug addiction can be attributed to a feeling where a person feels the need for a drug whenever there is a sense of pain and stress. Craving for the drug is one of major feeling of drug addiction. At the same time, the situation can also be attributed to the psychological effects of drug addiction. There are other psychological effects of drug addiction, which are as follows

• Confusion
• Hallucinations
• Desire to engage in risk acts
• Mental illness and complications
• Violence, paranoia, anxiety, depression, mood swings
• Decrease in pleasure in everyday life
• Psychological tolerance to the effects of drugs that promotes an increasing demand of drug usage (Degenhardt & Hall, 2012).

The various physical effects of drug addiction are as follows

• Brain damage and stroke and seizure
• Hepatitis and other illness, contraction of HIV
• Liver and kidney damage
• Heart attack and irregularities in heart rate
• Respiratory problems which includes breathing problems, emphysema, lung cancer
• Diarrhoea, constipation, vomiting, abdominal pain
• Changes in sleeping patterns, body temperature and appetite (Wise & Koob, 2014).

The abuse of alcohol is pattern of problem related to drinking which results in social problems, health consequences. The alcoholism or alcohol dependence refers to the disease that is characterized through abnormal alcohol consumption.

The effects can be summarized depending on the short term and long term consumption of alcohol. Short term effects of alcohol consumption can lead to:

• Distorted vision, coordination and vision
• Bad breath and hangovers
• Impaired judgement
• Altered emotions and perceptions (Eisen et al., 2012)

The long term effects of alcohol consumption can lead to:

• Stomach ailments, vitamin deficiencies, loss of appetite.
• Sexual impotence
• Skin problems
• Liver damage
• Memory damage, Central nervous system damage and heart damage.

The psychological effects of alcohol abuse lead to increase in violence and aggression, lack of inhibitions, lack of interest in sex and uninhibited sexual behaviour, sensory motor co-ordination, impaired memory, depression, mood swings (Sayette et al., 2012).

Inside the brain, dopamine is a neurotransmitter that affects pleasure. Pleasure is strongly attached with the mental health. When brain is functioning properly, then brain receives a positive reward in the form of pleasure that is induced by eating, sex and drinking. This is a normal occurrence that happens inside the brain at the regular intervals. Dopamine makes a person happy and helps in motivation. Alcohol and certain drugs like heroin, stimulants, cocaine increases the output of dopamine one way or other. These drugs not only increase the output of dopamine, but also alters the way dopamine function. Drugs act to either alter the flow of neurotransmitters or bypass the neurotransmitters and work directly on the receptors resulting in change of signals produced by brain. For a short term, these drugs produce the same kind of pleasure for a majority of people. However, long term effects provide a permanent effect to the brain that produces more happiness and pleasure. Brain gets habituated to the dopamine production due to the excessive intake of drugs and alcohol.  Thus, brain loses the capacity to produce dopamine on its own and relies heavily on the usage on drugs (Nutt et al., 2015).

The disease concept of addiction explains addiction as a disease that originates due to the environmental, genetic, neurological, biological reasons. The concept emphasis that alcoholism and addiction is biological or chemical issue which if left untreated can be fatal. Alcohol and drug addiction fits the normal concept of disease and only requires an individual who is getting affected by distress, dysfunction, and discomfort. The disease concept of addiction describes alcoholism and addiction as a predisposition which is both exacerbated and influenced by the environmental factors. The medical community accepted that addiction is a disease and need to be medication for treatment and recovery (Volkow, Koob & McLellan, 2016).

Personality theory of addiction is a psychological model which is related directly with the modes of thinking and personality traits.  This model also emphasizes on an individual’s tendency to develop addiction. Researchers through studies have shown that there is a strong link between the substance use disorders and affective disorders. People that exhibit mood disorders also experience the substance use disorders. Personality included 3 components: ego, superego, id. The id can be attributed to the childlike, impulsive and instinctive. The id person wants satisfaction for the cravings, urges and needs. In the alcoholic case, the id person craves for alcohol (Meyer, 2012).

The several problems that are caused to digestive system by alcohol abuse are as follows:

• Alcohol enhances the development of mouth cancer and also gum diseases.
• Due to the excessive intake of alcohol, heartburn is caused.
• Alcohol damages the inner lining of the stomach that further leads to problems like stomach inflammation (gastritis).
• Excessive alcohol intake develops the possibility of developing the small intestine cancers.
• Alcohol consumption beyond a limit increases the tendency of liver diseases.

The several problems that are caused to circulatory system by alcohol abuse are as follows:

• Cardiomyopathy- it is characterized by enlarged heart muscle. When heat becomes inflamed, it loses its potential and fails to pump blood at an optimal level. This results in heart failure.
• High blood pressure- having more than 3 drinks can effectively increase blood pressure temporarily. This on long term causes hypertension.
• Irregular heartbeat- arrhythmia is irregular beating of heart, and is caused by the excessive intake of alcohol.

Excessive intake of alcohol increases the blood pressure. High blood pressure in turn is a common cause of kidney disease. Kidney functions the important task of removing the harmful substances from the body. However, the kidneys of the heavy drinkers work harder and thus the potentiality of filtering blood reduces. Alcohol dehydrates body and the drying effect hinders the normal functioning of the kidney.

Due to excessive drinking of alcohol, the drinker develops a fatty liver and the chances of developing cirrhosis increases ten times. The excessive intake of alcohol affects the central nervous system and results in: altered speech, impaired vision, dulled hearing, foggy memory, weakened muscles, hazy thinking, and slow reaction time (Hamaguchi et al., 2012).

Reference

Degenhardt, L., & Hall, W. (2012). Extent of illicit drug use and dependence, and their contribution to the global burden of disease. The Lancet, 379(9810), 55-70.

Degenhardt, L., Whiteford, H. A., Ferrari, A. J., Baxter, A. J., Charlson, F. J., Hall, W. D., … & Flaxman, A. (2013). Global burden of disease attributable to illicit drug use and dependence: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. The Lancet, 382(9904), 1564-1574.

Drugabuse.gov. (2018). National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Drugabuse.gov. Retrieved 9 February 2018, from https://www.drugabuse.gov/

Eisen, S. V., Schultz, M. R., Vogt, D., Glickman, M. E., Elwy, A. R., Drainoni, M. L., … & Martin, J. (2012). Mental and physical health status and alcohol and drug use following return from deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan. American journal of public health, 102(S1), S66-S73.

Hamaguchi, M., Kojima, T., Ohbora, A., Takeda, N., Fukui, M., & Kato, T. (2012). Protective effect of alcohol consumption for fatty liver but not metabolic syndrome. World journal of gastroenterology: WJG, 18(2), 156.

Handelsman, D. J. (2013). Global trends in testosterone prescribing, 2000–2011: expanding the spectrum of prescription drug misuse. Med J Aust, 199(8), 548-551.

Meyer, R. E. (Ed.). (2012). The heroin stimulus: Implications for a theory of addiction. Springer Science & Business Media.

Nutt, D. J., Lingford-Hughes, A., Erritzoe, D., & Stokes, P. R. (2015). The dopamine theory of addiction: 40 years of highs and lows. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 16(5), 305.

Sayette, M. A., Creswell, K. G., Dimoff, J. D., Fairbairn, C. E., Cohn, J. F., Heckman, B. W., … & Moreland, R. L. (2012). Alcohol and group formation: A multimodal investigation of the effects of alcohol on emotion and social bonding. Psychological science, 23(8), 869-878.

Smith, M. A., & Lynch, W. J. (2012). Exercise as a potential treatment for drug abuse: evidence from preclinical studies. Frontiers in psychiatry, 2, 82.

Swendsen, J., Burstein, M., Case, B., Conway, K. P., Dierker, L., He, J., & Merikangas, K. R. (2012). Use and abuse of alcohol and illicit drugs in US adolescents: Results of the National Comorbidity Survey–Adolescent Supplement. Archives of general psychiatry, 69(4), 390-398.

Volkow, N. D., Koob, G. F., & McLellan, A. T. (2016). Neurobiologic advances from the brain disease model of addiction. New England Journal of Medicine, 374(4), 363-371.

Wise, R. A., & Koob, G. F. (2014). The development and maintenance of drug addiction. Neuropsychopharmacology, 39(2), 254.