AQA GCSE Biology B1.3 Medicine and drugs

The use and abuse of drugs
1. A drug is a chemical that affects our CNS and our body chemistry.
  1. Medicinal drugs are developed and tested before being used to relieve illness or disease.
    1. Drugs are also used recreationally as people like the effect on the body
      1. Some drugs are addictive
        Some athletes take drugs to improve performance.
    2. As drugs change the chemical processes in peoples' bodies they may become dependent or addicted to the drug and suffer withdrawal symptoms without it.
      1. Heroin and cocaine are very addictive
  2. Statins are drugs which lower the amount of bad cholesterol carried in the blood.
    1. They are given to older people & are taken daily.
      1. Trials using a very large no.of people have shown that the incidence and heart disease and stokes has gone down by over 40%
  3. Legal drugs
    1. Nicotine and caffeine are legal drugs which are used recreationally.
    2. Alcohol is a legal, recreational drug for people over the age of 18.
    3. There are many health problems associated with legal recreational drugs
      1. e.g. Alcohol poisoning, addiction to nicotine leading to lung cancer etc
    4. The overall effect of legal drugs on health is much greater than that of illegal drugs as more people use them.
  4. Illegal drugs
    1. Cannabis and heroin are both illegal, recreational drugs which are addictive.
      1. There is evidence that cannabis can cause mental illness in some people.
        Teenagers who smoke cannabis increase their risk of getting depression
        As cannabis is illegal is must be bought from dealers and therefore brings users into contact with hard drugs such as heroin.
        Not all cannabis users go on to use hard drugs however, nearly all heroin users previously smoked cannabis
      2. Misuse of these drugs can have adverse effects on the heart and the circulatory system.
  5. Drugs in sport
    1. Steroids are drugs which are used to build up muscle mass. Others may be used to increase stamina
      1. Many performance enhancing drugs are very expensive which gives people who can afford them an unfair advantage.
        The use of performance enhancing drugs is considered unethical by most people.
Drugs
1. Scientists are continually developing new drugs
  1. When new drugs are devised they must be extensivley tested and trailed before use.
    1. They are tested in a series of stages to find out if they are safe and effective.
      1. They are tested for toxicity, efficacy and dose
        The first tests are in labs on cells and tissues or organs.
        They are also tested on live animals.
        If the drugs seems to work it then goes through clinical trials, involving healthy volunteers and patients.
        Very low doses of the drug are given at the start of the clinical trial.
        If the drug is safe, further clinical trials will be carried out to find out the optimum dose for the drug.
        In some trials with patients placebos are used, which do not contain drug
        Half the patients receive the drug and half the placebo, to check if the drug being tested really does have an effect on the patient
        In a double-blind trial neither the doctor nor patient knows who has been given the drug and who the placebo until the trial is complete
2. Thalidomide
  1. It was originally tested and developed as a sleeping pill
    1. It was also found to be effective in releiving morning sickness in pregnant women
      1. However it had only been tested as a sleeping pill and not for use in pregnancy
        Some babies were therefore born with severe limb abnormalit as a result of their mothers taking thalidomide
        The drug was then banned.
        As a result testing has become much more rigorous
        More recently, thalidomide has been used successfully in the treatment of leprosy and other diseases

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AQA GCSE Biology B1.3 Medicine and drugs

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