AO1 Research
For this topic, I wanted to focus on addiction, how someone becomes addicted and different types of addiction there are. I began my research looking into the medical side of addiction, and what causes or triggers addiction.
According to the NHS website (https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-body/addiction-what-is-it/) having an addiction is the inability to have control over doing something to the point where it could end up harming you. I find this quite interesting that someone would do something intentionally that will have a negative effect on their body or mind. Looking further into different types of addictions (gambling, drugs, smoking and alcohol being the main ones) it's quite common in the sense that these things (mainly alcohol and smoking) are so widely available even though they can be detrimental to someone's health.
I want to look more into what causes people to become addicts, and how different factors can play key roles in one's addiction. From the same NHS website, I found a section on the causes of addictions and how usually results in someone wanting to get a mental 'high' but in order to achieve it, theres always some form of consequences, or harm. Like smoking, where someones addicted to the nicotine but in order to smoke, they damage their lungs and can even die. Also alcohol, where drinking causes people to be happy but in the end, causes hangovers and damages vital organs, like the liver.
I found a presentation from this link (https://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/events/popular-chemsitry/Slides/2015-11-12-addiction-slides.pdf) and picked out some slides which explain the chemistry behind addiction, specifically drug addiction.
This slide shows how drugs molecules mimic the natural chemicals in the brain to bind to nerve receptors in the brain. On the right is a diagram of the nerves in the body, which I find quite intriguing that they can be mapped out.
Here is some information following on, how drugs can impact differently. Depending on the chemical structure of the molecules, as I study biology and chemistry, I have previous knowledge on chemical structures and functional groups. So I can understand the information, and be able to interpret it.
Here are some skeletal structures of different molecules, and how different molecules do different things, like dopamine, which is the reward response, and serotonin, which blocks the unneeded nerve impulses. I find the skeletal diagrams quite interesting in shape, and how the lines and letters all represent different chemicals and bonds, but they've been simplified into be easier to write.
A list of different substances people can get addicted to, and some more skeletal structures too.
I found this post on the harvard medical school website (https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/how-addiction-hijacks-the-brain) going into how addiction can take over the brain. I took screenshots of some extracts I found interesting.
This extract shows how in the 30's researchers used to think that people with addictions had less will powers, or were morally flawed, where as now addiction is more seen as a condition which should be treated, and doesn't make them any less weak just because someone has addictive habits.
According to the NHS website (https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-body/addiction-what-is-it/) having an addiction is the inability to have control over doing something to the point where it could end up harming you. I find this quite interesting that someone would do something intentionally that will have a negative effect on their body or mind. Looking further into different types of addictions (gambling, drugs, smoking and alcohol being the main ones) it's quite common in the sense that these things (mainly alcohol and smoking) are so widely available even though they can be detrimental to someone's health.
I want to look more into what causes people to become addicts, and how different factors can play key roles in one's addiction. From the same NHS website, I found a section on the causes of addictions and how usually results in someone wanting to get a mental 'high' but in order to achieve it, theres always some form of consequences, or harm. Like smoking, where someones addicted to the nicotine but in order to smoke, they damage their lungs and can even die. Also alcohol, where drinking causes people to be happy but in the end, causes hangovers and damages vital organs, like the liver.
I found a presentation from this link (https://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/events/popular-chemsitry/Slides/2015-11-12-addiction-slides.pdf) and picked out some slides which explain the chemistry behind addiction, specifically drug addiction.
This slide shows how drugs molecules mimic the natural chemicals in the brain to bind to nerve receptors in the brain. On the right is a diagram of the nerves in the body, which I find quite intriguing that they can be mapped out.
Here is some information following on, how drugs can impact differently. Depending on the chemical structure of the molecules, as I study biology and chemistry, I have previous knowledge on chemical structures and functional groups. So I can understand the information, and be able to interpret it.
Here are some skeletal structures of different molecules, and how different molecules do different things, like dopamine, which is the reward response, and serotonin, which blocks the unneeded nerve impulses. I find the skeletal diagrams quite interesting in shape, and how the lines and letters all represent different chemicals and bonds, but they've been simplified into be easier to write.
A list of different substances people can get addicted to, and some more skeletal structures too.
I found this post on the harvard medical school website (https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/how-addiction-hijacks-the-brain) going into how addiction can take over the brain. I took screenshots of some extracts I found interesting.
This extract shows how in the 30's researchers used to think that people with addictions had less will powers, or were morally flawed, where as now addiction is more seen as a condition which should be treated, and doesn't make them any less weak just because someone has addictive habits.
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