Chemical Effects Of Drugs And Substance Abuse (Essay Sample)

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SUDS AND CHEMICAL DEPENDENCY
Substance abuse refers to the inappropriate or maladaptive patterns of use of the alcohol and other drugs. The applications of these materials are often the causes of the substance use disorders, SUDs. Additionally, with the continued use of the drugs or any other chemical substances usually lead to their dependence by the users. The results of this addiction are the deterioration of the psychological wellbeing of an individual, as well as other withdrawal syndromes. This article will thus focus on the various aspects of the SUDs and the chemical dependency. ("SAPRP", 2016).
The reports indicate that there are more than half of the American population, aged twelve, and above are current drinkers of alcohol. With this trend, there are strong facts to support that the prevalence of the alcoholism is more in the adolescent age brackets that in the elderly. However, the high number of the tobacco and alcohol cases among the young generation can be used to explain the high number of the users of other illicit drugs. Comparatively, the pattern of use of the tobacco has been on the decline with more emphasis put on the use of other forms of the cigar and the smokeless tobacco and other non-combustible chemicals like the nicotine. ("SAPRP", 2016).
Subsequently, the increased prevalence of the SUDs has an impact on the rise of the healthcare costs directly or indirectly. The high numbers of the mental and physical illnesses that come as a result of the substance abuse lead to the increased healthcare expenditures, since the more the illnesses, the more the costs. Numerous reports indicate that there is an association between the drug use and the current rise in the chronic diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, which have proved to be costly to manage since most of them are hardly treatable ("SAPRP", 2016).
Concerning the chemical use and dependency, the distribution half-life is the period that a substance takes to get into the general circulation following its introduction into the body by whichever route. The distribution half-life has two sub-forms that include the alpha and beta sub-forms. The alpha sub-form is the time it takes the peak concentration of the substance in the blood and the subsequent redistribution to other tissues of the body while the beta sub-form is the period taken for the concentration of the drug to decline in the blood following the biotransformation and elimination processes in the body ("Concepts of Chemical Dependency", 2016).
The efficient and the lethal doses are important in determining the therapeutic index of a chemical substance. Effective dose (ED) is the concentration of a substance that can cause the desired response to a given percentage of the study population. The lethal dose (LD) on the other hand is the concentration of the substance that can alter the functions of the; that may eventually cause death. From the two doses, one ca...