Psychotropic Drugs: Medications That Act On The Brain
The psychotropic drugs They are one of the most influential tools in psychology and psychiatry, both in their intervention aspect and in research.
However, the fact that its marketing and popularity have spread throughout much of the planet does not prevent there from being a certain confusion about what a psychotropic drug really is.
Psychotropic drugs are chemical substances that influence mental processes by acting on the nervous system.
However, we must keep in mind that there are many substances that directly or indirectly affect the neuronal networks of our body, and that is why The concept of a psychotropic drug has a lot to do with the type of effects that the substance has, its intensity and legal regulations that determine how and when its consumption should be.
Types of psychotropic drugs
Within the wide variety of psychotropic drugs that have been developed There is also a very wide range of functions And if the nervous system is capable of carrying out all kinds of processes, such as allowing decision-making or the regulation of emotional states, the substances that influence these groups of neurons can also produce very varied effects depending on the type of psychotropic drug. whichever it is.
Although each type of substance has very specific effects, it does a classification of the types of psychotropic drugs can be established These are the following:
Anxiolytics are a class of psychotropic drugs that reduce the signs of anxiety and the agitation that is associated with it without producing drowsiness. Among the most important anxiolytics we find benzodiazepines.
Sedatives, on the other hand, do cause the level of consciousness to decrease. Both types of psychotropic drugs can be used as tranquilizers.
2. Mood stabilizers
This class of psychotropic drugs is used especially in mood disorders and similar disorders, with cases of bipolar disorder being the most typical.
3. Antipsychotics
Antipsychotics, also called neuroleptics, are a type of psychotropic drugs whose effects are usually related to mitigating the effects of psychosis and schizophrenia.
4. Antidepressants
Antidepressants are psychotropic drugs used especially in the treatment of major depressive disorders, and disorders related to difficulty controlling certain impulses.
Among the types of antidepressants we find some such as MAOIs, SSRIs, tricyclic antidepressants.
How do psychotropic drugs work?
In general, the basic function of psychotropic drugs is to make certain neurons behave in a different way than they were acting. They achieve this by directly or indirectly influencing the way in which these nerve cells reuptake certain types of substances called neurotransmitters.
Thus, for example, a psychotropic drug can cause a certain type of neurons to stop capturing such a high amount of dopamine, which generates a chain reaction that causes the symptoms of a disorder to improve.
Psychotropic drugs and their side effects
Psychotropic drugs are, basically, a type of medication whose target is the Central Nervous System. However, its “ideal” goal Although they are very specific areas of the brain, it does not mean that these substances only have effects there
Like all medications, psychotropic drugs are not intelligent organisms, without sets of molecules that “fit” in some parts of the body and not in others. That means they act on where they are supposed to act, but also on many other parts of the body. That is, psychotropic drugs have side effects, many of which can be very negative.
Psychotropic drugs in the fight against mental illness
Traditionally, psychotropic drugs have been medicine’s response to cases of mental illness. This partly means that its use has not been intended to apply to healthy people, and it also means that its use has been a way to combat symptoms of disorders that were understood to have a cause in the individual.
However, there is currently a very intense debate about the way in which we should understand mental disorders and, therefore, the way in which they should be treated by health specialists. This debate fully affects the use of psychotropic drugs which in some cases can go from being the core of the treatment to becoming a complement in a type of approach to the problem that serves to intervene more in the context in which the person lives and not so much in the person as something isolated.
About this topic, you may be interested in this article: “The differences between syndrome, disorder and disease”
