2.6i Types of substances: Depressants

A Family Guide to Concurrent Disorders - Part I: What are concurrent disorders?

Depressants include:

• alcohol (e.g., beer, wine, liquor)
• opiates, sometimes called narcotics (e.g., heroin and pain medication such as demerol, morphine, codeine)
• benzodiazepines, sometimes called tranquillizers (e.g., Valium and Ativan, prescribed to help people sleep or to reduce anxiety)
• barbiturates, sometimes called downers (e.g., Nembutal, Seconal)
• cough and cold remedies (e.g., Benylin with codeine)
• allergy medications (e.g., Benadryl and Sudafed)
• other over-the-counter drugs (e.g., antinausea drugs such as Gravol).

Depressants slow your central nervous system and affect the parts of the brain that control thinking, behaviour, breathing and heart rate. Depressant drugs such as alcohol, opioids and benxodiazepines can make you drowsy, slow your reaction time, and hinder your ability to pay attention or concentrate. The same is true for drugs with depressant side-effects—drugs such as cold remedies, cough medicines, antihistamines to control allergy symptoms, and drugs to prevent nausea or motion sickness.

Mixing any depressant drug with alcohol, which is also a depressant, can be extremely dangerous. The combined effects of the two drugs are sometimes much greater than the effect of either one alone.

Alcohol

Alcohol is the depressant that is used and abused most often.

How does alcohol make you feel?

The way alcohol affects you depends on many factors, including:

• your age
• your gender
• your body weight
• how sensitive you are to alcohol
• the type and amount of food in your stomach
• how much you drink
• how often you drink
• how long you've been drinking
• how you expect the alcohol to make you feel
• whether you've taken any other drugs (illegal, prescription, over-the-counter or herbal)
• whether you have certain pre-existing medical or psychiatric conditions.

For many people, a single drink of alcohol releases tension and reduces inhibition, making them feel more at ease and outgoing. Some people feel happy or excited when they drink, while others become depressed or hostile.

Women are generally more sensitive to the effects of alcohol than men, and all adults become increasingly sensitive to alcohol's effects as they age. When someone is more sensitive, it takes less alcohol to cause intoxication, and more time for the body to eliminate the alcohol consumed.

Is alcohol dangerous?

Alcohol can affect judgment, behaviour, attitude and reflexes. The impact of these effects can range from embarrassment to unwanted or high-risk sexual contact to violence, injury or death. Alcohol is involved in more regrettable moments, crimes and traffic fatalities than all other drugs of abuse combined.

Extreme intoxication can kill, often as the result of the person “passing out” while vomiting and choking. Clammy skin, low body temperature, slow and laboured breathing and loss of bladder and bowel control are signs of acute alcohol poisoning, which can be fatal.

Mixing alcohol with other drugs—prescribed or recreational—can have unpredictable results. Alcohol may either block the absorption of the other drug, making it less effective, or it may increase the effect of the other drug, making it dangerous.

Is alcohol addictive?

It can be. Most alcohol-related illnesses, social problems, accidents and deaths are caused by problem drinking. This term describes alcohol use that causes problems in a person's life, but does not include physical dependence. Problem drinking is four times as common as severe alcohol dependence.

Physical dependence involves tolerance to alcohol's effects and withdrawal symptoms when drinking is stopped. People who are physically dependent on alcohol can develop withdrawal symptoms, such as sleeplessness, tremors, nausea and seizures within a few hours after their last drink. Even after long periods of abstinence, a person may continue to crave alcohol, and may begin to drink again

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