4.5 Substance Use and Abuse

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

  • Describe the diagnostic criteria for substance use disorders
  • Identify the neurotransmitter systems impacted by various categories of drugs
  • Describe how different categories of drugs affect behavior and experience

While we all experience altered states of consciousness in the form of sleep on a regular basis, some people use drugs and other substances that result in altered states of consciousness as well. This section will present information relating to the use of various psychoactive drugs and problems associated with such use. This will be followed by brief descriptions of the effects of some of the more well-known drugs commonly used today.

This lesson has no exercises.

The content of this course has been taken from the free Psychology textbook by Openstax