How do drugs work in the brain?

Drugs may cause high blood pressure and this inturn may cause memory loss . Drugs are different types of chemicals that affect the brain by tapping into its communication system and interfering with the way neurons normally send, receive, and process information. Some drugs, such as marijuana and heroin, can activate neurons because their chemical structure acts as that of a natural neurotransmitter. Even though these drugs copies the brain’s chemicals, they don’t activate neurons in the same way as a natural neurotransmitter, and they lead to wrong messages being transmitted through the network.

Impact Of Use Of Drugs On Memory Loss

Emotions and memory are complexly intertwined. It is understood that drug abuse alters moods and interferes with the regulation of emotions and therefore with memory formation, processing, and storage. Some of these effects may only last as long as a user is intoxicated or “high,” while others may be persist longer and increase with regular abuse. There are different types of drugs affect the brain in differing ways. Some may be more harmful to the memory functions than others.

 

Amnesia

When people lose their ability to remember information they have amnesia. Amnesia also refers to an inability to recall information that is stored in memory. In simple terms, amnesia is the loss of memory. The reason for amnesia may be organic or functional.

Organic causes of amnesia may include brain damage through injury, or the use of specific drug.

 Functional causes of amnesia are psychological factors, such as defense mechanisms.

People with amnesia also find it hard to imagine the future, because our thought process that relates the future scenarios are closely linked to the recollections of past experiences. 

The ability to recollect events and experiences is a very complicated brain process. In fact, the people who study on this topic tell that they now only they are starting to understanding what is exactly happening when we commit something to memory, or when we try to retrieve data that was stored by our brain some time back.

Being a little forgetful is not related to having amnesia. Amnesia refers to forgetting many things at one go  that should not have been forgotten. These may include important milestones in life, memorable events, the important people in our lives, and vital facts we have been told or taught.

Most people with amnesia are usually lucid and are sense of oneself self. However, they may face difficulties in learning new information and forming new memories, as well as finding it very difficult to recall memories of the past.

Although amnesia is a popular theme for movies and books, people don't get this disease that easily.

Types of amnesia

There are many different types of amnesia. Below is a list of the most common ones:

• Anterograde amnesia
• Retrograde amnesia
• Transient global amnesia
• Traumatic amnesia –
• Wernicke-Korsakoff's psychosis
• Hysterical (fugue) amnesia 
• Childhood amnesia (infantile amnesia) 
• Posthypnotic amnesia 
• Source amnesia 
• Blackout phenomenon
• Prosopamnesia

Alcohol

Memory impairment is one of the most common problems associated with alcohol related brain impairment (ARBI). Some people find it difficult to remember things from day-to-day, while others have difficulty in remembering skills, knowledge or information they have learnt before.This short-term memory loss doesn't mean that brain cells have been damaged, but frequent heavy sessions can damage the brain because of alcohol's effect on brain chemistry and processes. Drinking heavily over a long period of time can also have long-term effects on memory.