Depressants

=**DEPRESSANTS**= __**What are depressants?**__ Depressants are any type of drug that reduces or diminishes the normal activity of the central nervous system. The most common or known depressants happens to be alcohol (ethanol). This is one of the three types of depressants but this one is self medicated because no one has to give you permission to inherit them. The other two types of depressants are prescribed by doctors as they are really strong and need permission. These two types are: barbiturates and benzodiazepines. Barbiturate and Benzodiazepine are drugs that act as a “depressant” in the nervous system which slow down any of the functions in the body. This would include mental activity as well as physical activity. Depressants are also known as anti-depressants because they these antidepressants are used to cure or treat any harsh clinical depression and these antidepressants are prescribed by a psychiatrist. Depressants don’t necessarily have to be bad for the human body but that depends on the amount that is being consumed. In low doses, depressants can increase feelings of anxiety, drowsiness, relief, calm, and finally slower mental activity. In normal doses, they create inaudible speech, uncertain movement, sleep as well as an alter perception. Finally, when depressants are consumed in a higher dose, they create a decrease in breathing rates as well as heart rates which can therefore result in death as well as loss of consciousness or coma.



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The use and abuse of ethanol has both short term, and long term effects. In the short term, i.e. straight after it has been consumed, ethanol helps you relax and relieve stress, hence is looked at as a good thing for occasions of stress build-up. Due to the fact that it alter's your state of mind, ethanol increases your confidence level and sociability. As the quantity consumed increases, the more your mental state is altered, and therefore the more carefree and open you are. However, as with any other thing, too much leads to bad. You can make a fool of yourself, treat others with disrespect, and get yourself, along with others into a mess. On the other hand, a positive short-term effect of ethanol is that it dilates small blood vessels which help increase body warmth level. This is extremely useful, and is commonly used in areas with bad weather, where there is a threat to comfort and body health due to overwhelming levels of coldness.

Along with this list of short term effects, there is also a fairly lengthy list of long term ones. First of all, the simple addiction to ethanol. This causes all the short term effects to become long term, and has its own long run ones as well. A very common one is damage to the liver and other liver diseases which can be extremely dangerous and problematic. One possible disease is cirrhosis, which is an abnormal liver condition in which there is irreversible scarring of the liver (1). Other common problems are liver failure, as well as liver cancer. Other than effecting the liver, high levels of ethanol consumption in the long run can cause coronary heart disease. This is interlinked with other effects such as high blood pressure and increase in chances of strokes. There is also an increased risk of getting dementia due to the abuse of ethanol.

=__** Techniques used for the detection of ethanol in the breath, the blood and urine. **__= There are 5 different types of techniques in order to detect alcohol in the breath, urine or blood, but I will only talk about the 3 most important ones. The first one is the most basic and common one as it is the one used by policemen on highways in order to check for alcohol level. The name for that type of technique is called Breathalyzer. A breathalyzer contains potassium dichromate(VI) crystals which have an orange color but after a person blows into the breathalyzer, (if alcohol is present) then those crystals start changing to green chromium (III) ions because the ethanol start oxidizing into ethanal and ethanoic acid. However, this type of technique is not the most accurate one so it is recommend to test the person with this technique and also with any of the other 2 techniques that will be explain below. This is a picture of the actual reaction taking place when a person blows into the machine.



The second technique used to detect ethanol is done through blood or urine in a process called, Gas-Liquid Chromatography. This technique is the most common one after the breathalyzer because it is required to be done in a lab. Generally, when the policemen have any doubts, they ask the driver to go to the police station where they can actually take place this technique. Either a blood or urine sample is vaporized and subsequently injected into a stream of gas which is over the surface of a “non-volatile liquid”. The components of the vapor, which include the ethanol gas, start to get in motion and move at different rates (this depends on the boiling point). After a certain amount of time, the only thing that leaves the machine happens to be ethanol. That amount of ethanol is measured and graphed in a paper in order to finally deduce the amount there is in the person’s blood.



Finally, the last technique that is used to detect ethanol happens to be an intoximeter which uses a fuel cell. This intoximeter has a catalyst present which happens to oxidize the ethanol that there is in the air into ethanoic acid. That ethanoic acid is then changed into water and carbon dioxide with the help of the catalyst. The fuel cell that is inside the intoximeter converts the energy that was used in the transformation or oxidation of the ethanol into an electrical voltage that can be analyzed in orde to measure the ethanol concentration. This is the most accurate of the techniques as the electrical voltage is very close to the actual concentration of ethanol inside the body of the person.



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4. Describe the synergistic effects of ethanol with other drugs.  What is the Synergistic Effect- It is an effect arising between two or more agents, entities, factors, of substances, that produces an effect greater than the sum of their individual effects (2). The Synergistic Effect with Alcohol- If a certain number or different types of depressants and/or drugs are consumed, it is highly likely that they will mix and react with each other. When ethanol is consumed with other drugs, the reaction can prove fatal because the central nervous system is depressed itself. When ethanol is consumed with either of the other two main depressants, barbitu rates or benzodiazepines, or with any narcotics or solvents, the overall effect is naturally far greater than the effect shown when they are consumed individually.  Barbiturates are a salt or ester attained from barbiturate acid, that directly attack and depress the central nervous system. When consumed independently, the results can differ from as weak as mild sedation, or as powerful can complete anesthesia. Benzodiazepines could be any of the various organic compounds which do not contain carbon, that are used as tranquilizers. This in itself tells us how powerful of a drug it could potentially be, depending on the quantity used. They are commonly used as anesthesia on patients before surgery and if need be, are prescribed as ant-depressants in very dosages, for short time-periods.  These drugs, being as strong as they are, and other mind or mood altering drugs, combined with alcohol can prove deadly. The individual effects of any narcotic is extremely high and dangerous just by itself, and the use of them is frowned upon. Mixed with other drugs, especially with ethanol, the effects can lead to serious body damage, mental damage, organ failure, internal bleeding etc. it can induce loss of conscience, comas, or even death. __** Other commonly used depressants and describe their structures: **__ There are only 3 other commonly used depressants which are: Diazepam (Valium), Nitrazepam (Mogadon) and finally fluoxetine hydrochloride (Prozac). Valium and Mogadon are really similar with only 2 differences between the two structures. If we see their structures below, we can see that the only difference is that for example, the H3C is replace by Hydrogen in Mogadon while the Chlorine is replaced by nitrogen dioxide in Mogadon. Apart from that, they have the same structure with the same amount of Benzene rings as well as the double bonds of oxygen.



The other depressant is Prozac which has a weird structure that we can see below. The NH2CL is the chloride salt which would make it more soluble than the other 2 depressants. If we see closely, it has 2 Benzene rings as well as the 2 other depressants but it includes more elements like F3C or CH2.



Finally, all of the 3 depressants share or have the same characteristics in the human body and those are:
 * All reduce stress and insomnia
 * Can produce dependence as people can get addicted to them
 * Only can treat the symptoms but don’t cure the actual sickness
 * They have a limited use

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__**IB Questions:**__ 1. (a) Describe the likely effect of a depressant taken in: a moderate dose and a high dose. (b) Ethanol in breath can be detected using a breathalyser containing potassium dichromate(VI) crystals. Describe the colour change that occurs in a positive test and identify the species responsible for the final colour. 2. Depressants such as tranquilizers and sedatives are capable of affecting the central nervous system. (a) State two effects, in each case, on the body of taking (i) a low dose of a tranquilizer. [2] (ii) a high dose of a sedative. [2] b) Explain why depressants are sometimes described as anti-depressants. [1]   (c) List <span style="font-family: TimesNewRoman,Bold; font-size: 16px;">two depressants whose structures are shown in Table 21 of the Data Booklet. <span style="font-family: TimesNewRoman,Italic; font-size: 16px;">[1]    (d) One problem with many drugs is that users develop <span style="font-family: TimesNewRoman,Italic; font-size: 16px;">tolerance . Explain what is meant by theterm <span style="font-family: TimesNewRoman,Italic; font-size: 16px;">tolerance and state why it could increase the risk to the user. <span style="font-family: TimesNewRoman,Italic; font-size: 16px;">[2]   <span style="font-family: TimesNewRoman,Italic; font-size: 16px;">3. Diazepam and nitrazepam are two depressants that are very similar in their structures. State the name of two different functional groups present in both depressants.

__**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Sources **__

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