Hypothesis

Stimulant medication use results to sudden death in the young users

Introduction

There is a relationship between usage of drugs which act by stimulating the brain and the sudden deaths reported among the youths. Youths taking drugs which stimulate central nervous system are at a higher risk sudden death than their counterparts who do not use the stimulant drugs. These drugs are mostly those drugs which are used in the treatment of attention deficient disorder for example the methamphetamine, amphetamine, methylphenidate, dextroamphetamine and methylphenidate. These are drugs whose primary action is the stimulation of the central nervous system. With such stimulation, there is an increase in the blood pressure which is one of the side effects of use of these drugs. The result is an increase in the pumping action of the heart and therefore more work to be done by the heart.

With chronic use of the central nervous system stimulators for example in the treatment of attention deficiency hyperactive disorder, there is a sustained increase in the pressure of blood resulting in the hypertrophy of the heart muscle. This hypertrophy leads to the a related cardiomyopathy referred to as dilated cardiomyopathy leading to myocardial infarction which may result on sudden death. This condition only happens when there is a sustained increase or elevation of blood pressure. Therefore, the drugs must be used for a long duration of time and therefore the drugs which are used to treat attention deficiency disorder are the ones which are studied as the subjects have to use the drugs over a long duration of time.

The dependent variables are the number of sudden deaths in the youths between seven and nineteen years. The independent value is the people using central nervous system stimulators.

Research Methodology

The research was carried out by way of analysis of secondary data. The data concerning the sudden deaths and the use of central nervous system stimulators was got and then analyzed. These included the drugs which are used to treat various central nervous system disorders which include the attention deficient disorder. This is one of the disorders of the central nervous system which is treated by the use of drugs which act by stimulating the central nervous system. Then the mode of action of each drug was determined to know exact mechanism of action of each drug and they were found to have some sympathomimetic activity. Therefore, these drugs have the capability of causing sympathetic stimulation. Some of the peripheral actions of amphetamines which are used in the treatment of attention deficiency hyperactive disorder include the increase in the rate of heart beat and its force of contraction.

There were researches which were looked into to try and relate the use of the drugs and the impact of them on sudden death. The records of all those youths who had died suddenly including those who died secondary to a motor vehicle accident were got from the records. This is between the year 1985 and the year 1996. The total was five hundred and sixty four sudden death cases of youths who were aged between seven and nineteen years. This number was compared with the number of youths of the same age who died as a result of being involved in a motor vehicle accident. This was for the purpose of making the research exactly determine if there was any relation between deaths of youths suddenly and use of central nervous stimulants.