Heroin Addiction Therapy: Model Behavior
Addiction is a progressive, chronic relapsing disorders include symptoms mainly compulsions, uncontrollable and continuous use of alcohol and or other drugs despite adverse
(Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration).
INTRODUCTION
Between myth and reality, life in society has become addicted to the stigma that “Once the addiction is still addiction”. They continued to use heroin will become addicted to behave (addict). In those who stop and start the recovery process must remember that when they use it again evoke disease of addiction. Therapy and recovery of heroin dependence is a very long process. Read more
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Pronunciation: NIGH-truhs OX-eyed
Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Number: 10024-97-2
Formal Names: Dinitrogen Monoxide, Dinitrogen Oxide, Entonox
Informal Names: Fall Down, Gas, Hippie Crack, Hysteria, Laughing Gas, Nitro, Nitrous, Nitrous Acid, Noss, Pan, Shoot the Breeze, Tanks, Thrust, Whippets
Type: Inhalant. Federal Schedule Listing: Unlisted USA Availability: Nonprescription, but sales and usage are controlled in some jurisdictions Read more
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dinitrogen monoxide (135),Dinitrogen oxide (63),nitrous oxide birth defects (41),entonox drug (35),nitrous oxide abuse (30),entonox dose (28),entonox dental (24),long term effects of nitrous oxide abuse (22),entonox in usa (18),nitrous oxide and birth defects (17),Opium (Papaver album, Papaver somniferum, Poppy)
Pronunciation: OH-pi-uhm
Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Number: 8008-60-4
Formal Names: Papaver album, Papaver somniferum, Poppy
Informal Names: Ah-pen-yen, Aunti, Aunti Emma, Big O, Black, Blackjack, Black Pill, Black Stuff, Chandoo, Chandu, Chinese, Chinese Molasses, Chinese Tobacco, Chocolate, Cruz, Dopium, Dover, Dover’s Deck, Dover’s Powder, Dreamer, Dream Gun, Dreams, Dream Stick, Easing Powder, Emma, Fi-Do-Nie, Garden-Poppy, Gee, God’s Medicine, Goma, Gondola, Gong, Goric, Great Tobacco, Gum, Guma, Hard Stuff, Hocus, Hop, Indonesian Bud, Joy, Joy Plant, Mawseed, Midnight Oil, Mira, Mud, O, Oil, OJ, OP, Ope, Pen Yan, Pen Yen, PG, Pin Gon, Pin Yen, Plant, PO, Pox, Skee, Tar, Tongs, Tox, Toxy, Toys, When- Shee, Winshee, Yen Shee Suey, Ze, Zero
Type: Depressant (opiate class).
Federal Schedule Listing: Schedule II (DEA no. 9600)
USA Availability: Prescription
Pregnancy Category: C Read more
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Pronunciation: ox-A-zeh-pam (also pronounced ox-AZ-eh-pam)
Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Number: 604-75-1
Formal Names: Anxiolit, Serax, Serenid D
Type: Depressant (benzodiazepine class).
Federal Schedule Listing: Schedule IV (DEA no. 2835)
USA Availability: Prescription
Pregnancy Category: C Read more
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Nicotine (Habitrol, Nicoderm, Niconil, Nicorette, Nicotiana rustica, Nicotiana tabacum, Nicotrol, Prostrop, Tobacco)
Pronunciation: NIK-uh-teen (also pronounced NIK-uh-tin)
Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Number: 54-11-5
Formal Names: Habitrol, Nicoderm, Niconil, Nicorette, Nicotiana rustica, Nicotiana tabacum, Nicotrol, Prostrop, Tobacco
Informal Names: Chip (cigarette mixed with PCP), Fry Daddy (cigarette mixed with crack cocaine)
Type: Stimulant (pyridine alkaloids class).
Federal Schedule Listing: Unlisted
USA Availability: Generally available to adults as a component of tobacco products; nonprescription and prescription in pharmaceutical format
Pregnancy Category: C or D (depending on pharmaceutical format) drugsencyclopedia.net/nicotine/nicotine-habitrol-nicoderm-niconil-nicorette-nicotiana-rustica-nicotiana-tabacum-nicotrol-prostrop-tobacco/#more-28″ class=”more-link”>Read more
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Pronunciation: pen-toh-BAR-bi-tal
Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Number: 76-74-4
Formal Names: Cafergot, Nembutal, Pentobarbitone, Phenobarbitone
Informal Names: Nebbies, Nembies, Nemmies, Nimbies, Yellow Bullets, Yellow Dolls, Yellow Jackets, Yellows
Type: Depressant (barbiturate class).
Federal Schedule Listing: Schedule II (oral and parentral, DEA no. 2270), Schedule
III for suppositories (DEA no. 2271)
USA Availability: Prescription
Pregnancy Category: D
Uses.
This short-acting substance has sedative qualities but is considered ineffective in treating nervous apprehension. Because of the drug’s sleepinducing characteristics, it is used as a preliminary to administering anesthesia and as a short-term treatment for insomnia. Pentobarbital has been observed to lower blood pressure, body temperature, and muscle tone. The compound can be used as an emergency anticonvulsant when a person has seizures, and
has been used to treat alcohol addicts undergoing withdrawal. Pentobarbital has been found effective in reducing pressure that fluid creates in the brain after severe head injury. Pentobarbital reduces a type of nerve cell death called neuronal apoptosis, and this reduction may help prevent stroke. Animal studies indicate that pentobarbital can help protect brain tissue against radiation, which might have practical application during treatment of brain tumors. Veterinarians use the substance for euthanasia: An unusual demonstration of the drug’s strength occurred when a lion was poisoned by eating meat from a horse that had been killed with pentobarbital.
Drawbacks.
Although the drug is a sedative, it can cause hyperactivity in children. Sudden stoppage of combined pentobarbital and benzodiazepine therapy in an infant caused temporary chorea (involuntary jerking). A feline experiment showed that tremors reminiscent of Parkinson’s disease can occur when pentobarbital is administered with chlorpromazine (also called Thorazine, often used to treat psychotic behavior). Persons with porphyria, a body chemistry affliction that can provoke violence, are supposed to avoid pentobarbital. Examination of epileptic children receiving pentobarbital shows elevated readings for total cholesterol, though levels of high-density lipoprotein (so-called good cholesterol) and triglycerides (associated with heart attack and stroke) seem unaffected.
In a monkey experiment pentobarbital interfered with time perception, ability to learn, short-term memory, attention span, and interest in tasks. The substance impeded task performances in a human experiment, with performance getting worse as the amount of thinking necessary for a chore increased.
Such a drug is unlikely to be welcome in the workplace. Although children using the substance apparently have trouble with language skills, a study found language development to be normal two years after the medication ceased.
Abuse factors.
In a test, alcohol drinkers who were not alcoholics found pentobarbital less appealing than a placebo and experienced no euphoria from pentobarbital, a finding consistent with other studies of persons who do not abuse drugs. When given choices of assorted substances, monkeys chose pentobarbital less often than water, which indicates the compound has low addictive potential. In contrast, drug abusers participating in an experiment found effects of pentobarbital and diazepam to be similar. Those two drugs thus had comparable appeal even though scientists running the experiment found pentobarbital possessing only 10% of diazepam’s strength. A study testing various effects on former drug addicts found pentobarbital to be 15 times
stronger than meprobamate, but morphine acted 6 times stronger than pentobarbital.
Cross-tolerance among chlordiazepoxide, pentobarbital, and alcohol has been observed in rats. A study of sedative drug abusers found alcohol and pentobarbital to deliver similar effects, with pentobarbital possibly having more appeal. A monkey experiment indicates that alcohol increases the attractiveness of pentobarbital. Dependence can develop, and in humans the
pentobarbital withdrawal syndrome can duplicate the delirium tremens of alcohol withdrawal. A mice study found that tolerance to pentobarbital developed more rapidly if assorted drugs of abuse were also being administered (morphine, amphetamine, alcohol, or cocaine).
Drug interactions.
A case report notes that pentobarbital can almost double the speed with which theophylline (commonly used to treat asthma and other breathing difficulties) disappears from the bloodstream, requiring changes in normal theophylline dosage. In a mice experiment alcohol boosted pentobarbital’s potency. A human study found that chronic alcohol ingestion reduces
the effective length of a pentobarbital dose. Grapefruit juice extends the amount of sleep produced by pentobarbital in rats, and in mice the drug inhibits caffeine effects. At one time researchers suspected that taking pentobarbital along with MDMA would reduce organic brain damage caused by MDMA, but rat experiments indicate that any apparent benefit comes simply
from the lower body temperature produced by pentobarbital. Although cocaine is a stimulant, in a rat experiment it increased the sleep-inducing quality of pentobarbital.
Cancer.
In animal experimentation pentobarbital has caused cancer. In humans long-term usage is associated with cancer of the ovaries and bronchi, but that finding is weakened by the patients also smoking cigarettes. Pregnancy. A large survey of pregnancy outcomes found that pentobarbital does not appear to cause birth defects. Nonetheless pregnant women are supposed
to avoid the drug.
Additional information.
Some capsule formats of Nembutal (pentobarbital sodium CAS RN 57-33-0) contain FD&C Yellow No. 5 (tartrazine), which can cause asthma attacks or other allergic responses in sensitive persons, particularly if someone has adverse reactions to aspirin. Cafergot PB is a combination
of bellafoline, caffeine, and ergotamine tartrate. The combination was tested with and without pentobarbital sodium to determine effect on migraine headache. Presence of pentobarbital not only enhanced reduction of pain but also helped treat anxiety, nausea, vomiting, poor appetite, and low tolerance of light.
Additional scientific information may be found in:
Cole-Harding, S., and H. de Wit. “Self-Administration of Pentobarbital in Light and
Moderate Alcohol Drinkers.” Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior 43 (1992):
563–69.
Hambly, G., C. Frewin, and B. Dodd. “Effect of Anticonvulsant Medication in the Preschool
Years on Later Language Development.” Medical Journal of Australia 148
(1988): 658, 661–62.
Mintzer, M.Z., et al. “Ethanol and Pentobarbital: Comparison of Behavioral and Subjective
Effects in Sedative Drug Abusers.” Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology
5 (1997): 203–15.
Pickworth, W.B., M.S. Rohrer, and R.V. Fant. “Effects of Abused Drugs on Psychomotor
Performance.” Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology 5 (1997): 235–41.
Pierce, James I. “Drug-Withdrawal Psychoses.” American Journal of Psychiatry 119
(1963): 880–81.
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Pronunciation: PEM-oh-leen
Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Number: 2152-34-3
Formal Names: Cylert
Informal Names: Popcorn Coke
Type: Stimulant.
Federal Schedule Listing: Schedule IV (DEA no. 1530)
USA Availability: Prescription
Pregnancy Category: B
Uses.
In the United States pemoline became available for medical purposes during the 1970s. It is used to treat depression, weariness, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The drug’s stimulant effects are described as greater than caffeine but less than amphetamine. Unlike many scheduled stimulants, pemoline is unrelated to amphetamine.
Studies find pemoline useful in reducing symptoms of depression, and experimental usage of pemoline with monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI) antidepressants has helped depressed persons who obtain insufficient relief with other drugs.
Pemoline has eliminated drowsiness felt by persons taking antihistamines. The drug has been proposed for workplace usage to reduce fatigue but has not been tested extensively for that purpose. Tests have found that the drug improves ability to perform arithmetic when users are tired. In a different but more robust experiment, members of the U.S. Navy Special Warfare group stayed awake 64 hours around the clock while using pemoline. Though their performance appeared to decline as the experiment continued, they not only did better than participants who used placebos, but they also did better than persons using methylphenidate. In England, Royal Air Force experimenters concluded that pemoline can help keenness and capabilities during long shifts of duty. A Russian report endorses the drug’s usefulness for “urgent increase” of functioning but notes that persons using pemoline cannot maintain initial ability if body temperature rises and oxygen supply declines, nor does the drug help persons push past emotional strain or fulfill complicated task requirements.
During the 1980s and 1990s sports officials in Belgium found the drug was frequently used by cyclists seeking a competitive edge. Multiple sclerosis patients using pemoline sometimes report less exhaustion than those using a placebo, but investigators who rigorously reviewed studies about multiple sclerosis fatigue found no evidence of pemoline improving weariness.
An instance is known of an elderly man taking pemoline to help him stay awake during lectures, but the regimen seemed to promote prostate trouble. Pemoline has been successfully used against narcolepsy.
Studies find pemoline about as effective as either dextroamphetamine or methylphenidate in helping children with ADHD. Pemoline has been used successfully against ADHD in teenagers and adults as well. Growth rates are below normal in some youngsters with ADHD, and pemoline itself can temporarily hold back such development but without long-term harm—youngsters
develop normal adult weight and height. Those deficient growth rates may be treated with growth hormone. One study found, however, that pemoline seems to make the hormone treatment less effective in some patients. As the age of ADHD patients grows, so can unwanted effects that they experience from pemoline.
Animal experiments in the 1960s indicated that pemoline boosts learning ability. The lure of a “smart pill” had understandable appeal to suffering students and teachers, but when the drug was tested on college students, no improvement in learning ability occurred. The same dismal outcome occurred when elderly persons received the drug; indeed, some performed worse than
elderly persons receiving a placebo. Group results in still another experiment showed either no improvement or worsening of learning scores when people used the drug. In contrast, long-term daily administration of the drug seemed to improve memory in some persons entering senility.
A review covering 10 years of pemoline reports found none attributing euphoria to the drug, a lack that sets it apart from other scheduled stimulants.
Unlike some other stimulants, pemoline also seems to have little effect on pulse rate or blood pressure.
Drawbacks.
The drug can bring on tics and partial muscle movements, in a particularly severe way if an overdose occurs. An instance is known of muscle damage in an adult misusing pemoline. Pemoline is also known to reduce appetite and salivation, increase crankiness, bring on headaches and stomachaches, cause skin rash, and interfere with sleep. Hallucinations from
pemoline have been reported.
In rats and mice pemoline can cause self-harm behavior, and the amount needed to induce such behavior declines when a certain kind of brain damage is present, damage that is often seen in mentally retarded humans. Those findings suggest that such persons receiving pemoline may need monitoring to guard against self-injury. Long-term excessive usage may generate temporary psychotic behavior, but such an outcome appears untypical.
Probably the most serious unwanted results of taking pemoline can be hepatitis and other liver injury, injury so severe as to require a transplant. Damage can continue to worsen after the drug is stopped, and people have died from liver failure induced by pemoline. Victims tend to be children. Such an adverse effect is particularly disquieting because it occurs at therapeutic dosage, rather then being created by reckless abuse. A child can take pemoline for months before harm is apparent, or alarming symptoms can arise after just a week of use.
Methylphenidate is suspected of contributing to liver trouble in persons who are also taking pemoline. Debate exists about how dangerous pemoline is to liver function when no other drugs are being taken, but the debate has limited practical significance because many patients taking pemoline receive other drugs as well. Because of concern about liver damage, parents are supposed to sign a written consent form before their children begin pemoline therapy.
Abuse factors.
Although pemoline is a scheduled substance, a review of reports covering the first 10 years of its medical availability in the United States found little evidence of addiction or abuse. A Norwegian review of pemoline use boldly described it as “a stimulant which cannot be abused.”
1 When given a choice of drugs, animals show no particular interest in pemoline, a sign of low abuse potential. Nonetheless, a case report does exist of a pemoline addict who developed a paranoid psychosis that went away after stopping the drug. A British medical practitioner reported that drug misusers were supplementing their amphetamine habit with pemoline.
An experiment tested pemoline’s ability to help reduce cocaine usage among persons receiving methadone treatment (meaning the persons were addicted to cocaine and heroin both). Results were unencouraging. In contrast, favorable response in an ADHD alcoholic caused researchers to predict that pemoline may be useful for treating alcohol addiction. Mice experimentation
shows that pemoline reduces effects produced by THC, considered the primary drug in marijuana.
Drug interactions.
Pemoline is suspected of interfering with epilepsy medicines.
It can boost mono amine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI) antidepressants and
urinary acidifers (the latter action interfering with pemoline’s psychostimulant
effects).
Cancer.
Rat experiments do not indicate any cancer risk from pemoline.
Pregnancy.
Experiments with rabbits and rats reveal no harm to fetal development, but influence on human fetal development is unknown.
Additional information.
When tested on mentally handicapped workers, magnesium pemoline (CAS RN 18968-99-5) brought on the kinds of temperament modification associated with caffeine but failed to increase either productivity or time worked. Two cocaine addicts who appeared to have mild ADHD were able to reduce their intake of cocaine while receiving magnesium pemoline, a result leading the scientific investigators to wonder if magnesium pemoline might have potential for helping to break cocaine addiction. Animal experiments have shown that both pemoline and magnesium pemoline can provide protection against atomic radiation.
Additional scientific information may be found in:
Bostic, J.Q., et al. “Pemoline Treatment of Adolescents with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder: A Short-Term Controlled Trial.” Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology 10 (2000): 205–16.
Elizur, A., I. Wintner, and S. Davidson. “The Clinical and Psychological Effects of
Pemoline in Depressed Patients—A Controlled Study.” International Pharmacopsychiatry
14 (1979): 127–34.
Honda, Y., and Y. Hishikawa. “Long Term Treatment of Narcolepsy and Excessive Daytime Sleepiness with Pemoline (Betanamin).” Current Therapeutic Research:
Clinical and Experimental 27 (1980): 429–41.
Langer, D.H., et al. “Evidence of Lack of Abuse or Dependence Following Pemoline
Treatment: Results of a Retrospective Survey.” Drug and Alcohol Dependence 17
(1986): 213–27.
Newlands, W.J. “The Effect of Pemoline on Antihistamine-Induced Drowsiness.” The
Practitioner 224 (1980): 1199–1201.
Shevell, M., and R. Schreiber. “Pemoline-Associated Hepatic Failure: A Critical Analysis
of the Literature.” Pediatric Neurology 16 (1997): 14–16.
Sternbach, H. “Pemoline-Induced Mania.” Biological Psychiatry 16 (1981): 987–89.
Valle-Jones, J.C. “Pemoline in the Treatment of Psychogenic Fatigue in General Practice.”
The Practitioner 221 (1978): 425–27.
Note
1. N. Lie, “Sentralstimuleren Midler ved AD/HD Hos Voksne. Kan De Misbrukes?
[Central Stimulants in Adults with AD/HD. Can They Be Abused?],” Tidsskrift for den
Norske Laegeforening 119 (1999): 82–83. Abstract in English.
Incoming search terms for the article:
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Pronunciation: pee-see-pee
Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Number: 77-10-1. (Hydrochloride form 956-90-1)
Formal Names: Phencyclidine
Informal Names: Ace, Ad, Alien Sex Fiend (with heroin), Amoeba, Angel, Angel Dust, Angel Hair, Angel Mist, Angel Poke, Animal Trank, Animal Tranq, Animal Tranquilizer, Aurora Borealis, Belladonna, Black Dust, Black Whack, Blotter Acid, Blue Madman, Boat, Bohd, Bush, Busy Bee, Butt Naked, Cadillac, Cannabinol, Cigarrode Cristal, CJ, Clicker, Clickum, Cliffhanger, Columbo,
Cozmo’s, Crazy Coke, Crazy Eddie, Crystal, Crystal Joint, Crystal T, Cycline, Cyclone, D, Detroit Pink, Devil’s Dust, Dipper, DMT, DOA, Do It Jack, Domex, Drink, Dummy Dust, Dust, Dusted Parsley, Elephant, Elephant Trank, Elephant Tranquilizer, Elysion, Embalming Fluid, Energizer, Erth, Fake STP, Flake, Flying Saucer, Fresh, Fuel, Good, Goon, Goon Dust, Gorilla Biscuit, Gorilla Tab, Green, Green Leaves, Green Tea, Happy Sticks, HCP, Heaven & Hell, He-Man,
Herms, Hinkley, Hog, Hog Dust, Horse Tracks, Horse Tranquilizer, Ice, Ill, Illy Momo, Jet Fuel, Juice, K, Kap, Kay Jay, K-Blast, Killer, KJ, Kool, Koolly High, Krystal, KW, LBJ, Leaky Bolla, Leaky Leak, Lemon Drop, Lemon 714, Lenos, Lethal Weapon, Little One, Live One, Log, Loveboat, Lovely, Mad Dog, Madman, Magic, Magic Dust, Magic Mist, Mean Green, Mint Dew, Mint Leaf, Mint Weed, Missile, Mist, Monkey Dust, Monkey Tranquilizer, More, New Acid,
New Magic, Niebla, Octane (mixed with gasoline), Oil, Omen, OPP, Orange Crystal, Ozone, P, Parsley, Paz, PCPA, Peace, PeaCe Pill, Peace Weed, Peep, Peter Pan, Pig Killer, Pikachu (mixed with MDMA), Pit, Polvo, Polvo de Angel, Polvo de Estrellas, Puffy, Purple Rain, Red Devil, Rocket Fuel, Scaffle, Scuffle, Selma, Sernyl, Sernylan, Sheets, Sherm, Sherman, Sherm Stick, Skuffle, Smoking, Snort, Soma, Space Base (mixed with crack cocaine), Space Cadet (with
crack), Space Dust (with crack), Speedboat (with crack and marijuana), Spore, Squirrel (with crack and marijuana), Stardust, Stick, STP, Super, Super Grass (with marijuana), Super Joint, Super Kool, Super Weed, Surfer, Synthetic Cocaine, Synthetic THT, TAC, T-Buzz, Tea, Tic, Tic Tac, Tish, Titch, Trank, Wac, Wack, Water, Weed, Wet (alone or with marijuana), Wet Daddy, Whack (with crack or heroin), Whacky Weed, White Devil, White Horizon, White Powder,
Wicky Stick (with crack and marijuana), Wobble Weed, Wolf, Wooly (with marijuana), Worm, Yellow Fever, Zimbie, Zombie Dust, Zombie Weed, Zoom
Type: Depressant.
Federal Schedule Listing: Schedule II (DEA no. 7471)
USA Availability: Prescription
Uses.
This substance was invented in the 1920s, but not until the 1950s was it introduced as a drug, intended as a human and veterinary anesthetic. Human medical use soon ended because of psychological effects discovered during tests on patients. PCP is related to ketamine and, like that substance, has hallucinogenic qualities. Depending on how PCP is used, it can have stimulant, depressant, or hallucinogenic actions. In monkeys PCP is about 10 times stronger than ketamine.
Drawbacks.
PCP can make people feel aloof from the world around them, cause numbness, interfere with movement, and distort perception of time. Hallucinations, floating sensations, euphoria, and mania can occur. People may forget what they did while under the drug’s influence; such amnesia can last for 24 hours after a dose. Although euphoric effects are well documented,
one group of researchers noted bouts of depression brought on by chronic use of the substance, though not by intermittent use. Yet the same researchers also found people successfully using the drug as an antidepressant, and animal studies suggest PCP may have antianxiety properties. The substance reduces appetite in dogs. Rats lost weight when they chronically received PCP.
Law enforcement authorities say the drug can make people hostile and give them extra physical strength, and the same has been experienced by medical personnel dealing with overdose emergencies. Researchers, however, have generally not observed such results from PCP (although one of the very first studies in the 1950s noted violent reactions from about 5% of surgery patients who received the drug as an anesthetic). A study examining PCP cases at a
Los Angeles psychiatric hospital emergency room explicitly noted that wild conduct among PCP patients was uncommon. Perhaps police simply have more dealings with hostile individuals; for example, alcohol can embolden belligerent persons, but violence is not considered an inherent effect of alcohol.
Persons who become violent after taking PCP already have such a history without the substance, and during a police encounter they may well be under the influence of alcohol or other drugs as well. Military research found that PCP hostility did not occur unless persons were under stress, and not all stressed individuals reacted that way. The military study also found that psychotic
episodes did not occur with normal persons; someone had to be prone to psychosis in order for such behavior to occur while using the drug (a finding supported by other studies as well). In mice research PCP reduces violent behavior. Most species, including monkeys, act more docile after taking the drug. Some violent human episodes are described as coming not from aggression
but from a PCP user’s panic when police or medical personnel try to restrain the person. One group of addicts spoke of the substance lowering inhibitions, which is not the same as causing violence, although an already enraged person who loses inhibitions may engage in stormy behavior. In addition, users who attract attention from police or emergency medical personnel
are not necessarily representative of recreational users in general, either in personality or size of dose or reaction to the dose.
PCP’s physical effects include increased salivation, body temperature, pulse rate, and blood pressure. Case reports about humans indicate that PCP can raise blood pressure so high that a medical emergency occurs. The drug can bring on dizziness and double vision, create seizures, and cause muscle discoordination and damage. Numbness caused by PCP can promote injury due to lack of pain signals that ordinarily warn a person to stop doing something.
Cases of kidney failure and liver destruction have been associated with the
substance.
The higher one rises in the traditional evolutionary scale (for example, from mice to rats to humans), the lower the dose necessary for PCP to create anesthesia. Two observers who noted that trend concluded that human brains are exquisitely sensitive to PCP. Animal experiments reveal brain damage when the substance is used chronically for as little as five days. PCP addicts
have complained of memory trouble. A small human study found impaired ability for abstract thinking and for physical movement in response to signals, impairment measured years after the persons said they had stopped using PCP. Moreover, users of the drug may have normal scores on intelligence tests but have emotional disabilities and be crippled in their ability to cope with
problems. Those latter defects may be caused by the drug or may instead be reasons why people resort to the drug.
Abuse factors.
Initially PCP was a Schedule III drug, but in 1978 government authorities shifted it to Schedule II because of recreational use. At about that time a Los Angeles psychiatric hospital emergency room tested 145 consecutive patients for PCP; 63 were positive (over 40%).
A study of 200 recreational users found differences in effects reported by persons who took a little of the drug once a month and by persons who took a lot every day for years. Heavy users felt more pepped-up, violent, and suicidal. Regular users of PCP are known for self-destruction; one study found that 24% of regular users had tried to commit suicide, and 36% had overdosed
on other drugs. A study of PCP users who were treated at a charity hospital found no behavioral difference between black or white males, but black females acted much stranger and more aggressively than white females. The meaning of that finding is unclear—it could be racial, could be cultural, could be a statistical oddity that would disappear after more research.
When monkeys were given a choice between water or PCP, the animals showed no preference; such indifference is a sign of low addictive potential.
An experiment measuring rats with prenatal exposure to PCP found the animals were more sensitive to the drug than were rats lacking prenatal exposure— the opposite of tolerance. Dependence has been reported in monkeys that receive PCP. Pigeons that received the drug every day for 215 days did not develop dependence. Human research has found tolerance but not dependence among users, although dependence is suspected.
Various cold remedies contain doxylamine succinate, which can cause a false-positive drug test for PCP.
Drug interactions.
In a rat experiment neither alcohol nor PCP affected blood pressure, but blood pressure rose when they were used simultaneously. They also speeded up the heart. One human study found that PCP may be more likely to induce excitability in alcoholics than in nonalcoholics, possibly meaning that alcohol increases the likelihood of a manic reaction. In mice marijuana has reduced hyperactivity caused by PCP.
Cancer.
Not enough scientific information to report.
Pregnancy.
Two studies published only a few months apart in the 1980s gave different impressions about the prevalence of PCP use among pregnant women. In one study a group of 2,327 pregnant women were tested for PCP use; 19 were taking the drug. Those 19 were typically polydrug abusers. A different study of 200 pregnant women found 24 using PCP, a rate 15 times
higher than in the other group.
If a pregnant woman uses PCP, it passes into the fetus. Reports exist of PCP being detected in newborns three months after the mothers claimed to have stopped using the drug during pregnancy, which would mean that the drug remains in a fetus months after a pregnant woman stops taking PCP. Whether the women’s claims of abstinence were confirmed by laboratory testing during those months of pregnancy is unclear, however. In mice and pigs PCP builds
up in the fetus, reaching levels 7 to 10 times higher than in the female’s bloodstream.
The drug is suspected of causing birth defects. At dosage levels high enough to poison the pregnant female, birth defects have been produced in rats and mice. Rats with prenatal exposure to PCP show defective memory and learning ability. The substance is suspected of harming fetal brain development in humans. Pregnant women who use the drug tend to produce infants who are smaller than normal. In a group of 83 infants with prenatal PCP exposure,
almost half had a head circumference below the 25th percentile (meaning that 75% of infants in the general population have bigger heads and, by implication, larger brains). Some were below the 10th percentile. Smaller-than-normal infant skulls may interfere with physical growth of the brain. People who abuse one drug tend to abuse others as well; one study of 41 women who
used PCP during pregnancy found that most had also been using cocaine.
Two studies of women who used PCP during pregnancy found that all were poor; most were unmarried, were in an ethnic minority, and had received inadequate prenatal care. Such factors confound efforts to confirm what effect PCP alone has on pregnancy.
Offspring of mothers who have been using PCP can exhibit symptoms similar to those seen in infants undergoing opiate withdrawal—even though the drug is not an opiate, and research has yet to demonstrate that PCP dependence occurs. Infant distress may be real, but the newborn may be responding to the unpleasant effects of the drug itself rather than responding to sudden
absence of the drug.
A year after birth, a group of 57 babies with prenatal PCP exposure showed normal development in mental ability and physical coordination, although almost half were ill-tempered. About 15% had trouble sleeping, and the same percentage lacked normal emotional attachment. Those findings are consistent with other studies. Home environment, of course, may influence behavior as much or more than prenatal drug exposure. Factors noted above (lack of money, absent father, being in a disadvantaged ethnic minority) can weaken home life. Still, the kinds of brain function damage seen in animal studies are the kinds of damage that should interfere with children’s abilities to socialize normally—exactly the kind of deficit seen in children who have prenatal exposure to PCP.
In mice PCP not only passes into maternal milk, but milk levels are 10 times higher than maternal blood levels.
Additional information.
PCP is related to the Schedule I hallucinogens PCE (CAS RN 2201-15-2), PCPy (2201-39-0), TCP (21500-98-1), and TCPy (22912- 13-6).
Rat experimentation measured PCPy as about the same strength as PCP.
Other laboratory measurement shows TCP as stronger than PCP, and PCE as stronger than TCP. French military experiments found that TCP could protect rats and guinea pigs from the chemical warfare agent soman.
“Cannabinol” is a nickname for PCP and refers to THC, which is the active chemical in marijuana and dronabinol, but PCP is not THC. Likewise “DMT” and “STP” (DOM) are nicknames for PCP, but they are all different drugs.
Additional scientific information may be found in:
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