Chemical substance that alters nervous system function
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An assortment of psychoactive drugs, including both street drugs and medications:
Cocaine
Crack cocaine
Methylphenidate (Ritalin)
Ephedrine
MDMA (ecstasy)
Peyote (mescaline)
LSD blotter
Psilocybin mushroom (Psilocybe cubensis)
Salvia divinorum (salvinorin A)
Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) (Unscheduled drug)
Amanita muscaria mushroom (muscimol)
Tylenol 3 (acetaminophen/codeine)
Codeine with muscle relaxant
Pipe tobacco (nicotine) (Unscheduled drug)
Bupropion (Unscheduled drug)
Cannabis (THC)
Hashish (THC)
A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, psychoactive agent, or psychotropic drug is a chemical substance that changes the function of the nervous system and results in alterations of perception, mood, cognition, and behavior.[1] These substances may be used medically, recreationally, for spiritual reasons (for example, by altering one's consciousness, as with entheogens for ritual, spiritual, or shamanic purposes), or for research.[2] Some categories of psychoactive drugs may be prescribed by physicians[3] and other healthcare practitioners because of their therapeutic value.
Some psychoactive substances may be used in detoxification and rehabilitation programs for people who may have become dependent upon or addicted to other mind-altering or mood-altering substances.[4] Drug rehabilitation attempts to reduce addiction through a combination of strategies such as psychotherapy, support groups, and sometimes medication such as psychoactive substances.[5]
Psychoactive substances often bring various changes in consciousness and mood that the user may find rewarding and pleasant (e.g., euphoria or a sense of relaxation) or advantageous in an observable or measurable way (e.g., increased alertness).[6] Substances that are rewarding and thus positively reinforcing have the potential to induce a state of addiction – compulsive drug use despite negative consequences.[7] In addition, sustained use of some substances may produce physical or psychological dependence, or both, associated with somatic or psychological-emotional withdrawal states, respectively.[7]
Psychoactive drug misuse, dependence, and addiction have resulted in legal measures and moral debate.[8] Governmental controls on manufacture, supply, and prescription attempt to reduce problematic medical drug use. Ethical concerns have also been raised about the overuse of these drugs clinically and about their marketing by manufacturers.[9] Popular campaigns to decriminalize[10] or legalize the recreational use of certain drugs (e.g., cannabis) are also ongoing.
^"CHAPTER 1 Alcohol and Other Drugs". The Public Health Bush Book: Facts & approaches to three key public health issues. ISBN 0-7245-3361-3. Archived from the original on 2015-03-28.
^Miller C, Lewis J. "Uses of Psychoactive Drugs". Open Library: Press Books. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
^Levine RJ (1991). "Medicalization of Psychoactive Substance Use and the Doctor-Patient Relationship". The Milbank Quarterly. 69 (4): 623–640. doi:10.2307/3350230. ISSN 0887-378X. JSTOR 3350230. PMID 1806804.
^Rockville (2006). "4 Physical Detoxification Services for Withdrawal from Specific Substances". Detoxification and Substance Abuse Treatment: 4 Physical Detoxification Services for Withdrawal From Specific Substances. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
^"Substance Use Disorder (SUD): Management and Treatment". Cleveland Clinic. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
^"Drugs (psychoactive)". World Health Organization. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
^ ab"Substance use and addiction". Canadian Mental Health Association. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
^Frank LE, Nagel SK (February 2017). "Addiction and Moralization: the Role of the Underlying Model of Addiction". Neuroethics. 10 (1): 129–139. doi:10.1007/s12152-017-9307-x. PMC 5486499. PMID 28725284. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
^Mastroianni PC, Noto AR, Galduróz JC (2008). "Psychoactive drug advertising: analysis of scientific information". Revista de Saude Publica. 42 (3). 42(3): 529–35. doi:10.1590/s0034-89102008005000023. hdl:11449/70529. PMID 18438590. Retrieved 2 December 2023.
^Zhang M. "Missouri's marijuana legalization campaign is splitting the weed world". POLITICO. Retrieved 2023-01-25.
A psychoactivedrug, psychopharmaceutical, psychoactive agent, or psychotropic drug is a chemical substance that changes the function of the nervous system...
Classification System. This classifies drugs according to their solubility and permeability or absorption properties. Psychoactivedrugs are substances that affect...
in standard drug tests. Designer drugs include psychoactive substances that have been designated by the European Union as new psychoactive substances (NPS)...
Recreational drug use is the use of one or more psychoactivedrugs to induce an altered state of consciousness, either for pleasure or for some other...
classification as illegal. Many of the older designer drugs (research chemicals) are structural analogues of psychoactive tryptamines or phenethylamines but there...
The Journal of PsychoactiveDrugs is a peer-reviewed medical journal on psychoactivedrugs. It was established in 1967 by David E. Smith and is currently...
cognition or behavior. Many of these plants are used intentionally as psychoactivedrugs, for medicinal, religious, and/or recreational purposes. Some have...
Many cacti are known to be psychoactive, containing phenethylamine alkaloids such as mescaline. However, the two main ritualistic (folkloric) genera are...
Militaries worldwide have used or are using various psychoactivedrugs to improve performance of soldiers by suppressing hunger, increasing the ability...
experiences of psychoactive substances, there are websites and organizations specifically created to serve as encyclopedias of psychoactivedrugs and drug culture...
capable of exhibiting both therapeutic and psychoactive effects. In the medical setting, synthetic drugs possess psychotropic effects which can cure...
therapeutically (e.g., cannabis as a drug) for thousands of years. Hence, the sociocultural and economic significance of psychoactive plants is enormous. Many plants...
(female flowers) containing the most trichomes. It is consumed as a psychoactivedrug by smoking, typically in a pipe, bong, vaporizer or joint, or via...
"psychopharmacology" was likely first coined by David Macht in 1920. Psychoactivedrugs interact with particular target sites or receptors found in the nervous...
Responsible drug use seeks to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks associated with psychoactivedrug use. For illegal psychoactivedrugs that are...
concerns psychoactivedrugs (which affect mental processes such as perception, cogntion, and mood), prohibition can also apply to non-psychoactivedrugs, such...
Ayahuasca is a South American psychoactive brew, traditionally used by Indigenous cultures and folk healers in the Amazon and Orinoco basins for spiritual...
severe and dangerous drug-drug interactions with a wide range of both psychoactive, anti-psychotic, and non-psychoactivedrugs. As of 2017[update], MDMA...
brain functions, such as the covert administration of high doses of psychoactivedrugs (especially LSD) and other chemicals without the subjects' consent...
"Truth serum" is a colloquial name for any of a range of psychoactivedrugs used in an effort to obtain information from subjects who are unable or unwilling...
A psychiatric or psychotropic medication is a psychoactivedrug taken to exert an effect on the chemical makeup of the brain and nervous system. Thus...
tolerance occurs with the use of certain psychoactivedrugs, where tolerance to a behavioral effect of a drug, such as increased motor activity by methamphetamine...
means of intoxication for spiritual, pleasure, or medicinal purposes. Psychoactive substances may also play a significant part in the development of religion...
amount in energy drinks. Caffeine is the world's most widely used psychoactivedrug and by far the most common stimulant. In North America, 90% of adults...
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