 | Chapter Summary
(See related pages)
After finishing this chapter, students should be able to understand:
- The most effective CNS stimulants are cocaine and amphetamine.
- The stimulants can reverse the effects of fatigue, maintain wakefulness, and temporarily elevate the mood of the user.
- Cocaine is derived from the coca plant. Coca leaves have been chewed for centuries.
- Cocaine's earliest uses in the United States were as a local anesthetic and in psychiatry.
- Coca paste and crack are smokable forms of illicit cocaine.
- Cocaine appears to act by interacting with several neurotransmitters, including dopamine and serotonin.
- Excessive cocaine use can result in a paranoid psychotic reaction.
- Cocaine and amphetamine produce dependence.
- Use of cocaine has declined in the general population since 1985.
- Amphetamine is a synthetic sympathomimetic similar to ephedrine.
- The amphetamine-like drugs are similar in structure to dopamine and norepinephrine.
- Amphetamines are used in short-term weight reduction, narcolepsy, and ADHD (methylphenidate is preferred for ADHD, however).
- Illicit use of amphetamine has been associated with violent behavior.
- Illicit methamphetamine is primarily made in small laboratories or imported from Mexico.
- Amphetamine use is currently at a low level in the general population but has increased over the past several years.
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