Central Nervous System Stimulants Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering central nervous system stimulants, including cocaine, amphetamines, methamphetamine, cathinones, historical background, legal history, and pharmacology.

Stimulants

Substances that can keep a person going, both mentally and physically, when they are tired.

Restricted Stimulants

Controlled stimulant substances whose distribution and use are regulated by law, such as cocaine and amphetamines.

Readily Available Stimulants

Stimulant substances that are easily accessible to the general public, such as caffeine and nicotine.

Coca

A bush native to the Andes that produces cocaine, actively cultivated for over $800$ years and historically used in Inca religious ceremonies and as currency.

Angelo Mariani

A developer who introduced coca wine in the late 19th century and incorporated coca leaf extract into lozenges and tea.

Dr. W. S. Halsted

A surgeon referred to as 'the father of modern surgery' who experimented with cocaine's ability to produce local anesthesia.

Sigmund Freud

A psychoanalyst who initially recommended cocaine to treat depression and morphine dependence, but later opposed drug treatment after managing a friend's cocaine-induced psychosis.

Cocaine Toothache Drops

A patent medicine registered in March $1885$ by the Lloyd Manufacturing Co. in Albany, N.Y., sold by druggists for $15\,\text{cents}$ as an instantaneous toothache cure.

Coca Paste

A crude extract produced during the manufacture of cocaine that is often mixed with tobacco and smoked in South America.

Cocaine Hydrochloride

A stable, water-soluble salt form of cocaine that can be snorted intranasally or injected intravenously.

Freebase

A form of cocaine produced by extracting cocaine into a volatile solvent like ether, allowing the resulting base to be heated and its vapors inhaled.

Crack Cocaine

A smokable form of cocaine prepared by mixing cocaine hydrochloride with water and baking soda (or household chemicals) and drying it into lumps.

Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986

Federal legislation that imposed significantly stiffer penalties for selling crack cocaine than powder cocaine, later amended in $1988$ to apply severe penalties to simple possession of $5\,g$ of crack cocaine.

Cocaine Mechanism of Action

The complex pharmacological action of cocaine that involves blocking the reuptake of dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine.

Cocaine Half-Life

The elimination half-life of cocaine, which is approximately $1\,hour$, while its major metabolites have a half-life of $8\,hours$ and take about $3\,days$ to be eliminated after moderate use.

Ephedra (Ma Huang)

A plant genus used in traditional Chinese medicinal tea to treat asthma, containing the active ingredient ephedrine.

Ephedrine

The active sympathomimetic chemical derived from ma huang (Ephedra) that stimulates the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system.

Sympathomimetic Drug

A drug, such as ephedrine, that stimulates the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system.

Amphetamine

A synthetic stimulant patented in $1932$ with a structure similar to ephedrine and catecholamines, which increases dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin activity by stimulating their release.

Crank

An illicit street name for illegally manufactured methamphetamine that became prevalent after amphetamines were tightly controlled under $1965$ federal legislation.

Methamphetamine

A potent amine derivative of amphetamine whose structure allows it to easily cross the blood-brain barrier, producing greater central nervous system effects and higher potency than amphetamine at similar doses.

Tachyphylaxis

A rapid development of tolerance that can occur following high doses of amphetamine.

Effects of Methamphetamine on Performance

Performance outcomes showing that methamphetamine doses ($12\,mg/70\,kg$, $25\,mg/70\,kg$, and $50\,mg/70\,kg$) improve reaction time on simple tasks, but higher doses ($25\,mg/70\,kg$ and $50\,mg/70\,kg$) disrupt complex task performance by increasing false alarms.

Narcolepsy

A condition characterized by uncontrolled daytime episodes of muscular weakness and falling asleep, managed therapeutically with stimulants like amphetamines.

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

A neurodevelopmental disorder marked by problems of inattention and hyperactivity, treated with amphetamines to improve concentration and reduce activity levels.

Synthetic Cathinones

Stimulant compounds structurally similar to amphetamine that produce mood-elevating effects similar to classic stimulants.

Naloxone (Narcan)

A medication that reverses opioid overdoses for $30$ to $90\,minutes$, but is ineffective against stimulant overdoses.

Paranoid Psychosis

A severe psychiatric condition characterized by persecutory delusions and hallucinations that can result from sustained, high-dose stimulant use due to dopaminergic stimulation in the mesolimbic system.