Hallucinogens mental effects

Neither animal nor human toxicity studies of Salvia divinorum have been done. Very little scientific data exist in regard to adverse effects of the substance on the functioning of the human body. However, hallucinogens have been associated with harmful mental effects. 

As of 2002, no scientific data exist on the long-term effects of Salvia divinorum on human health. Other hallucinogenic substances have been associated with longterm adverse mental effects. 

It is not known whether the use of Salvia divinorum is associated with long-lasting adverse mental effects in some users. However, such disorders have resulted from the use of other hallucinogenic substances, and it would be reasonable to expect that long-term mental disorders could also develop in certain individuals as a consequence of Salvia consumption. 

When Abram Hoffer and Humphry Osmond took up the matter of mental effects in their book The Hallucinogens, they remarked that "the major difference between the mushroom effect and pure psilocybin seems to be the dryness of the scientific accounts and the richness of the accounts of self-experimentation. Probably no finer example of "richness" exists than in the descriptions of R. Gordon Wasson. 

The term psychotomimetic was coined to compare the effects of hallucinogens to the symptoms of schizophrenia and other psychotic conditions. However, the effects produced by hallucinogens and mental illness are qualitatively different. While drug-induced hallucinations tend to be more visual, auditory hallucinations are most common in schizophrenia. The hallucinogenic drugs discussed here may induce positive symptoms (e.g., hallucinations), but do not induce the negative symptoms (e.g., cognitive deficits, social withdrawal) of schizophrenia. 

HALLUCINOGENS. There are many substances that will, if taken in appropriate quantities, produce distortion of perception, vivid images, or hallucinations. Most of these substances will produce powerful peripheral as well us the central effects. Some few agents are characterized by the predominance of their actions on mental and psychic functions. This group... 

The long-term effects of heavy hallucinogen use include impaired mental function and distorted abstract reasoning. In addition, hallucinogen users are susceptible to flashbacks of the drug experience for a long time afterward. Many users can also experience spontaneous recurrence of visual or sensory distortions. 

In the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, hallucinogenic substances were viewed as possible tools for understanding and treating psychiatric and other mental disorders. Tribal medicine men, or shamans, have always maintained it was an effective medicine to treat a number of ailments including alcoholism. However, peyote did not really catch on as a drug to be explored in the recreational arena until 1953 when the English novelist Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) wrote The Doors of Perception where he recounted his experiences with the peyote. 

Adverse reactions affecting the user s mental state have been associated with hallucinogenic drugs, and it is likely that Salvia divinorum could produce similar reactions. Since few scientific studies of the effects of Salvia on human beings have been reported, there is very little known about adverse effect related to this herb. Howev-... 

By means of the pointed mechanisms the incapacitating agents of psychic effect accomplish temporary mental disorders of hallucinogenic depressive or excitement character, which in specific conditions may be accompanied by damages to other organs and systems. The toxic dose and the illness period are different for the separate representatives of these mass poisons and depend on their chemical characteristics. The main representatives of the different groups are given in Table 2... 

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