PCP abuse

A wide variety of perceptual, cognitive, and emotional experiences may be encountered after the use of PCP. Abusers seek euphoria, which develops within minutes after smoking and is accompanied by a sense of warmth and numbness, as well as unusual delusions and hallucinations. 

Lerner, S.E., and Burns, R.S. Phencyclidine use among youth History, epidemiology and acute and chronic intoxication. In Peterson, R.C. and Stillman, R.C., eds. Phencyclidine (PCP) Abuse An Apprai sal. National Institute on Drug Abuse Research Monograph 21. DHEW Pub. No. (ADM) 78-728. Washington, D.C ... 

As a consequence of the unanticipated epidemic of phencyclidine (PCP) abuse in the late 1960s and early 1970s, biomedical and behavioral research on this drug expanded by the late 1970s (Balster and Pross 1978). Partly because of the improved public health response resulting from this research activity, the PCP epidemic has been stopped. The major credit for this rapid growth of PCP research should go to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, NI DA... 

In other cases, clinical information is incomplete. One goal of this paper is to suggest some areas where clinicians and clinical researchers might focus their attention to learn more about the implications of PCP abuse. 

An interaction between predisposing anxiety disorders and some forms of PCP abuse warrants further investigation. 

It is difficult to imagine human PCP abusers self-administering this much drug. 

We have viewed these withdrawal effects on behavior as evidence of behavioral dependence on PCP. Behavioral signs have also been reported in human users of PCP during withdrawal (Tennant et al. 1981) however, these instances appear to be relatively rare. Nonetheless, the relative ease with which a dependence phenomenon can be produced in monkeys suggests that PCP has a potential for producing dependence in PCP users, particularly those who use the drug very frequently. Behavioral sequelae seen in chronic PCP abusers might be examined as possible manifestations of dependence as well as of cumulative toxicity. 

By 1978/1979, indicators of PCP abuse leveled off and started to decline. This trend is thought to be related to a variety of activities initiated by health and law enforcement officials, including a nationwide education campaign in which 18,000 letters... 

Potential problems in PCP abuse were also reported in New Orleans and St. Louis (National Institute on Drug Abuse, in preparation), although the quarterly frequencies of emergency room mentions in those SMSAs were small compared to New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles. 

The behavioral testing of phencyclidine (PCP) abusers by means of neuropsychological (NP) assessment serves as a bridge between neuroscience research into brain effects of PCP and the treatment and rehabilitation of the drug abuser in the community. The systematic individual NP case study includes (1) a critical review... 

The examination of individual NP case studies by other investigators, as well as summary results of our pilot research, suggest at least two clinically distinct populations. One subsample of PCP abusers has a developmental history of prenatal and birth complications, e.g., prematurity, anoxia at birth, or low APGAR scores, and of early childhood factors, e.g., CHI with loss of consciousness, febrile illnesses with or without convulsions, or chronic ear infections. These histories contribute to developmental learning and performance disorders. In this group, LD causes academic failure and frustrations, which in turn contribute to the development of psychological and interpersonal problems. 

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