Self-destruct drugs

The neuromuscular drug atracurium (Chapter 11) is a good example of this. 

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Use of crack declined in the 1990s due to crackdowns on street traffickers, the outrage of ordinary people in affected communities, and perhaps also because even confirmed drug users began to stay away from a drug known to be a particularly fast route to self-destruction. 

LSD continues to be used today by a relatively small number of users. The drug is not physically addictive, although tolerance develops, requiring increasing doses to achieve the desired effects. The physical effects of the drug itself usually do not cause much problem, but the psychotic-like behavior it can induce can lead to self-destructive behavior, such as jumping out a window or into traffic. Users can also experience recurrent hallucinations ( flash backs ) even after discontinuing use. 

If after three months of their consistently maintaining a restrictive stand, the sub stance-abusing child still refuses to relinquish any of his or her self-destructive ways, then parents may want to consider the possibility of committing their son or daughter to an out-patient or in-patient drug treatment program (see Key 29). 

When it comes to their child breaking free of substance abuse or addiction, there is a very important reality that parents must accept they have no actual control over their child s decision to use, or not to use, alcohol or drugs. Desperate to save the young person from possible self-destruction, this statement is an unwelcome one because it sounds like saying there is nothing they can do. Untrue. It is actually the key to understanding the help that they are empowered to give. 

Another approach to overcome development of resistance is to reduce the amount of antibiotics present in the environment. Self-destructive antibiotic drugs have been synthesized. Their structure contains a functionality that unmasks upon exposure to artificial light or sunshine. The unmasking generates a reactive functionality that destroys the molecular structure and abolishes the antibiotic property. Thus, as soon as the compound is eliminated from the body and gets into the environment, it will be decomposed by natural daylight eliminating the antibacterial activity (Henry, 2000 Lee et al., 2000). 

The person experiencing a bad trip is conscious, coherent, and oriented but is anxious and fearful and may display paranoid or bizarre reasoning. The patient may also be tearful, combative, or self-destructive. Delayed intermittent flashbacks may occur after the acute effects have worn off and are usually precipitated by use of another mind-altering drug. 

Phencyclidine (PGP, known as angel dust ) is an especially dangerous drug with a unique pattern of effects. At low doses, its effects resemble those of alcohol. With higher doses, hallucinations set in and behavior can become hostile and self-destructive, promoting psychoses that can last for weeks. Physical effects include seizures, coma, and death from cardiac arrest. 

Fluorouracil is a chemical imposter for uracil and a potent clinical anticancer drug. This effect arises because 5-fluorouracil irreversibly destroys the ability of thymidylate synthase (an enzyme) to catalyze a key transformation needed for DNA synthesis. 5-Fluorouracil acts as a mechanism-based inhibitor (or suicide substrate) because it engages thymidylate synthase as though it were the normal substrate but then leads to self-destruction of the enzyme s activity by its own mechanistic pathway. The initial deception is possible because the fluorine atom in the inhibitor occupies roughly the same amount of space as the hydrogen atom does in the natural substrate. Disruption of the enzyme s mechanism occurs because a fluorine atom cannot be removed by a base in the way that is possible for a hydrogen atom to be removed. 

Self-destructive, e.g. involving alcohol, drugs, comfort eating, self-cutting... 

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