Use of Psychoactives

Use of psychoactive plants and fungi for recreational, religious, or shaman-istic purposes can affect individuals differently and often depends on a number of mitigating circumstances associated with individual responses to their use or abuse. It is not unusual for the consumer to experience various 

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Outpatient drug-free programs, like therapeutic communities, seek to achieve abstinence without the use of psychoactive medication. Programs range from unstructured drop-in centers with discussion groups and recreational activities to organi2ed day treatment programs. 

An illustrated foray into the hidden truth about the use of psychoactive mushrooms to connect with the divine. Draws parallels between Vedic beliefs and Judeo-Christian sects, showing the existence of a mushroom cult that crossed cultural boundaries. Contends that the famed philosophers stone of the alchemist was a metaphor for the mushroom. Confirms and extends Robert Gordon Wasson s hypothesis of the role of the fly agaric... 

There has been discussion in the clinical literature over whether chronic use of psychoactive substances can cause a lasting psychiatric disturbance, such as psychosis (Boutros and Bowers 1996). One review de-... 

Any discussion of the chemistry of drugs must include some consideration of the nonmedical applications of such compounds. Just as early humans were searching their environment for natural products that would assuage pain and cure disease, so were they also looking for plants and other natural materials with psychoactive effects, materials that would provide an escape from the problems and worries of everyday life, or that would just make a person feel better for a period of time. They also incorporated psychoactive drugs into many of their religious ceremonies. The use of the peyote cactus, magic mushrooms, and similar products dates back centuries, if not millennia, in a variety of cultures. One hardly need point out that the use of psychoactive chemicals for recreational purposes continues in essentially every part of the world today. 

Avorn J, Soumerai SB, Everitt DE, et ah A randomized trial of a program to reduce the use of psychoactive drugs in nursing homes. N Engl J Med 1992,327 168-173. 

Psychopharmacotherapy is the combined use of psychoactive medication and psychotherapy. Brent and Kolko (1998) define the latter as a treatment modality in which therapist and patient collaborate to ease functional psychopathological impairment through attention to (1) the therapeutic relationship, (2) the patient s behavior, thoughts, attitudes and affect (the working diagnosis), and (3) the social context and development (this is especially salient in the work of the child and adolescent psychiatrist). 

American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Drugs (2000) Use of psychoactive medication during pregnancy and possible effects on the fetus and newborn. Pediatrics 105 880-887. 

The use of psychoactive mushrooms in Central America dates back to before 500 B.c., when Mexican Indians called them teonanactl, or Pood of the Gods, because they were thought to carry prophetic messages from the deity, just as dreams were seen as prophecies from pre-Biblical times to the present. 

Observations of New World Use of Psychoactive Snuffs, 309 Identification of Botanical and Other Sources, 311 Testing and Use of Synthetics, 313... 

Avorn, J., Dreyer, P., Connelly, K., Soumerai, S. (1989). Use of psychoactive medication and the quality of care in rest homes. New England Journal of Medicine, 320, 227-232. 

Burn-out A condition of emotional and intellectual impairment supposed to be the result of excessive use of psychoactive drugs. Also, a person with this condition. 

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