What is a psychoactive drug?
Q: What is a psychoactive drug?
A: A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, or psychotropic is a chemical substance that crosses the blood-brain barrier and affects the central nervous system. It can change perception, mood, consciousness, cognition and behaviour.
Q: How are hypnotics used?
A: Hypnotics are often prescribed to help people sleep but they can also be used in rituals or as illegal drugs to enable users to change their consciousness.
Q: What are the effects of using psychoactive substances?
A: Psychoactive substances can cause pleasant feelings such as euphoria or increased alertness in users. However, this potential for abuse and dependency has led to restrictions on production and sales by many governments worldwide.
Q: How is drug addiction treated?
A: Drug rehabilitation aims to break the cycle of dependency through psychotherapy, support groups and other psychoactive substances like acamprosate or naltrexone which are used to treat alcoholism or methadone or buprenorphine maintenance therapy for opioid dependency.
Q: Are there any risks associated with taking certain drugs?
A: Yes, some experiences on drugs may be so unfriendly and uncomforting that the user may never want to try the substance again. This is especially true of deliriants (e.g datura) and dissociatives (e.g salvia divinorum).
Q: Why is there debate about drug use ethics?
A: There is debate about drug use ethics due to concerns about over-use of these drugs clinically as well as their marketing by manufacturers which could lead to potential abuse and dependency issues.
