BACKGROUND Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common psychiatric conditions affecting children and adolescents. Amphetamines are among the most commonly prescribed medications to manage ADHD. There are three main classes of amphetamines: dexamphetamine, lisdexamphetamine and mixed amphetamine salts, which can be further broken down into short- and long-acting for...

Human hair was collected from the occipital crown region of the head from several subjects; these hair samples were presumptively positive for amphetamines by a previously evaluated immunoassay. Hair was washed briefly with methanol to remove external contamination, then extracted with hot methanol for 2 h to recover the drugs. The extracts were evaporated to dryness, reconstituted in buffer, a...

To quantify psychoactive drug use and investigate use-related variables among students of Assis, Brazil, a questionnaire was administered to collect sociodemographic data and identify the pattern of non-medical use of psychoactive drugs in 20% of public and private school students. The largest consumption indexes for lifetime use were seen for alcohol (68.9%) and tobacco (22.7%). Drugs most oft...

tion to treat child and adolescent disorders is causing concern in the community. This particularly applies to the use of stimulants such as amphetamines and methylphenidate. Is the prescription of stimulants restricted to conditions for which they are an effective treatment? Is the medical profession placing too much emphasis on the use of medication to treat childhood mental health problems a...

Amphetamine-type psychostimulants (ATS), such as amphetamine (AMPH), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), and methamphetamine (METH) are psychoactive substances widely abused, due to their powerful central nervous system (CNS) stimulation ability. Young people particularly use ATS as recreational drugs. Moreover, AMPH is used clinically, particularly for attention deficit hyperactivity dis...

Phenacetin was implicated as a causative factor in Alzheimer's disease (AD) in 1971. Although the chief metabolite, paracetamol, was earlier identified as responsible for its analgesic and antipyretic properties, a link with senile plaque formation does not appear to have been previously suspected. In common with paracetamol, so-called recreational drugs (RDs) likewise stimulate free radical ac...