The abuse of psychoactive drugs is considered a global health problem. During the last years, a relevant number of studies have investigated the relationship between anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) and other psychoactive drugs. AAS, such as testosterone, can cause a dependence syndrome that shares many features with the classical dependence to psychoactive substances. Pre-clinical evidence s...

The Classification of Psychoactive Drugs Sedative Hypnotics and Antianxiety Agents Focus on Disorders: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Antipsychotic Agents Antidepressants Focus on Disorders: Depression Narcotic Analgesics Stimulants Drugs, Experience, Context, and Genes Tolerance Sensitization Addiction and Dependence Explaining Drug Abuse Behavior on Drugs Why Doesn’t Everyone Abuse Drugs? Can Drugs C...

AIM To investigate the influence of psychological and social factors on health risk behaviors, such as smoking, alcohol and psychoactive drug consumption among adolescents and to determine the prevalence of consuming various psychoactive substances. METHODS The survey was conducted among adolescents in the Primorsko-goranska County in Croatia in 2003. The prevalence of smokers, alcohol, and p...

It is likely that the complex law concerning alcohol and drugs in the workplace is one of the reasons for unwillingness to resolve the problem of intake of such psychoactive substances by employees. 'Iherefore, the author made an attempt to depict Polish legislation in this field based on the review of legal acts and regulations, as well as on their extensive judiciary interpretation. Such an i...

Adverse cutaneous reactions to psychoactive drugs are common. They disturb and interrupt therapy often leading to non-compliance. The majority of adverse cutaneous reactions are benign if they are promptly recognized. Withdrawal of suspected drug is the first step for consequent treatment. As some adverse cutaneous reactions are life threatening, the most important action is to discontinue the ...

The misuse and improper disposal of psychoactive medications is a major safety and environmental concern. Hence, the proper disposal of these medications is critically important. A drug deactivation system which contains activated carbon offers a unique disposal method. In the present study, deactivation efficiency of this system was tested by using three model psychoactive drugs. HPLC validati...

BACKGROUND Substance use disorders along with neuropsychiatric disorders contributed about 14% of the global burden of disease. Harmful alcohol use, is a known contributor for many harms (accidents, suicide, violence, and complication of other psychiatric and medical disorders). In the Western countries, alcohol and nicotine are gateway drugs to cannabis use, and cannabis use is a risk factor f...

OBJECTIVE Over the last few years, a wide number of unregulated substances have been marketed on the Web and in smart and head shops; they are usually advertised as legal alternatives to commonly known drugs and are defined as "smart drugs," "legal highs," and "novel psychoactive substances" (NPS). Aim of our work is to describe use habits and distribution of NPS in a population of young adults...

Much research supports a link between stress and its concomitant hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis responses with behavioral sensitivity to psychoactive drugs. Our research demonstrates that Lewis inbred rats more readily acquire drug self-administration than Fischer 344 (F344) inbred rats and, compared to this strain, Lewis rats have hyporesponsive HPA axis responses to stress exposure...