Major amphetamines include dextroamphetamine, methamphetamine, a combined dextroamphetamine amphetamine salt, and methylphenidate. The narcotics are called crystal or meth. Amphetamines used to boost performance produce euphoria by students preparing for exams, long-distance truck drivers on travels, businesspeople with significant deadlines, athletes in competition, troops combat. Little is kn...

A simple, convenient method is described for the detection in human urine of three major classes of drugs of abuse: amphetamines, barbiturates, and alkaloids. The drugs are adsorbed from urine by a column of non-ionic resin (Amberlite XAD.2), eluted with methanol, and chromatographed on a thinlayer silica gel plate. The drugs are made visible and identified by a series of procedures involving e...

For patient and personnel safety, agitated and violent individuals are sometime physically restrained during out-of-hospital ambulance transport. We report two cases of unexpected death in restrained, agitated individuals while they were being trans-ported by advanced life support ambulance. Both patients had been placed in hobble restraints by law enforcement. At autopsy, toxicologic analysis ...

I report how some adulterants affect results for drugs of abuse in urine as measured by Roche RIA, Syva emit d.a.u., and Abbott TDx fpia (fluorescence polarization immunoassay) for the following drugs: amphetamines, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, cannabinoids, cocaine, opiates, and phencyclidine (PCP). Sodium chloride interfered negatively with all of these drugs when assayed by emit and caused...

3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (ecstasy, MDMA) and related amphetamines are CNS stimulants that have euphoric, memory-enhancing and neurotoxic properties. When applied in pharmacological doses to cultured rat hippocampal neurons, ecstasy reduced the conductance of a 50-pS barium-sensitive resting K+ channel and increased neuronal excitability. Ecstasy enhanced synaptic strength by irreversib...

Planarians are traditional animal models in developmental and regeneration biology. Recently, these organisms are arising as vertebrate-relevant animal models in neuropharmacology. Using an adaptation of published behavioral protocols, we have described the alleviation of cocaine-induced planarian seizure-like movements (pSLM) by a naturally-occurring sesquiterpene lactone, parthenolide. Intere...

The abilities of the substituted amphetamines 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), methamphetamine, p-chloroamphetamine(PCA) and fenfluramine to induce synaptosomal [3H]serotonin (5-HT) release were compared using a novel microassaysystem. The rank order of release potencies was found to be (+)PCA = ( +)-fenfluramine > (+)-MDMA >>( +)methamphetamine.Combination of two drugs at their ECs0 d...