It may interfere with several other substances and repeated use can cause tolerance and several long-term side effects. Furthermore, taking a large amount can lead to an overdose and could increase the risk of dangerous, aggressive, or violent behavior. Fatal overdoses are possible when you take a large amount of PCP. But most PCP-related deaths result from dangerous behavior caused by delusions and other psychological effects. People who stop ongoing use of PCP experience drug cravings, increased appetite, headaches, sleepiness, depression, and sweating as common withdrawal symptoms. While studies are looking at options for drug treatment of PCP dependence, there are no specific approved treatments for PCP abuse and addiction.
PCP site 2
When found in large amounts, PCP gives off a powerful odor like that of ammonia. PCP is well known for its primary action on the NMDA receptor, an ionotropic glutamate receptor.4643 As such, PCP is a non-competitive NMDA receptor antagonist. Though it’s no longer approved for use in humans, it’s still sometimes used as a tranquilizer for animals.
Recognizing an overdose
Deaths from overdoses are usually attributed to respiratory failure, meaning the user stops breathing. Death may also result from heart attacks, strokes, seizures, or damage to the vital organs from high fever. In addition to deaths from overdose, there is also a high risk of death resulting from dangerous behavior carried out in highly unstable mental states. PCP’s effects are so unpredictable and frequently so unpleasant that it has a well-deserved bad reputation, even among drug abusers. According to a NIDA InfoFacts report titled “PCP (Phencyclidine),” most people who try it once say they would never want to use it again.
Patients may need to be hospitalized and receive behavioral treatments to address abuse issues with PCP. A moderate amount of PCP often causes users to feel detached, distant, and estranged from their surroundings. There are more than thirty substances that are chemically very similar to PCP, including PCPy, TCP, and PCE. These are often sold on the street as PCP, and perhaps are even accidentally manufactured by illegal drug makers. All of these substances are classified as Schedule I hallucinogens by the DEA.
If the user fails to get a dose, the body will react with withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal is the physical and mental effects that the user experiences when he or she stops taking the drug. Nevertheless, as time passed, PCP emerged again on the street drug market. In the early 1970s it was sold in tablet form, as a liquid, and as a crystalline powder.
- Babies who are breast-fed are also at risk if their mothers use PCP.
- This means that PCP is not legal for any medical use, and it is illegal to possess or supply the substance to anyone.
- Phencyclidine, commonly known as PCP, can be classified both as an hallucinogen and as an anesthetic.
- At times the drug caused euphoria (yu-FOR-ee-yuh), which is a state of extreme happiness and enhanced well-being.
PCP Resurfaces as a Club Drug
Much of the manufacture of PCP is controlled and carried out by Los Angeles street gangs. Overall, big cities tend phencyclidine wikipedia to have a higher percentage of PCP use than more rural areas. Traditionally, males have been the most frequent users, but this pattern appeared to be changing in the early 2000s.
Toxic psychosis
PCP, also known as phencyclidine and angel dust, was originally developed as a general anesthetic but became a popular substance in the 1960s. It’s listed as a Schedule II drug in the United States, which makes it illegal to possess. Phencyclidine (PCP) is a mind-altering drug that may lead to hallucinations (a profound distortion in a person’s perception of reality). It is considered a dissociative drug, leading to a distortion of sights, colors, sounds, self, and one’s environment.
Though it was briefly used in humans, it was soon discontinued due to its psychological and behavioral side effects. At a lower dose, PCP makes you feel euphoric, floaty, and disconnected from your body and surroundings. As you increase the dose, the effects get more intense, leading to hallucinations and erratic behavior.
Most PCP users abuse a variety of drugs, and many of the other club drugs are closely related to PCP in chemical makeup. By the summer of 1968, PCP use had fallen dramatically in San Francisco due to the many horror stories related to the drug. PCP is a drug that can cause a variety of physical and psychological symptoms, which often increase in intensity with higher dosages. Long-term or chronic use of dissociative drugs like PCP may also cause speech difficulties, memory loss, suicidal thoughts, social withdrawal, and anxiety. This is especially true when you mix angel dust and substances that depress the central nervous system (CNS). The combo can cause your breathing to become dangerously slow and lead to respiratory arrest or coma.
It’s become a common club drug in the last couple of decades and produces effects similar to other dissociative substances, like special K. High doses of PCP can also cause seizures, coma, and death (often due to accidental injury or suicide during PCP intoxication). Psychological effects at high doses include delusions and hallucinations. Users often refer to the experiences from hallucinogens as a “trip”, or calling an unpleasant experience a “bad trip.” PCP use has also been described as being similar to the delirious, dreamlike state sometimes experienced during a high fever. Such panic frequently leads to dangerous actions that can cause serious injury to the user or other people.
- Saxenda (liraglutide) injection is used for weight loss in obese or overweight patients.
- Spasms and secretions in the lungs can affect the breathing process.
- Absolutely pure PCP is considered very rare on the street, however.
- These are often sold on the street as PCP, and perhaps are even accidentally manufactured by illegal drug makers.
- Among hard-core drug users, however, PCP is often used along with other drugs, both legal and illegal.
Even though users tended to avoid the drug, dealers continued to manufacture it because it was cheap, easy to make, and very powerful. To overcome the lack of demand for the product, dealers began the practice of giving PCP new names and pretending that it was something other than what it really was. It was most commonly sold as THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. The first reports of PCP’s use as a recreational drug came from the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, California, during the mid-1960s. Yet, as more people tried the drug, it became obvious how inaccurate this nickname was. At times the drug caused euphoria (yu-FOR-ee-yuh), which is a state of extreme happiness and enhanced well-being.
Babies who are breast-fed are also at risk if their mothers use PCP. The drug will quickly pass into the mother’s milk and be transmitted to the child when it nurses. The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) tracks hospital emergency department (ED) visits caused by drug use. The latest DAWN statistics published as of mid-2005 were from the last two quarters of 2003.