What is Psychotropic Drugs ? Drugs Definition, Types, Example

Drug is any substance or product that is used or is intended to be used to modify or explore physiological system or pathological states for the benefit of the recipient.

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Drugs are nor­mal­ly used as med­i­cine to help patients cope with men­tal ill­ness like depres­sion , insom­nia and so on. But when drugs ard tak­en for a pur­pose oth­er than their nor­mal clin­i­cal use in an amount , con­cen­tra­tion or fre­quen­cy that impairs one’s phys­i­cal , phys­i­o­log­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal func­tions, it con­sti­tutes drug abuse.The term abuse with respect to drugs means

1. Non med­ical use
2. Non pre­scribed use
3. Use for hav­ing pleasure .

A per­son who takes a drugs for non med­ical use is called drug abuser and drugs are called Habit­u­at­ing drugs or addic­tive drugs.

Types of Habituating Drugs

The Habit­u­at­ing drugs are of two types : Psy­chotrop­ic drugs and Psy­chodel­ic drugs.

A. PSYCHOTROPIC DRUGS

These are mood alter­nat­ing drugs which affect behav­iour and men­tal activ­i­ty of a per­son. Psy­chotrop­ic drugs are clas­si­fied into four major groups : Tran­quil­iz­ers , seda­tive and hyp­notics, opi­ate nar­cotics and stimulants.

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(1) Tran­quil­iz­ers

The decrease ten­sion and anx­i­ety and pro­duces feel­ing of calm­ness with­out sedat­ing and induc­ing sleep. Tran­quil­iz­er are of two types

(I) Phe­noth­iazines (Major Tranquilizer)

These are antipsy­chot­ic drugs which have good effect in all types of Psy­chosis, spe­cial­ly Schiz­o­phre­nia. In a Psy­chot­ic Patient, these drugs reduce aggres­sive­ness. Thought and behav­iour are grad­u­al­ly nor­malised and anx­i­ety is relived. 

Exam­ples — Chlor­pro­mazine and Reser­pine etc

(ii) Ben­zo­di­azepines (Minor Tranquilizer)

These drugs are used for anx­i­ety and pho­bic con­di­tions. Ben­zo­di­azepine is par­ent com­pound for the syn­the­size of many anti anx­i­ety drugs such as Diazepam (eg Val­i­um , Calm­pose), Flu­razepam , Temazepam, Tri­a­zo­lam and Mida­zo­lam , Oxazepam and Alpra­zo­lam Clon­azepan etc. 

Ben­zo­di­azepines (BZDs) are main anti anx­i­ety drugs. BZDs has­ten sleep, reduce inter­mit­tent awak­en­ing and increase total sleep time . They pro­duce Skele­tal mus­cle relax­ation with­out dis­turb­ing vol­un­tary activity.

(2) Seda­tive and Hypnotics 

Seda­tive is a drug that reduces excite­ment, assuge pain and low­ers the phys­i­o­log­i­cal or func­tion­al activ­i­ty lead­ing to drwosi­ness or sleep. Hyp­not­ic is also a drug that induces sleep . Seda­tive and Hyp­n­to­ics are more or less gen­er­al CNS depres­sants. Seda­tive and Hyp­not­ic include Bar­bi­tu­rates and Benzodiazepines.

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(I) Bar­bi­tu­rates

These are Syn­thet­ic drugs which are deriv­a­tives of bart­iburic acid. Bart­ibu­rates are gen­er­al depres­sants for all excitable cells but CNS is most sen­si­tive to these drugs . These are tak­en to reduce anx­i­ety and induce sleep. They are pop­u­lar­ly called Sleep­ing pills.

Con­tin­u­ous use of the drug result in per­ma­nent dam­age to brain. Sud­den with­draw­al caus­es epilepsy

exam­ples : Phe­no­bar­bi­tone and Mephobarbitone. 

Bar­bi­tu­rates when tak­en along­with alco­hol, cause dra­mat­i­cal­ly increased depres­sants effect. Bar­bi­tu­rates are not pre­ferred these days

(ii) Ben­zo­di­azepines (BZDs)

These are antianx­i­ety as well as Seda­tive drugs and have been described earlier.

(3) Opi­ate / Opi­oid Narcotics

The drugs derived from opi­um along­with their syn­thet­ic rel­a­tives are called Opi­ates or Opi­oids. The drug that relieves pain by act­ing on the CNS is termed as anal­gesic (Pain killer) . Opi­oids bind to Spe­cif­ic Opi­oid recep­tors present in our cen­tral ner­vous sys­tem and gas­troin­testi­nal tract. They are also called painkillers.

Opi­um (Afeem) is latex from unripe fruits (cap­sules) of pop­py plant , Papaver som­nifer­um (fam­i­ly Papaver­aceae). It is red­dish brown in col­or . it has heavy smell and bit­ter taste. It is eat­en or smoked. Opi­ates have nar­cotics, anal­gesic, astrin­gent (that caus­es con­trac­tion of body parts), and Seda­tive effect. 

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They slow down res­pi­ra­to­ry activ­i­ty , cause con­struc­tion of pupil of eye, decrease glan­du­lar secre­tions , impair the diges­tion, pro­duce nau­sea , vom­it­ing and Steril­i­ty. The opi­um addict los­es weight, fer­til­i­ty and inter­est in work.

Opi­um Deriv­a­tives . Opi­um Con­tains about 20 alka­loids . Main deriv­a­tives of Opi­um are mor­phine and Codeine.

(I) Mor­phine

It is the active prin­ci­pal alka­loid of Opi­um. Its chem­i­cal for­mu­la is C₁₇H₁₉NO₃ . It was Iso­lat­ed by Ser­turn­er in 1805 and named it ‘mor­phine’ after the Greek god of dreams Morpheus. 

It is the prin­ci­pal opi­um alka­loid it is a strong anal­gesics. It also has Seda­tive and Calm­ing effect. The per­son lacks ini­tia­tive and is unable to Con­cen­trate . Mor­phine depress­es res­pi­ra­to­ry centre.It con­tributes to the fail in BP . 

It can cause brady­car­dia (slow heart beat). Mor­phine can release ADH and reduce urine out­put. Con­sti­pa­tion is a promi­nent fea­tures of mor­phine action. Mor­phine caus­es mild hyperglycemia. 

It caus­es addic­tion. Diacetyl­mor­phine hydrochlo­ride is brown sug­ar /smack and is more pow­er­ful anal­gesics than morphine.It is very use­ful in patients who have under­gone surgery. 

(ii) Codeine

It is also a deriv­a­tive of opi­um . infact it is methyl mor­phine which occurs nat­u­ral­ly in opi­um and is part­ly con­vert­ed in the body to mor­phine . it is mild anal­gesics. It does not cause addiction 

It is an ingre­di­ent of many med­i­cines and cough syrups. Its promi­nent side effects is constipation.

(iii) Hero­in (Diamor­phine or Diacetylmorphine)

It is about 3 times more potent than mor­phine. Because of its high poten­cy, it has been favoured in illic­it drug traf­fick­ing. Hence it has been banned in most countries.

Its chem­i­cal for­mu­la is C₁₇H₁₇(OC₂H₃O)₂ON. Hero­in is formed by acety­la­tion of mor­phine. It is high­ly addic­tive and there­fore con­sid­ered most dan­ger­ous opiate.

hero­in is tak­en oral­ly or inhaled or inject­ed . it is a depres­sants slows down body func­tions. It includes drowsi­ness and lethar­gy. Its after effects include indi­ges­tion, reduced vision, decreased weight , steril­i­ty and total loss of inter­est in work .

(iv) Smack

It is a crude by prod­uct of hero­in syn­the­size and com­mon­ly called “brown sug­ar”. Being cheap , it is con­sid­ered” poor man’s hero­in”. A smack is stronger anal­gesics than morphine.

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(v) Pethi­dine (Meperi­dine)

Although it is chem­i­cal­ly unre­lat­ed to mor­phine yet it is has many sim­i­lar actions . its anal­gesics effi­cien­cy is near to mor­phine and is more than codeine. It is equal­ly seda­tive and eupho­ri­ant . it caus­es less his­t­a­mine release and is safer in asth­mat­ics. It has local anes­thet­ic action. It is most­ly metab­o­lized in liver.

(vi) Methadone

Its action is slight­ly stronger amd longer than that of mor­phine to mor­phine . it has anal­gesic, res­pi­ra­to­ry depres­sant , con­sti­pat­ing action sim­i­lar to mor­phine . with­draw­al symp­toms are mild .

(4) Stim­u­lants

These drugs stim­u­late the ner­vous sys­tem; make a per­son more wake­ful, alert and active ; and cause excite­ment . How­ev­er, addic­tion is psy­cho­log­i­cal and with­draw­al of stim­u­lants is fol­lowed by depres­sion , anx­i­ety and rest­less­ness. The prin­ci­pal stim­u­lants are as follows.

(I) Caf­feine

Chem­i­cal­ly, Caf­feine is 1,3,7 Trimethylx­an­thine. Its chem­i­cal for­mu­la is C₈H₁₀H₄C₂. It is a white crys­talline bit­ter alka­loids obtained from the leaves of tea plants, Thea Sinen­sis of Fam­i­ly Theaceae a shrub,seeds of cof­fee plant, cof­fee ara­bi­ca of fam­i­ly Rubi­acea, a shrub seeds of coca plants , Theo­bro­ma cacao of fam­i­ly Ster­cu­li­aceace a tree yield­ing cocoa and cola drinks.

Caf­feine is CNS stim­u­lant. It pro­vides a sense of well-being , alert­ness, beats bore­dom , think­ing becomes clear, improves per­for­mance. It acts as Car­diac and res­pi­ra­to­ry stimulants.

Caf­feine increase con­trac­tile pow­er of skele­tal mus­cle . It increase BMR (Basal Meta­bol­ic Rate). It inhibits the release of his­t­a­mine. High­er dose of caf­feine cause ner­vous­ness , rest­less­ness, pan­ic , insom­nia (lack of sleep) and excite­ment. Exces­sive intake of Caf­feine also caus­es addic­tion and indi­ges­tion and dis­turbs renal functions.

(ii) Cocaine

It is nat­ur­al Coca Alka­loids obtained from leaves of coca (Ery­throx­y­lon Coca) — plant grow­ing on the foot hills of Andes. Its chem­i­cal for­mu­la is C₁₇H₂₁NO₄.

Cocaine is com­mon­ly called coke or crack.It is bit­ter , white, crys­talline pow­der and called snow, sniff, crack, coke, princess , Big C. 

Cocaine has vaso­con­stric­tor prop­er­ties. It is tak­en by snort­ing . it is a pow­er­ful CNS stim­u­lants. It induces a sense of well­be­ing and plea­sure and delays fatigue. 

It increase heart­beat , blood pres­sure and body tem­per­a­ture. It caus­es lack of sleep and kiss of appetite. Its over­dose cause headache, con­vul­sion, insom­nia, res­pi­ra­to­ry and car­diac fail­ure and hallucinations.

(iii) Crack

It is a deriv­a­tive of Cocaine. When it is smoked , it pro­duces results with­in 10 sec­onds. Crack is rel­a­tive­ly cheap but extreme­ly addic­tive. It can cause heart and men­tal problems.

(iv) Betel­nut

It is a mild CNS stim­u­lants. It stains teeth and gum red. Ker­nel of the betelunt palm Are­ca Cat­e­chu, enclosed in betal leaves and mixed with an aro­mat­ic paste is chewed in Africa and India . it con­tains an alka­loid areco­l­ine and a red tannin.

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(v) Amphet­a­mines

They are syn­thet­ic drugs . They are com­mon­ly called pep pills, anti sleep drugs or super­men as they are CNS stimulants.

They cause alert­ness, self con­fi­dence, talk­a­tive­ness and increased work capac­i­ty . they stim­u­lates res­pi­ra­to­ry cen­tre. They cause wake­ful­ness and post­pone­ment of sleep amd hence called anti sleep drugs. 

Amphet­a­mines is one of the drugs includ­ed in the ‘dope tests’ for athelete. High dose of amphet­a­mines pro­duce eupho­ria, marked excite­ment, sleep­less­ness which May progress men­tal confusion.