Journal of Addiction Research & Therapy
Open Access

Review Article

Amphetamines: Potent Recreational Drug of Abuse

Md. Sahab Uddin^1*, Mohammad Abu Sufian¹, Md. Tanvir Kabir², Md. Farhad Hossain³, Md.Nasrullah¹, Israt Islam⁴, Abdullah Al Mamun¹, Md.Tanjir Islam¹and Sayema Khanum¹

¹Department of Pharmacy, Southeast University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

²Department of Pharmacy, BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh

³Department of Physical Therapy, Graduate School of Inje University, Gimhae, Korea

⁴Department of Pharmacy, State University of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh

*Corresponding Author:

Md. Sahab Uddin
Department of Pharmacy, Southeast University
Dhaka, Bangladesh
Tel: +880 1710220110
E-mail: msu-neuropharma@hotmail.com
msu_neuropharma@hotmail.com

Received date: March 10, 2017; Accepted date: June 14, 2017; Published date: June 21, 2017

Citation: Uddin MS, Sufian MA, Kabir MT, Hossain MF, Nasrullah M, et al. (2017) Amphetamines: Potent Recreational Drug of Abuse. J Addict Res Ther 8:330. doi:10.4172/2155-6105.1000330

Copyright: © 2017 Uddin MS, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Amphetamines are central nervous system (CNS) stimulants and belong to psychoactive drugs that affect chemicals in the brain, nerves and exert a constant contribution to hyperactivity and impulse control. The communal group of amphetamines comprises amphetamine, dextroamphetamine and methamphetamine. Amphetamines show its action on the mesolimbic dopaminergic reward system by inducing release of dopamine and to some extent norepinephrine, in the synaptic clefts of the nucleus accumbens and other terminal areas. They offer not only a sense of euphoric state, but also addiction. Amphetamines are frequently prescribed for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children, adolescents and adults, narcolepsy and obesity. At therapeutic doses, amphetamine causes emotional and cognitive effects such as euphoria, change in desire for sex, increased wakefulness, improved cognitive control, etc. The balance of benefit/risk is the main challenge for its clinical use. When overused these medications can be highly addictive, are often diverted from the user to be used as recreational drugs. Adverse effects include anxiety, aggression, headache, insomnia, hyperactivity, palpitations, increased breathing rate, increased blood pressure, tachycardia, arrhythmia, dilated pupils, paranoia, etc. However, at large doses, these drugs may impair cognitive function and induce rapid muscle breakdown. Even higher doses may give rise to hallucinations, paranoia, psychosis and potentially lifethreatening conditions such as convulsions, stroke, kidney failure, etc. The furthermost serious health implications of amphetamine resulting from chronic use are dependence, considered by compulsive drug-seeking and drug use and a phenomenon notorious as amphetamine psychosis. Therefore the objective of this study was to explore the functions of the amphetamines as recreation drug of abuse.

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