Amphetamine Misuse

Sets out clear recommendations, based on the best available evidence, for healthcare staff on how to work with people who misuse drugs (specifically opioids, stimulants and cannabis) to significantly improve their treatment and care.

Amphetamine Misuse appears at the beginning of a phase in drug history that will see changes in patterns of use which will impact society as a variety of levels: potential users; systems of health care; social control; international trade procedures, and even the economic bases of nations. It studies the nature of amphetamine use in different cultural settings, common features are identified and enigmas exposed. Greater international collaboration is needed if appropriate preventive measures are to be devised, and the sharing of information should be regarded as only a first step towards a more coordinated approach that includes social research within improved systems of national and international drug monitoring and communication.

Interventions for Amphetamine Misuse is a practical, useable guide for health professionals working in the field. It details the physical and psychological problems associated with the drug's abuse, provides a detailed and evidence-based assessment of the interventions currently in use worldwide, and offers a broad historical and cultural overview. The book includes detailed case studies to illustrate the experiences of a wide range of countries including the UK, Japan, Australia, Thailand, and the USA with the aim of drawing together the evidence and reaching a consensus. This important book also offers an overview of the changes in legislation that have reflected growing concern regarding the evolution in the way that the substance has been formulated. Discussed are the illicit use of amphetamine type substances and the associated dangers and concerns with the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and the drug's use in the suppression of appetite.

A guide to the techniques and analysis of clinical data. Each of the seventeen sections begins with a drawing and biographical sketch of a seminal contributor to the discipline. After an introduction and historical survey of clinical methods, the next fifteen sections are organized by body system. Each contains clinical data items from the history, physical examination, and laboratory investigations that are generally included in a comprehensive patient evaluation. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Discusses amphetamine and stimulant drug abuse, including the drugs' effects on the body and brain, how people become addicted, and how to seek help with drug addiction.

Describes the popular rationals for and social forces motivating amphetamine use in America and the often physically and psychologically damaging effects of the drugs.

Describes the history, characteristics, legal status, and abuse of amphetamines and methamphetamines.

The brain is the most complex organ in our body. Indeed, it is perhaps the most complex structure we have ever encountered in nature. Both structurally and functionally, there are many peculiarities that differentiate the brain from all other organs. The brain is our connection to the world around us and by governing nervous system and higher function, any disturbance induces severe neurological and psychiatric disorders that can have a devastating effect on quality of life. Our understanding of the physiology and biochemistry of the brain has improved dramatically in the last two decades. In particular, the critical role of cations, including magnesium, has become evident, even if incompletely understood at a mechanistic level. The exact role and regulation of magnesium, in particular, remains elusive, largely because intracellular levels are so difficult to routinely quantify. Nonetheless, the importance of magnesium to normal central nervous system activity is self-evident given the complicated homeostatic mechanisms that maintain the concentration of this cation within strict limits essential for normal physiology and metabolism. There is also considerable accumulating evidence to suggest alterations to some brain functions in both normal and pathological conditions may be linked to alterations in local magnesium concentration. This book, containing chapters written by some of the foremost experts in the field of magnesium research, brings together the latest in experimental and clinical magnesium research as it relates to the central nervous system. It offers a complete and updated view of magnesiums involvement in central nervous system function and in so doing, brings together two main pillars of contemporary neuroscience research, namely providing an explanation for the molecular mechanisms involved in brain function, and emphasizing the connections between the molecular changes and behavior. It is the untiring efforts of those magnesium researchers who have dedicated their lives to unraveling the mysteries of magnesiums role in biological systems that has inspired the collation of this volume of work.