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ARCHIVES OF NEUROLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY – Vol. 34, 1935 – pg. 1085; - pub. American Medical Association, Chicago, IL. (Abstracts from Current Literature) THE CLINICAL FEATURES OF PSYCHOSES DUE To HASHISH.M.G. STRINGARIS,Arch. f. Psychiat. 100:522 (Sept.) 1933. Stringaris had an opportunity to study a large number of persons in Greece who were addicted to the use of hashish, this type of drug addiction apparently being common in that country. He found that addiction to the drug predisposes to the formation of groups, the addicts rarely using it in solitude. Chronic addiction is particularly frequent in persons who begin to use the drug before the eighteenth year of life. Persons of a roaming, shiftless type are particularly apt to become addicted to it. Acute intoxication is characterized by euphoria, increased motor activity, excitability, talkativeness, laughter and appetite. Hallucinatory and delusional experiences are frequent. Occasionally, especially in persons who suffer from chronic addiction, depression instead of euphoria will occur. Chronic use of the drug leads to definite changes of personality. There are decrease in judgment and hyperirritability, with childish outbursts of anger and assaultiveness. There is gradually increasing suspiciousness and paranoid attitude, with a pronounced increase in sexual excitement. Occasionally definite psychoses occur; the author classifies these into two groups: (1) episodic psychoses, which may take the form of hallucinatory or acute twilight conditions, with excitability and furor; (2) the chronic type, which may last for months or even years and follow prolonged use of the drug. The symptoms are not unlike those in cases of schizophrenia, with bizarre hallucinations and delusions, impulsive and compulsive phenomena, paranoid formations, fear reactions, etc. Differentiation between them and transitory schizophrenic episodes is difficult, and it is questionable whether such psychoses do not develop primarily in schizoid personalities, the drug acting mainly as a precipitating agent. -- Malamud, Iowa City. Back to Reefer Madness Page #1 |
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