Mind-Altering Drugs The Science of Subjective Experience

by Earleywine, Mitch

• ISBN13: 9780195165319
• ISBN10: 0195165314
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-04-14
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

At least one of every three Americans has used an illicit drug. Drugs attract considerable attention in science, legislation, and the media. Nonetheless, many people develop attitudes about drugs and drug users based on limited information. Researchers often find themselves divided intocamps based on the drug they study most often, which limits their ability to benefit from important work done on other drugs. As a result, government policies form without a complete understanding of the intoxication experience. What is the nature of intoxication? At first, this question appearsto be simple and straightforward, but upon closer inspection, the dichotomous distinctions between everyday awareness and its alternatives grow fuzzy. An in-depth examination of the subjective effects of drugs and the pursuit of altered states soon leads to age-old questions about free will,heredity, environment, and consciousness. Mind-Altering Drugs is the first book to bring together chapters from leading researchers that present diverse, empirically based insights into the subjective experiences of drugs a nd their links to addictive potential. By avoiding simple depictions ofpsychoactive chemicals and the people who use them, these recognized experts explain how modern research in many fields reveals a complex interaction between people, situations, and substances. Their work demonstrates that only a multitude of approaches can show the nuances of subjectiveexperience, and that each substance may create a different effect with every administration in each user. Simple references to physiological underpinnings or positive reinforcement fail to explain the diverse responses to drugs. However, research has progressed to reveal broad, repeatable evidencethat the subjective effects of substances play an important role in our understanding of drug abuse, and so should inform our decisions about policy. This thorough and accessible review of the subjective effects of drugs and the dominant theories behind those effects will provide a wealth of information about the experience of intoxication for lay readers, and a road map to studies in other disciples for student and professionalresearchers.

Author Biography

Mitch Earleywine is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Southern California, where he teaches drugs and human behavior, substance abuse treatment and clinical research methods. He has received 10 teaching commendations, including the coveted General Education Teaching Award. He received his Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1990. His research has been funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism as well as the Alcoholic Beverage Medical Research Foundation. He serves on the editorial boards of three psychology journals, reviews for over a dozen, and has more than fifty publications on drug use and abuse, including Understanding Marijuana (Oxford University Press 2002). He is also Resident Faculty in Parkside International Residential College. He has been quoted in The San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Time, and The Nation. He has also appeared on National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation" and "Weekend Editon".

Table of Contents

Contributors	ix
Behavioral Theories of Choice	3	(22)
Christopher J. Correia
Psychedelic, Psychoactive, and Addictive Drugs and States of Consciousness	25	(24)
Ralph Metzner
Hallucinogens	49	(37)
Rick Strassman
Subjective Effects of Alcohol I	86	(49)
Kenneth J. Sher
Mark D. Wood
Alison E. Richardson
Kristina M. Jackson
Subjective Effects of Alcohol II	135	(19)
Kenneth J. Sher
Mark D. Wood
Ethnicity and the Subjective Effects of Alcohol	154	(29)
Travis A. R. Cook
Tamara L. Wall
Sex and Drugs	183	(34)
Susan C. Han
Suzette M. Evans
Subjective Effects of Opioids	217	(23)
Sandy M. Comer
James P. Zacny
Cannabis	240	(18)
Mitch Earleywine
Relationships Between Personality and Acute Subjective Responses to Stimulant Drugs	258	(17)
Harriet de Wit
Subjective Effects of Methylphenidate	275	(30)
Scott Kollins
Subjective Effects of Nitrous Oxide (N2O)	305	(33)
Diana J. Walker
James P. Zacny
Corporate Highs, Corporeal Lows	338	(7)
David Lenson
The Subjective Response to Neurofeedback	345	(22)
Siegfried Othmer
Vicki Pollock
Norman Miller
Index	367