Amphetamines
What Kind of Drug Is It?
Amphetamines are stimulant drugs that improve concentration, reduce appetite, and help keep users awake. Stimulants heighten the activity of a living being. In the 2003 edition of their book Drugs 101: An Overview for Teens, Margaret O. Hyde and John F. Setaro defined stimulants as "drugs used to increase alertness, relieve fatigue, [and make users] feel stronger and more decisive." Caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, ecstasy (MDMA), and steroids are all stimulants. (An entry for each of these substances is available in this encyclopedia.) However, amphetamines have a great potential for abuse. The "HIGH" created by stimulants makes people feel good, but only temporarily. "They may elevate mood," wrote John B. Murray in the Journal of Psychology, but "their effects are short-lived."
Overview
Although they were discovered late in the nineteenth century, amphetamines did not receive much attention in the medical community until 1927, when a University of California researcher named Gordon Alles began studying their effects. Alles found that the drugs gave people a lot of energy, allowing them to do more and stay awake longer without getting tired. This effect of "speeding up" people's actions explains how amphetamines eventually came to be known by the street names "speed" and "uppers."
There are several different types of amphetamines.
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