Since the earliest times, people have used opium, the parent drug of a group of chemicals called narcotics. Like almost anything, narcotics can be used for good or bad purposes. When used properly, narcotics are valued medications in the treatment of...

One of the greatest challenges facing science today is understanding the physical basis of thought. The brain is a physical entity filled with cells that interact chemically via biochemical pathways. Research during the past fifty years has made...

Narcotic Drugs A category of addictive drugs that reduce the perception of pain and induce euphoria. A narcotic is a depressant that produces a stuporous state in the person who takes it. Narcotics, while often inducing a state of euphoria or feeling of...

(from Greek, narke: sleep, numbness) A group of compounds, derived from OPIUM or synthesized, with similar structure and pharmacological actions. Narcotics are also known as NARCOTIC ANALGESICS or OPIATES. This term was originally meant to distinguish...

Drug that produces analgesia (&see; analgesic), narcosis (stupor or sleep), and drug addiction. In most people narcotics also produce euphoria. Those that occur naturally in the opium poppy, notably morphine, have been used since ancient Greek times....

The term narcotic (ναρκωτικÏς) is believed to have been coined by Galen to refer to agents that benumb or deaden, causing gain of feeling or paralysis. The term is based on the Greek word ναρκωσις (narcosis), the term used by...