Hi catffish,
Thank you for your question.
A Brief History of Psychopharmacology - Dr. C. George Boeree
http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/psychopharm.html
The Ancient World
"Drugs and medicines have always been with us. Where there were
plants with psychoactive properties, there were people willing to use
them, for pleasure or relief, or to kill.
Recorded history is filled with descriptions of potent
psychopharmaceuticals, but some have been outstanding. Alcohol has
been nearly universal in use, and was already presenting itself as a
problem among ancient Greeks and Romans. There are records of
cannabis use in the ancient Middle East. Opium was known to the
ancients, but seems to have been restricted to medicinal use. Hemlock
was certainly known -- Socrates met his death with a cup of hemlock.
More exotic substances were also available. An extract of the
nightshade or belladonna plant called atropine was used everywhere
from Rome to India as a poison -- and as a cosmetic device: women
sometimes put a drop of weak solution in their eyes to dilate their
pupils! It is still used for the same reason today by eye doctors.
Another favorite was the extract of the foxglove plant, called
digitalis. A powerful poison, it was also used to treat various
ailments.
And mushrooms provided many of our ancestors with interesting
hallucinogenic experiences (and serious illnesses!). Some believe
that the holy drink of the ancient Aryans mentioned in the Vedas --
soma -- was a concoction involving mushrooms."
(read rest of article)
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PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY by Leonard W. Hamilton & C. Robin Timmons
http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~lwh/drugs/psypharm.htm
"There are many chemical substances that have the power to alter this
relationship between environment and feeling. Anxiety can be
transformed into tranquility, exhilaration into sobriety, and torpor
into vigor. When these substances are administered in a formal manner,
they are called drugs, and the study of the effects of these drugs on
mood and other behaviours defines the field of psychopharmacology.
Historically, the more common chemical substances that change
behaviour have been plant products that were widely available and
self-administered. Tea and opium were available in the Orient; tobacco
and coffee in the Americas; and alcohol throughout the world. The
substances were valued by each culture for the effects that they had
on behaviour, but each culture also developed written or unwritten
guidelines to regulate the use of the substances.
In addition to the commonly available plants, each geographic region
has more obscure plants that may contain psychologically active
substances. Information about the identifying features and
effectiveness of these plants were passed on to family elders and to
religious leaders. These individuals became valued for their knowledge
of the effects of chemical substances, and became the informal
practitioners of folk medicine. This gave way to the development of
still more formal knowledge of these effects, and to the gradual
development of formal medical practitioners."
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Best regards,
tlspiegel |
