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Cognition Enhancers, Psychostimulants, and Psychedelic Drugs

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Abstract

Drugs that have predominant CNS stimulant actions with few drugs possessing additional cognition enhancing effect are discussed in this chapter. There are three important groups of drugs in this category such as cognition enhancers, psychostimulants, and psychedelic drugs which possess overlapping pharmacological actions as well as actions unique to their respective group by altering the CNS functions. Cognition enhancers mainly have effect on the memory, improving wakefulness, and improving energy levels. Psychostimulants act by improving mental function, behaviour, increase motor activity, and reduce the feeling of fatigue. Psychedelic drugs mainly affect perception and thinking pattern in a complex way. Majority of these drugs do not possess any important medicinal value except a few. These drugs are recognised and studied only for their abusive potential and for recreational purposes.

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Correspondence to Vimala Ananthy .

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Ananthy, V. (2021). Cognition Enhancers, Psychostimulants, and Psychedelic Drugs. In: Paul, A., Anandabaskar, N., Mathaiyan, J., Raj, G.M. (eds) Introduction to Basics of Pharmacology and Toxicology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6009-9_13

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