Amphetamine Use and Abuse in Psychiatric Patients

Abstract

AMPHETAMINE use and abuse has been the subject of growing controversy over the past 25 years. In recent years, concern over abuse of "dangerous drugs" has grown dramatically. The lay press has commented frequently and spectacularly about the "pill epidemic," and the amphetamines in particular have been implicated in everything from highway truck accidents, through mass murder, to Jack Ruby's attack on Oswald.¹Concern over control of amphetamines grew with reports that an estimated 50% of annual amphetamine production was finding its way into illicit channels.^2,3The result of growing concern and publicity was the enactment of the Dodd Harris act for control of "dangerous drugs" in this country and similar legislation in Great Britain and Japan. Factual knowledge about the extent of use and abuse of amphetamines has followed far behind the emotional reactions to publicity. It has been only