PSY 374 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Knockout Mouse, Nucleus Accumbens, Brain Stimulation Reward
Document Summary
Chapter 12: psychomotor stimulants: cocaine and the amphetamines. Basic pharmacology of cocaine: mechanisms of cocaine action. Cocaine and amphetamine belong to a class of drugs called psychomotor stimulants. They cause sensorimotor activation and are characterized by their ability to increase alertness, heighten arousal, and cause behavioral excitement. The cocaine alkaloid is extracted from coca leaves and then converted to a hydrochloride (hcl) salt and crystallized. Cocaine hcl is water-soluble and thus can be taken orally, intranasally (snorting), or by iv injection. It is not heat-stable, and cannot be smoked. Cocaine hcl can be transformed back into cocaine freebase by two different methods: dissolve in water, add an alkaline solution such as ammonia, then extract the cocaine base with an organic solvent, typically ether. The term freebasing refers to smoking cocaine that was obtained in this manner: mix dissolved cocaine hcl with baking soda, heat the mixture, then dry it.
