Intoxicating Minds: How Drugs Work

By Ciaran Regan

Book Overview

Why do smokers claim that the first cigarette of the day is the best? What is the biological basis behind some heavy drinkers' belief that the "hair-of-the-dog" method alleviates the effects of a hangover? Why does marijuana seem to affect ones problem-solving capacity? Intoxicating Minds is, in the author's words, "a grand excavation of drug myth." Neither extolling nor condemning drug use, it is a story of scientific and artistic achievement, war and greed, empires and religions, and lessons for the future. Ciaran Regan looks at each class of drugs, describing the historical evolution of their use, explaining how they work within the brain's neurophysiology, and outlining the basic pharmacology of those substances. From a consideration of the effect of stimulants, such as caffeine and nicotine, and the reasons and consequences of their sudden popularity in the seventeenth century, the book moves to a discussion of more modern stimulants, such as cocaine and ecstasy. In addition, Regan explains how we process memory, the nature of thought disorders, and therapies for treating depression and schizophrenia. Regan then considers psychedelic drugs and their perceived mystical properties and traces the history of placebos to ancient civilizations. Finally, Intoxicating Minds considers the physical consequences of our co-evolution with drugs--how they have altered our very being--and offers a glimpse of the brave new world of drug therapies.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0231120168
• ISBN13: 9780231120166
• Release Date: August 2001
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.4" x 9.3"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A smashing little brain-book

Intoxicating minds is exactly what the title suggests: a text about brain drugs and drugged brains. Mind-bending drugs are the order of the day, including those used to bend the mind back to "normal" and those used so commonly that their effects are taken for granted. The whole gamut of psychoactive pharmacology is sampled and discussed: alcohol and nicotine, uppers and downers, hallucinogens and psychedelics, and tea and...

Unique and Well Written

My first read of Regan's was a very nice experience. The book gives you very insightful information into "how drugs work" just as the cover states. It supports everything with ahrd-core evidence (which I love) and does not seem to pick a bias stand point on drug usage etc. and just gives a 'matter of fact' point of view much like a journalist. Regan does not only point out the effects on drugs on the human body but also the...