Phencyclidine (PCP)
August 17, 2023
A psychoactive drug with central nervous system depressant, stimulant, analgesic, and hallucinogenic effects. It was introduced into clinical medicine as a dissociative anaesthetic but its use was abandoned because of the frequent occurrence of an acute syndrome consisting of disorientation, agitation, and delirium. It appears to be of value in treatment of stroke. PCP is relatively cheap and easy to synthesize and has been in use as an illicit drug since the 1970s.
