Drugs commonly associated with substance-use disorder

There are many drugs of abuse, with varying kinetics, and different interactions with neurotransmitter systems.^[3,4,5] Some drugs of abuse have sedative effects (such as the GABA agonist alcohol, and opioids), whereas others have stimulating effects (such as the dopamine reuptake inhibitor cocaine, and the acetylcholine receptor agonist nicotine).^[3,5]

References:
[1] European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) website. Available at: https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/publications/drug-profiles_en. Accessed November 2022.

[2] National Institutes of Health (NIH) PubChem database. Available at: https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/. Accessed November 2022.

[3] Purves D, Augustine GJ, Fitzpatrick D, et al. (eds). Neuroscience. 6th edition. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc. 2018.

[4] Sessa B, Higbed L, Nutt D. A Review of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)-assisted psychotherapy. Front Psychiatry 2019; 10: 138.

[5] Stahl SM. Stahl’s Essential Psychopharmacology. Neuroscientific Basis and Practical Applications. 4th edition. © Cambridge University Press, 2013.