1.2 Psychoactive Drug Classifications & Effects

Jacqueline Lewis and Christine Miller

Psychoactive drugs are divided into different classes based on their pharmacological effects. Several classes are listed in the infographic below, along with examples of commonly used drugs in each class.

 

Psychoactive drug classifications: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

Access the Word file containing text for the Drug Classifications infographic

 

Many psychoactive drugs have multiple effects, so they may be placed in more than one class. An example is MDMA (see image below), which may act as both a stimulant and a hallucinogen. MDMA’s efficacy as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other types of anxiety disorders, is showing promise in some recent studies (Stone, August 14, 2019). THC is another substance that is hard to classify, as it can act as a stimulant, a depressant, and/or an hallucinogen. This is why THC is often placed in a category of its own.

 

Image of Ecstasy tabs
Ecstasy (MDMA) is most commonly taken in tablet form, like the tablets shown here.

VIDEO: Overview of Psychoactive Drugs

The following video provides an overview of the different classifications of psychoactive substances. 

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Psychoactive Substances & Society (2nd Edition)* Copyright © 2024 by Jacqueline Lewis and Christine Miller is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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