[The ethnopharmacology of hallucinogens: from "primitive rites" to their "presence" on TV. Proposals for the year 2000].

Hallucinogens are the chemicals which in nontoxic doses produce changes in perception, mental confusion, memory loss, or disorientation for person, place and time, with organic brain reactions. Mescaline and LSD are historically the most interesting hallucinogens. Today the cannabis is very important, socially.

[After the benzodiazepines].

After the diazepines, new agents have appeared: sleep-inducing cyclopyrrolones, pure anxiolytic serotoninergic agents such as buspirone or 5HT2 antagonists such as ritanserine, there is also renewed interest for beta-blockers and alpha 2-adrenergic agonists, calcium blocking agents and some NMDA blockers.

[Drug therapy and affective disorders: state of the art].

Different types of depression require adequate treatment. From the most recent MAO inhibitors we go on to tricyclic antidepressants, to the second generation (amoxapine, buspirone, venlafaxine), and to selective inhibitors of 5HT reuptake (fluoxetine and its derivates, again venlafaxine, sertaline). Indications for lithium remain unchanged.

[Consequences of prolonged use of psychoactive drugs. Substitute natural treatment and individual psychotherapy].

The history of psychopharmacology shows the differences existing between various groups of substances, natural, and more recent synthetic ones. At present, benzodiazepine anxiolytic agents are being singled out for their abuse and addiction potential. There has been a return to and widespread use of traditional natural therapies and more modern psychotherapy.

[The mechanism of action of benzodiazepine and its consequences for therapy].

Kinetics and mechanism of action of benzodiazepines are at the base of their proper use in clinical management of anxiety, tension, panics, and insomnia. These important agents have specific receptors within the complex GABA-ergic system: according to the most recent studies, GABAA receptors are more important than GABAB receptors. The author illustrates the management of anxiety states, as well as the treatment of anxiety in children, in old people and of panic attacks.

Receptors mediating contraction of isolated human vas deferens.

A large body of evidences has suggested the role of adrenergic, opioidergic and other peptidergic receptors in the mediation of animal vas deferens motility. Different animal species showed different neurochemical patterns, so it is to be expected that human vas deferens has its own specific response to several substances, in relation to its peculiar function. In this study we report on the effects of monoaminergic (norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin, isoproterenol, cholinomimetic drugs) and opioidergic (morphine, buprenorphin, beta-endorphin, met-enkephalin and dynorphin) agonists on isolated human vas deferens motility.