Integral nationalism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integral_nationalism 

Integral nationalism (French: nationalisme intégral) is a type of nationalism that originated in 19th-century France, was theorized by Charles Maurras and mainly expressed in the ultra-royalist circles of Action Française. The doctrine is also called Maurrassism.

Foundations

National decline and decadence

Integral nationalism sought to be a counter-revolutionary doctrine, providing a national doctrine that could ensure the territorial cohesion and grandeur of the French state. Its worldview was based on several precepts. Firstly, method: the principle of "Politics first!", that is, that the nationalist, political Catholic and monarchist movements must focus their efforts on changing the political and constitutional order, rather than accepting the victory of Radical republicanism and displacing their activity into social or cultural pursuits. Secondly, the belief that the Enlightenment in general and French Revolution in particular had broken a traditional social contract: by stressing allegiance to the cultural and political nation-state, Maurras held that they had erased an older patriotism based on allegiance to more 'organic' units such as family, petit pays and monarchy. Finally, a moral component: Maurras regarded French society, as of the turn of the twentieth century, as having slid from a Golden Age into a period of decadence and corruption incarnated by the military defeat of 1870-1 and the cultural clash of the Dreyfus affair.

To his mind, the French national community had seen its period of geopolitical grandeur under the absolutist regime of Louis XIV where religion and politics were merged under the absolute authority of the monarch. Maurras blamed French national decline on the overthrow of the cultural and political system of the Ancien Régime, its replacement with the revolutionary and romantic form of liberalism born of the French Revolution (known as Radicalism), and the century of political and constitutional conflict that followed after 1789. Thus Maurras imagined that the introduction of such ideas into the body politic could only have come from outside influences: Freemasons, Protestants, Jews and foreigners (whom he labelled 'Metics') Together these four communities represented, to Maurras, 'Anti-France' and could never be integrated into the French nation.

Order, reason, classicism, authority and liberty

In this search for a restoration of the constitutional, political and cultural order of the Old Regime, Maurras advocated a political system based on strong authority, a belief in the innate reason of natural law, and a rejection of chaotic romanticism and modernism in favour of orderly classical aesthetic values. His philosophical influences included Plato and Aristotle, Dante and Thomas Aquinas, Auguste Comte and Joseph de Maistre. His historical influences range from Sainte-Beuve to Fustel de Coulanges through Taine and Ernest Renan. But the Jacobin centralism of the French state also aggrieved him: as a Provençal regionalist, he advocated a central state that would yield before traditional local or regional privileges, arguing that only the old monarchy could find this balance.

In its search for the cohesion of an idealised national community, Maurras's political project thus revolved around three major axes:

• Politically: the exaltation of national interest, and with it the exclusion from the national community of the Protestants, Jews, Freemasons and foreigners held to be intrinsically 'un-French' ("France alone") ;
• Institutionally, a system designed to balance respect for local cultural particularities and political liberties (the pays réel, or 'true country') with the overarching interest of the state (that is, the monarchy);
• Morally, a preponderant role to be granted to the Catholic Church, as a unifying cultural element, a source of social order, and an ideological agent of the central state.

Characteristics

Positivist nationalism

Integral nationalism seeks to recover natural laws by observing facts and drawing upon historical experiences, even if it cannot contradict the metaphysical justifications which constitutes the true foundation for Christians; for positivism, for the Action Francais, was by no means a doctrine of explanation, but only a method of ascertainment; it was by observing that the hereditary monarchy was the regime most in conformity with the natural, historical, geographical, and psychological conditions of France that Maurras had become monarchist: "Natural laws exist," he wrote; a believer must therefore consider forgetting these laws as impious negligence. He respects them all the more because he calls them the work of eternal Providence and goodness."

Counter-revolutionary nationalism

Maurras's nationalism is meant to be integral in that the monarchy is, according to him, part of the essence of the French nation and tradition. Royalism is integral nationalism because without a king, all that the nationalists want to keep will weaken first and then perish.

Decentralizing nationalism

Maurras is an opponent of Napoleonic centralization. He believes that this centralization, which results in statism and bureaucracy - thus joining the ideas of Joseph Proudhon - is inherent in the democratic system. He asserts that republics last only through centralization, with only monarchies strong enough to decentralize. Maurras denounces the insidious use of the word decentralization by the state, which allows it to deconcentrate its power while giving itself a prestige of freedom. What good is it to create universities in the provinces if the state centrally controls them anyway?

A social nationalism

Despite the measured and cautious support he gave to the Proudhon Circle, a circle of intellectuals launched by young monarchists hostile to liberal capitalism and calling for union with the revolutionary syndicalist movement inspired by Georges Sorel, Charles Maurras defended a social policy closer to that of René de La Tour du Pin; Maurras does not like Georges Sorel and Édouard Berth the systematic process of the bourgeoisie where he sees a possible support. In the class struggle, Maurras prefers to propose, as in England, a form of national solidarity of which the king can constitute the keystone.

Non-expansionist nationalism

Maurras is hostile to the colonial expansion impelled by republican governments that diverts from Revenge against Germany and disperses its forces; moreover, it is hostile to the Jacobin and Republican assimilation policy which aims at imposing French culture on peoples with their own culture. Like Lyautey, he thinks that France must be made to love France and not to impose French culture in the name of an abstract universalism.

This last conception attracts him favors in the elites of the colonized peoples; Ferhat Abbas, for example, is an Algerian maurassian: he is the founder of L'Action Algerienne, an organ claiming integral nationalism. This movement fights for the adoption of concrete proposals: all are in the direction of local democracy and organized, the only form of democracy for which Maurras advocated, because in his opinion it is the only truly real one: autonomy of local and regional indigenous corporations, autonomy in social and economic regulation, universal suffrage in municipal elections, wide representation of corporations, communes, notables and native chiefs, constituting an assembly with the French government.

If he was hostile to colonial expansion, Maurras was then hostile to the brutal liquidation of the French colonial empire after World War II, prejudicial to him as much to the interests of France as those of the colonized peoples.

Non-racist nationalism

Maurras's national theory rejects the messianism and ethnicism that can be found in the German nationalists who inherit Fichte. The nation he describes corresponds to Renan's political and historical meaning in What is a nation, to the living hierarchies that Taine describes in The Origins of Contemporary France, to the friendships described by Bossuet. In essence, Maurras proposed a form of civic nationalism that was aggressively exclusionist: like the republican civic nationalism of the left, it sought to forge a national community out of the disparate linguistic and regional ethnicities of the French state - Bretons and Alsatians, Basques and Corsicans, Occitans and Flemings, et cetera; it differed from that of the republicans by establishing the criteria for the national community on traditionalist grounds: Catholicism, agrarianism and historic rule under the French monarchy. Thus it took a different direction to the racial or ethno-linguistic nationalism of the German radical right but ended up with a similar degree of vehement xenophobia and anti-semitism, as it considered some ethnic, linguistic or religious communities as belonging to the French nation but not others.

Influence in other countries

Maurras and Action française have been influential on different thinkers claiming a counterrevolutionary, anti-Enlightenment, and Christian (particularly Catholic) nationalism in the world.

In Great Britain, Charles Maurras was followed and admired by writers and philosophers and by several British correspondents, academics and journal editors; in 1917, he was contracted by Huntley Carter of the New Age and The Egoist.

Many of his poems were translated and published in Great Britain where Maurras has many readers among the High Church of Anglicanism and conservative circles. Among his reader, there is T.S. Eliot. Eliot found the reasons for his anti-fascism in Maurras: his anti-liberalism is traditionalist, to the benefit of a certain idea of monarchy and hierarchy. Music within me, which takes up in translation the main pieces of La Musique intérieure will be published in 1946, under the leadership of Count G.W.V. Potcoki of Montalk, director and founder of The Right Review.

In Portugal, António de Oliveira Salazar who ruled the country from 1932 to 1968, admired Maurras, even though he was not a monarchist; he expressed his condolences to his death in 1952.Integral nationalism has sometimes been considered as one of the sources of inspiration for the Salazar Portugal or the Franco's regime in Spain: the leaders these regimes respected Maurras but did not claim him, not setting up a federalist or royalist system. In Spain, Maurras and his integral nationalism were, however, highly influential upon the nationalist and Catholic right during the first half of the twentieth century. This was initially the case for the political current known as 'Maurism' (after the conservative leader Antonio Maura) during the 1910s and early 1920s. Under the Spanish Republic of 1931, Maurras's integral nationalism was the chief influence upon the ultramonarchists led by José Calvo Sotelo who founded the counter-revolutionary journal Acción Española (1931-36) and its party-political emanation Renovación Española (1933-37). For the nMaurras's ideas were also influential upon the National Catholicism of Francisco Franco. 

In the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Dimitrije Ljotić and his Yugoslav National Movement Zbor were heavily influenced by Maurras's ideas. Ljotić was influenced by him when studying in France and attended various French Action meetings.

In Mexico, Jesús Guiza y Acevedo, nicknamed "Little Maurras", and the historian Carlos Pereyra [es] ; 

In Peru, José de la Riva-Aguero y Osma was influenced by Maurras. This great Peruvian reactionary thinker, admiring his monarchical doctrine, met him in 1913.

In Argentina, the Argentine military Juan Carlos Onganía, just like Alejandro Agustín Lanusse, had participated in the "Cursillos de la Cristiandad", as well as the Dominicans Antonio Imbert Barrera and Elías Wessin y Wessin, military opponents to the restoration of the 1963 Constitution.

Jingoism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

The American War-Dog, a 1916 political cartoon by Oscar Cesare, with the dog named "Jingo"

Jingoism is nationalism in the form of aggressive foreign policy, such as a country's advocacy for the use of threats or actual force, as opposed to peaceful relations, in efforts to safeguard what it perceives as its national interests. Colloquially, jingoism is excessive bias in judging one's own country as superior to others—an extreme type of nationalism.

The term originated in the United Kingdom, expressing a pugnacious attitude toward Russia in the 1870s, and it appeared in the American press by 1893.

Etymology

The chorus of a song by G. H. MacDermott (singer) and G. W. Hunt (songwriter) commonly sung in British pubs and music halls around the time of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78) gave birth to the term. The lyrics had the chorus:

We don't want to fight but by Jingo if we do
We've got the ships, we've got the men, we've got the money too
We've fought the Bear before, and while we're Britons true
The Russians shall not have Constantinople.

The capture of Constantinople/Istanbul was a long-standing Russian strategic aim, which would have given the Russian Navy an unfettered access to the Mediterranean; by the same token, the British were determined to deny that to the Russians in order to protect their shipping lines to rich British India. At the time when the above song was composed and sung, the Russians got near to achieving that aim through the Treaty of San Stefano. Eventually, the British were able to push the Russians back by diplomatic pressure and the threat of war.

The phrase "by Jingo" was a long-established minced oath used to avoid saying "by Jesus". Referring to the song, the specific term "jingoism" was coined as a political label by the prominent British radical George Holyoake in a letter to the Daily News on 13 March 1878.

Examples

Probably the first uses of the term in the U.S. press occurred in connection with the proposed annexation of Hawaii in 1893, after a coup led by foreign residents, mostly Americans, and assisted by the U.S. minister in Hawaii, overthrew the Hawaiian constitutional monarchy and declared a republic. Republican president Benjamin Harrison and Republicans in the U.S. Senate were frequently accused of jingoism in the Democratic press for supporting annexation.

In the 1880s, Henry Hyndman, leader of Britain's Social Democratic Federation, turned against internationalism, and promoted a version of Socialism mixed with British nationalism, anti-foreigner racism and outright antisemitism" - even to the point of attacking fellow Socialist Eleanor Marx in antisemitic terms, noting that she had "inherited in her nose and mouth the Jewish type from Karl Marx himself". When taking part in the breakaway group which founded the Socialist League, Eleanor Marx wrote polemics in which she characterized Hyndman and his followers as "The Jingo Party".

British artillery major-general Thomas Bland Strange, one of the founders of the Canadian army and one of the divisional commanders during the 1885 North-West Rebellion, was an eccentric and aggressive soldier who gained the nickname "Jingo Strange" and titled his 1893 autobiography Gunner Jingo's Jubilee.

Theodore Roosevelt was frequently accused of jingoism. In an article on 23 October 1895 in New York Times, Roosevelt stated, "There is much talk about 'jingoism'. If by 'jingoism' they mean a policy in pursuance of which Americans will with resolution and common sense insist upon our rights being respected by foreign powers, then we are 'jingoes'."

In Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell decries the tactics of political journalists and wishes for introduction of airplanes into war in order to finally see "a jingo with a bullet hole in him."

The policy of appeasement toward Hitler led to satirical references to the loss of jingoistic attitudes in Britain. A cartoon by E.H. Shepard titled "The Old-Fashioned Customer" appeared in 28 March 1938 issue of Punch. Set in a record shop, John Bull asks the record seller (Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain): "I wonder if you've got a song I remember about not wanting to fight, but if we do … something, something, something … we've got the money too?". On the wall is a portrait of the Victorian Prime Minister Lord Salisbury.

Tribalism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribalism 

Tribalism is the state of being organized by, or advocating for, tribes or tribal lifestyles. Human evolution has primarily occurred in small groups, as opposed to mass societies, and humans naturally maintain a social network. In popular culture, tribalism may also refer to a way of thinking or behaving in which people are loyal to their social group above all else, or, derogatorily, a type of discrimination or animosity based upon group differences.

Definition

The word "tribe" can be defined to mean an extended kin group or clan with a common ancestor, or can also be described as a group with shared interests, lifestyles and habits. The proverb "birds of a feather flock together" describes homophily, the human tendency to form friendship networks with people of similar occupations, interests, and habits. Some tribes can be located in geographically proximate areas, like villages or bands, though telecommunications enables groups of people to form digital tribes using tools like social networking websites.

In terms of conformity, tribalism has been defined as a "subjectivity" or "way of being" social frame in which communities are bound socially beyond immediate birth ties by the dominance of various modalities of face-to-face and object integration. Ontologically, tribalism is oriented around the valences of analogy, genealogy and mythology. That means that customary tribes have their social foundations in some variation of these tribal orientations, while often taking on traditional practices (e.g. Abrahamic religions such as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam), and modern practices, including monetary exchange, mobile communications, and modern education.

Social structure

The social structure of a tribe can vary greatly from case to case, but the relatively small size of customary tribes makes social life of such tribes usually involve a relatively undifferentiated role structure, with few significant political or economic distinctions between individuals.

A tribe often refers to itself using its own language's word for "people", and refers to other, neighboring tribes with various epithets. For example, the term "Inuit" translates to "people".

Types

Tribalism implies the possession of a strong cultural or ethnic identity that separates one member of a group from the members of another group. Based on strong relations of proximity and kinship, members of a tribe tend to possess a strong feeling of identity. Objectively, for a customary tribal society to form there needs to be ongoing customary organization, enquiry and exchange. However, intense feelings of common identity can lead people to feel tribally connected.

The distinction between these two definitions for tribalism, objective and subjective, is an important one because while tribal societies have been pushed to the edges of the Western world, tribalism, by the second definition, is arguably undiminished. A few writers have postulated that the human brain is hard-wired towards tribalism by its evolutionary advantages, but that claim is usually linked to equating original questions of sociality with tribalism.

Concept evolution

Tribalism has a very adaptive effect in human evolution. Humans are social animals and ill-equipped to live on their own. Tribalism and social bonding help to keep individuals committed to the group, even when personal relations may fray. That keeps individuals from wandering off or joining other groups. It also leads to bullying when a tribal member is unwilling to conform to the politics of the collective.

Some scholars argue that inclusive fitness in humans involves kin selection and kin altruism, in which groups of an extended family with shared genes help others with similar genes, based on their coefficient of relationship (the amount of genes they have in common). Other scholars argue that fictive kinship is common in human organizations, allowing non-kin members to collaborate in groups like fraternities.

Socially, divisions between groups fosters specialized interactions with others, based on association: altruism (positive interactions with unrelated members), kin-selectivity (positive interactions with related members) and violence (negative interactions). Thus, groups with a strong sense of unity and identity can benefit from kin selection behaviour such as common property and shared resources. The tendencies of members to unite against an outside tribe and the ability to act violently and prejudicially against that outside tribe likely boosted the chances of survival in genocidal conflicts. 

Modern examples of tribal genocide rarely reflect the defining characteristics of tribes existing prior to the Neolithic Revolution; for example, small population and close-relatedness. 

According to a study by Robin Dunbar at the University of Liverpool, social group size determined by primate brain size. Dunbar's conclusion was that most human brains can really understand only an average of 150 individuals as fully developed, complex people. That is known as Dunbar's number. In contrast, anthropologist H. Russell Bernard and Peter Killworth have done a variety of field studies in the United States that came up with an estimated mean number of ties, 290, roughly double Dunbar's estimate. The Bernard–Killworth median of 231 is lower because of upward straggle in the distribution, but it is still appreciably larger than Dunbar's estimate.

Malcolm Gladwell expanded on this conclusion sociologically in his book, The Tipping Point, where members of one of his types, Connectors, were successful by their larger-than-average number of close friendships and capacity for maintaining them, which tie together otherwise-unconnected social groups. According to such studies, then, "tribalism" is hard to escape fact of human neurology simply because many human brains are not adapted to working with large populations. Once a person's limit for connection is reached, the human brain resorts to some combination of hierarchical schemes, stereotypes and other simplified models to understand so many people.

Negative outcomes

Anthropologists engage in ongoing debate on the phenomenon of warfare among tribes. While fighting typically and certainly occurs among horticultural tribes, an open question remains whether such warfare is a typical feature of hunter-gatherer life or is an anomaly found only in certain circumstances, such as scarce resources (as with the Inuit or Arabs) or only among food-producing societies.

Tribes use forms of subsistence such as horticulture and foraging that cannot yield the same number of absolute calories as agriculture. That limits tribal populations significantly, especially when compared to agricultural populations. Jesse Mathis writes in War Before Civilization that examples exist with low percentage rates of casualties in tribal battle, and some tribal battles were much more lethal as a percentage of population than, for example, the Battle of Gettysburg. He concludes that no evidence consistently indicates that primitive battles are proportionately less lethal than civilized ones.

The realistic conflict theory is a model of intergroup conflict, arguing that in a real or perceived zero-sum system, conflicts arise over shared interests for finite resources. The 1954 Robbers Cave Experiment involved researchers putting 12-year old boys into groups, where they formed their own ingroups, before then developing hostility and negativity towards the other group during simulated conflict over finite resources in a zero-sum game.

Stimulant

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stimulant 

Ritalin sustained-release (SR) 20 mg tablets

Stimulants (also often referred to as psychostimulants or colloquially as uppers) is an overarching term that covers many drugs including those that increase activity of the central nervous system and the body, drugs that are pleasurable and invigorating, or drugs that have sympathomimetic effects. Stimulants are widely used throughout the world as prescription medicines as well as without a prescription (either legally or illicitly) as performance-enhancing or recreational drugs. The most frequently prescribed stimulants as of 2013 were lisdexamfetamine, methylphenidate, and amphetamine. It is estimated that the percentage of the population that has used amphetamine-type stimulants (e.g., amphetamine, methamphetamine, MDMA, etc.) and cocaine combined is between 0.8% and 2.1%.

Effects

Acute

Stimulants in therapeutic doses, such as those given to patients with ADHD, increases ability to focus, vigor, sociability, libido and may elevate mood. However, in higher doses stimulants may actually decrease the ability to focus, a principle of the Yerkes-Dodson Law. In higher doses stimulants may also produce euphoria, vigor, and decrease need for sleep. Many, but not all, stimulants have ergogenic effects. Drugs such as ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, amphetamine and methylphenidate have well documented ergogenic effects, while cocaine has the opposite effect. Neurocognitive enhancing effects of stimulants, specifically modafinil, amphetamine and methylphenidate have been documented in healthy adolescents, and is a commonly cited reason among illicit drug users for use, particularly among college students in the context of studying.

In some cases psychiatric phenomenon may emerge such as stimulant psychosis, paranoia, and suicidal ideation. Acute toxicity has been reportedly associated with a homicide, paranoia, aggressive behavior, motor dysfunction, and punding. The violent and aggressive behavior associated with acute stimulant toxicity may partially be driven by paranoia. Most drugs classified as stimulants are sympathomimetics, that is they stimulate the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system. This leads to effects such as mydriasis, increased heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate and body temperature. When these changes become pathological, they are called arrhythmia, hypertension, and hyperthermia, and may lead to rhabdomyolysis, stroke, cardiac arrest, or seizures. However, given the complexity of the mechanisms that underlie these potentially fatal outcomes of acute stimulant toxicity, it is impossible to determine what dose may be lethal.

Chronic

Assessment of the effects of stimulants is relevant given the large population currently taking stimulants. A systematic review of cardiovascular effects of prescription stimulants found no association in children, but found a correlation between prescription stimulant use and ischemic heart attacks. A review over a four-year period found that there were few negative effects of stimulant treatment, but stressed the need for longer-term studies. A review of a year long period of prescription stimulant use in those with ADHD found that cardiovascular side effects were limited to transient increases in blood pressure only. Initiation of stimulant treatment in those with ADHD in early childhood appears to carry benefits into adulthood with regard to social and cognitive functioning, and appears to be relatively safe.

Abuse of prescription stimulants (not following physician instruction) or of illicit stimulants carries many negative health risks. Abuse of cocaine, depending upon route of administration, increases risk of cardiorespiratory disease, stroke, and sepsis. Some effects are dependent upon the route of administration, with intravenous use associated with the transmission of many disease such as Hepatitis C, HIV/AIDS and potential medical emergencies such as infection, thrombosis or pseudoaneurysm, while inhalation may be associated with increased lower respiratory tract infection, lung cancer, and pathological restricting of lung tissue. Cocaine may also increase risk for autoimmune disease and damage nasal cartilage. Abuse of methamphetamine produces similar effects as well as marked degeneration of dopaminergic neurons, resulting in an increased risk for Parkinson's disease.

Medical uses

Stimulants have been used in medicine for many conditions including obesity, sleep disorders, mood disorders, impulse control disorders, asthma, nasal congestion and, in case of cocaine, as local anesthetics. Drugs used to treat obesity are called anorectics and generally include drugs that follow the general definition of a stimulant, but other drugs such as cannabinoid receptor antagonists also belong to this group. Eugeroics are used in management of sleep disorders characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness, such as narcolepsy, and include stimulants such as modafinil. Stimulants are used in impulse control disorders such as ADHD and off-label in mood disorders such as major depressive disorder to increase energy, focus and elevate mood. Stimulants such as epinephrine, theophylline and salbutamol orally have been used to treat asthma, but inhaled adrenergic drugs are now preferred due to less systemic side effects. Pseudoephedrine is used to relieve nasal or sinus congestion caused by the common cold, sinusitis, hay fever and other respiratory allergies; it is also used to relieve ear congestion caused by ear inflammation or infection.

Chemistry

A chart comparing the chemical structures of different amphetamine derivatives

Classifying stimulants is difficult, because of the large number of classes the drugs occupy, and the fact that they may belong to multiple classes; for example, ecstasy can be classified as a substituted methylenedioxyphenethylamine, a substituted amphetamine and consequently, a substituted phenethylamine.

When referring to stimulants, the parent drug (e.g., amphetamine) will always be expressed in the singular; with the word "substituted" placed before the parent drug (substituted amphetamines). 

Major stimulant classes include phenethylamines and their daughter class substituted amphetamines.

Amphetamines (class)

Substituted amphetamines are a class of compounds based upon the amphetamine structure; it includes all derivative compounds which are formed by replacing, or substituting, one or more hydrogen atoms in the amphetamine core structure with substituents. Examples of substituted amphetamines are amphetamine (itself), methamphetamine, ephedrine, cathinone, phentermine, mephentermine, bupropion, methoxyphenamine, selegiline, amfepramone, pyrovalerone, MDMA (ecstasy), and DOM (STP). Many drugs in this class work primarily by activating trace amine-associated receptor 1 (TAAR1); in turn, this causes reuptake inhibition and effluxion, or release, of dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin. An additional mechanism of some substituted amphetamines is the release of vesicular stores of monoamine neurotransmitters through VMAT2, thereby increasing the concentration of these neurotransmitters in the cytosol, or intracellular fluid, of the presynaptic neuron.

Amphetamines-type stimulants are often used for their therapeutic effects. Physicians sometimes prescribe amphetamine to treat major depression, where subjects do not respond well to traditional SSRI medications,^{[citation needed]} but evidence supporting this use is poor/mixed. Notably, two recent large phase III studies of lisdexamfetamine (a prodrug to amphetamine) as an adjunct to an SSRI or SNRI in the treatment of major depressive disorder showed no further benefit relative to placebo in effectiveness. Numerous studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of drugs such as Adderall (a mixture of salts of amphetamine and dextroamphetamine) in controlling symptoms associated with ADHD. Due to their availability and fast-acting effects, substituted amphetamines are prime candidates for abuse.

Cocaine analogues

Hundreds of cocaine analogues have been created, all of them usually maintaining a benzyloxy connected to the 3 carbon of a tropane. Various modifications include substitutions on the benzene ring, as well as additions or substitutions in place of the normal carboxylate on the tropane 2 carbon. Various compound with similar structure activity relationships to cocaine that aren't technically analogues have been developed as well.

Mechanisms of action

Most stimulants exert their activating effects by enhancing catecholamine neurotranmission. Catecholamine neurotransmitters are employed in regulatory pathways implicated in attention, arousal, motivation, task salience and reward anticipation. Classical stimulants either block the reuptake or stimulate the efflux of these catecholamines, resulting in increased activity of their circuits. Some stimulants, specifically those with empathogenic and hallucinogenic effects, also affect serotonergic transmission. Some stimulants, such as some amphetamine derivatives and, notably, yohimbine, can decrease negative feedback by antagonizing regulatory autoreceptors. Adrenergic agonists, such as, in part, ephedrine, act by directly binding to and activating adrenergic receptors, producing sympathomimetic effects. 

There are also more indirect mechanisms a drug can elicit activating effects. Caffeine is an adenosine receptor antagonist, and only indirectly increases catecholamine transmission in the brain. Pitolisant is an H3-receptor inverse agonist. As H3 receptors mainly act as autoreceptors, pitolisant decreases negative feedback to histaminergic neurons, enhancing histaminergic transmission.

Notable stimulants

Amphetamine

Amphetamine is a potent central nervous system (CNS) stimulant of the phenethylamine class that is approved for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy. Amphetamine is also used off-label as a performance and cognitive enhancer, and recreationally as an aphrodisiac and euphoriant. Although it is a prescription medication in many countries, unauthorized possession and distribution of amphetamine is often tightly controlled due to the significant health risks associated with uncontrolled or heavy use. As a consequence, amphetamine is illegally manufactured in clandestine labs to be trafficked and sold to users. Based upon drug and drug precursor seizures worldwide, illicit amphetamine production and trafficking is much less prevalent than that of methamphetamine.

The first pharmaceutical amphetamine was Benzedrine, a brand of inhalers used to treat a variety of conditions. Because the dextrorotary isomer has greater stimulant properties, Benzedrine was gradually discontinued in favor of formulations containing all or mostly dextroamphetamine. Presently, it is typically prescribed as mixed amphetamine salts, dextroamphetamine, and lisdexamfetamine.

Amphetamine is a norepinephrine-dopamine releasing agent (NDRA). It enters neurons through dopamine and norepinephrine transporters and facilitates neurotransmitter efflux by activating TAAR1 and inhibiting VMAT2. At therapeutic doses, this causes emotional and cognitive effects such as euphoria, change in libido, increased arousal, and improved cognitive control. Likewise, it induces physical effects such as decreased reaction time, fatigue resistance, and increased muscle strength. In contrast, supratherapeutic doses of amphetamine are likely to impair cognitive function and induce rapid muscle breakdown. Very high doses can result in psychosis (e.g., delusions and paranoia), which very rarely occurs at therapeutic doses even during long-term use.^[58][59] As recreational doses are generally much larger than prescribed therapeutic doses, recreational use carries a far greater risk of serious side effects, such as dependence, which only rarely arises with therapeutic amphetamine use.

Caffeine

Caffeine is a stimulant compound belonging to the xanthine class of chemicals naturally found in coffee, tea, and (to a lesser degree) cocoa or chocolate. It is included in many soft drinks, as well as a larger amount in energy drinks. Caffeine is the world's most widely used psychoactive drug and by far the most common stimulant. In North America, 90% of adults consume caffeine daily. A few jurisdictions restrict its sale and use. Caffeine is also included in some medications, usually for the purpose of enhancing the effect of the primary ingredient, or reducing one of its side-effects (especially drowsiness). Tablets containing standardized doses of caffeine are also widely available.

Caffeine's mechanism of action differs from many stimulants, as it produces stimulant effects by inhibiting adenosine receptors. Adenosine receptors are thought to be a large driver of drowsiness and sleep, and their action increases with extended wakefulness. Caffeine has been found to increase striatal dopamine in animal models, as well as inhibit the inhibitory effect of adenosine receptors on dopamine receptors, however the implications for humans are unknown. Unlike most stimulants, caffeine has no addictive potential. Caffeine does not appear to be a reinforcing stimulus, and some degree of aversion may actually occur, which people preferring placebo over caffeine in a study on drug abuse liability published in an NIDA research monograph. In large telephone surveys only 11% reported dependence symptoms. However, when people were tested in labs, only half of those who claim dependence actually experienced it, casting doubt on caffeine's ability to produce dependence and putting societal pressures in the spotlight.

Coffee consumption is associated with a lower overall risk of cancer. This is primarily due to a decrease in the risks of hepatocellular and endometrial cancer, but it may also have a modest effect on colorectal cancer. There does not appear to be a significant protective effect against other types of cancers, and heavy coffee consumption may increase the risk of bladder cancer. A protective effect of caffeine against Alzheimer's disease is possible, but the evidence is inconclusive. Moderate coffee consumption may decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease, and it may somewhat reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. Drinking 1-3 cups of coffee per day does not affect the risk of hypertension compared to drinking little or no coffee. However those who drink 2–4 cups per day may be at a slightly increased risk. Caffeine increases intraocular pressure in those with glaucoma but does not appear to affect normal individuals. It may protect people from liver cirrhosis. There is no evidence that coffee stunts a child's growth. Caffeine may increase the effectiveness of some medications including ones used to treat headaches. Caffeine may lessen the severity of acute mountain sickness if taken a few hours prior to attaining a high altitude.

Ephedrine

Ephedrine is a sympathomimetic amine similar in molecular structure to the well-known drugs phenylpropanolamine and methamphetamine, as well as to the important neurotransmitter epinephrine (adrenaline). Ephedrine is commonly used as a stimulant, appetite suppressant, concentration aid, and decongestant, and to treat hypotension associated with anaesthesia.

In chemical terms, it is an alkaloid with a phenethylamine skeleton found in various plants in the genus Ephedra (family Ephedraceae). It works mainly by increasing the activity of norepinephrine (noradrenaline) on adrenergic receptors. It is most usually marketed as the hydrochloride or sulfate salt. 

The herb má huáng (Ephedra sinica), used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), contains ephedrine and pseudoephedrine as its principal active constituents. The same may be true of other herbal products containing extracts from other Ephedra species.

MDMA

Tablets containing MDMA

3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, ecstasy, or molly) is a euphoriant, empathogen, and stimulant of the amphetamine class. Briefly used by some psychotherapists as an adjunct to therapy, the drug became popular recreationally and the DEA listed MDMA as a Schedule I controlled substance, prohibiting most medical studies and applications. MDMA is known for its entactogenic properties. The stimulant effects of MDMA include hypertension, anorexia (appetite loss), euphoria, social disinhibition, insomnia (enhanced wakefulness/inability to sleep), improved energy, increased arousal, and increased perspiration, among others. Relative to catecholaminergic transmission, MDMA enhances serotonergic transmission significantly more, when compared to classical stimulants like amphetamine. MDMA does not appear to be significantly addictive or dependence forming.

Due to the relative safety of MDMA, some researchers such as David Nutt have criticized the scheduling level, writing a satirical article finding MDMA to be 28 times less dangerous than horseriding, a condition he termed "equasy" or "Equine Addiction Syndrome".

MDPV

Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (MDPV) is a psychoactive drug with stimulant properties that acts as a norepinephrine-dopamine reuptake inhibitor (NDRI). It was first developed in the 1960s by a team at Boehringer Ingelheim. MDPV remained an obscure stimulant until around 2004, when it was reported to be sold as a designer drug. Products labeled as bath salts containing MDPV were previously sold as recreational drugs in gas stations and convenience stores in the United States, similar to the marketing for Spice and K2 as incense.

Incidents of psychological and physical harm have been attributed to MDPV use.

Mephedrone

Mephedrone is a synthetic stimulant drug of the amphetamine and cathinone classes. Slang names include drone and MCAT. It is reported to be manufactured in China and is chemically similar to the cathinone compounds found in the khat plant of eastern Africa. It comes in the form of tablets or a powder, which users can swallow, snort, or inject, producing similar effects to MDMA, amphetamines, and cocaine.

Mephedrone was first synthesized in 1929, but did not become widely known until it was rediscovered in 2003. By 2007, mephedrone was reported to be available for sale on the Internet; by 2008 law enforcement agencies had become aware of the compound; and, by 2010, it had been reported in most of Europe, becoming particularly prevalent in the United Kingdom. Mephedrone was first made illegal in Israel in 2008, followed by Sweden later that year. In 2010, it was made illegal in many European countries, and, in December 2010, the EU ruled it illegal. In Australia, New Zealand, and the US, it is considered an analog of other illegal drugs and can be controlled by laws similar to the Federal Analog Act. In September 2011, the USA temporarily classified mephedrone as illegal, in effect from October 2011.

Methamphetamine

Methamphetamine (contracted from N-methyl-alpha-methylphenethylamine) is a potent psychostimulant of the phenethylamine and amphetamine classes that is used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and obesity. Methamphetamine exists as two enantiomers, dextrorotary and levorotary. Dextromethamphetamine is a stronger CNS stimulant than levomethamphetamine; however, both are addictive and produce the same toxicity symptoms at high doses. Although rarely prescribed due to the potential risks, methamphetamine hydrochloride is approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) under the trade name Desoxyn. Recreationally, methamphetamine is used to increase sexual desire, lift the mood, and increase energy, allowing some users to engage in sexual activity continuously for several days straight.

Methamphetamine may be sold illicitly, either as pure dextromethamphetamine or in an equal parts mixture of the right- and left-handed molecules (i.e., 50% levomethamphetamine and 50% dextromethamphetamine). Both dextromethamphetamine and racemic methamphetamine are schedule II controlled substances in the United States. Also, the production, distribution, sale, and possession of methamphetamine is restricted or illegal in many other countries due to its placement in schedule II of the United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances treaty. In contrast, levomethamphetamine is an over-the-counter drug in the United States.

In low doses, methamphetamine can cause an elevated mood and increase alertness, concentration, and energy in fatigued individuals. At higher doses, it can induce psychosis, rhabdomyolysis, and cerebral hemorrhage. Methamphetamine is known to have a high potential for abuse and addiction. Recreational use of methamphetamine may result in psychosis or lead to post-withdrawal syndrome, a withdrawal syndrome that can persist for months beyond the typical withdrawal period. Unlike amphetamine and cocaine, methamphetamine is neurotoxic to humans, damaging both dopamine and serotonin neurons in the central nervous system (CNS). Entirely opposite to the long-term use of amphetamine, there is evidence that methamphetamine causes brain damage from long-term use in humans; this damage includes adverse changes in brain structure and function, such as reductions in gray matter volume in several brain regions and adverse changes in markers of metabolic integrity.

Methylphenidate

Methylphenidate is a stimulant drug that is often used in the treatment of ADHD and narcolepsy and occasionally to treat obesity in combination with diet restraints and exercise. Its effects at therapeutic doses include increased focus, increased alertness, decreased appetite, decreased need for sleep and decreased impulsivity. Methylphenidate is not usually used recreationally, but when it is used, its effects are very similar to those of amphetamines. 

Methylphenidate acts a norepinephrine-dopamine reuptake inhibitor, by blocking the norepinephrine transporter (NET) and the dopamine transporter (DAT). Methylphenidate has a higher affinity for the dopamine transporter than for the norepinephrine transporter, and so its effects are mainly due to elevated dopamine levels caused by the inhibited reuptake of dopamine, however increased norepinephrine levels also contribute to various of the effects caused by the drug.

Methylphenidate is sold under a number of brand names including Ritalin. Other versions include the long lasting tablet Concerta and the long lasting transdermal patch Daytrana. 

A 2018 Cochrane review found tentative evidence that methylphenidate may result in serious side effects such as heart problems, psychosis, and death.

Cocaine

Lines of illicit cocaine, used as a recreational stimulant

Cocaine is an SNDRI. Cocaine is made from the leaves of the coca shrub, which grows in the mountain regions of South American countries such as Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru. In Europe, North America, and some parts of Asia, the most common form of cocaine is a white crystalline powder. Cocaine is a stimulant but is not normally prescribed therapeutically for its stimulant properties, although it sees clinical use as a local anesthetic, in particular in ophthalmology. Most cocaine use is recreational and its abuse potential is high (higher than amphetamine), and so its sale and possession are strictly controlled in most jurisdictions. Other tropane derivative drugs related to cocaine are also known such as troparil and lometopane but have not been widely sold or used recreationally.

Nicotine

Nicotine is the active chemical constituent in tobacco, which is available in many forms, including cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco, and smoking cessation aids such as nicotine patches, nicotine gum, and electronic cigarettes. Nicotine is used widely throughout the world for its stimulating and relaxing effects. Nicotine exerts its effects through the agonism of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, resulting in multiple downstream effects such as increase in activity of dopaminergic neurons in the midbrain reward system, and acetaldehyde one of the tobacco constituent decreased the expression of monoamine oxidase in the brain. Nicotine is addictive and dependence forming. Tobacco, the most common source of nicotine, has an overall harm to user and self score 3 percent below cocaine, and 13 percent above amphetamines, ranking 6th most harmful of the 20 drugs assessed, as determined by a multi-criteria decision analysis.

Phenylpropanolamine

Phenylpropanolamine (PPA; Accutrim; β-hydroxyamphetamine), also known as the stereoisomers norephedrine and norpseudoephedrine, is a psychoactive drug of the phenethylamine and amphetamine chemical classes that is used as a stimulant, decongestant, and anorectic agent. It is commonly used in prescription and over-the-counter cough and cold preparations. In veterinary medicine, it is used to control urinary incontinence in dogs under trade names Propalin and Proin.

In the United States, PPA is no longer sold without a prescription due to a proposed increased risk of stroke in younger women. In a few countries in Europe, however, it is still available either by prescription or sometimes over-the-counter. In Canada, it was withdrawn from the market on 31 May 2001. In India, human use of PPA and its formulations were banned on 10 February 2011.

Propylhexedrine

Propylhexedrine (Hexahydromethamphetamine, Obesin) is a stimulant medication, sold over-the-counter in the United States as the cold medication Benzedrex. The drug has also been used as an appetite suppressant in Europe. Propylhexedrine is not an amphetamine, though it is structurally similar; it is instead a cycloalkylamine, and thus has stimulant effects that are less potent than similarly structured amphetamines, such as methamphetamine. 

The abuse potential of propylhexedrine is fairly limited, due its limited routes of administration: in the United States, Benzedrex is only available as an inhalant, mixed with lavender oil and menthol. These ingredients cause unpleasant tastes, and abusers of the drug have reported unpleasant "menthol burps". Injection of the drug has been found to cause transient diplopia and brain stem dysfunction.

Pseudoephedrine

Pseudoephedrine is a sympathomimetic drug of the phenethylamine and amphetamine chemical classes. It may be used as a nasal/sinus decongestant, as a stimulant, or as a wakefulness-promoting agent.

The salts pseudoephedrine hydrochloride and pseudoephedrine sulfate are found in many over-the-counter preparations, either as a single ingredient or (more commonly) in combination with antihistamines, guaifenesin, dextromethorphan, and/or paracetamol (acetaminophen) or another NSAID (such as aspirin or ibuprofen). It is also used as a precursor chemical in the illegal production of methamphetamine.

Catha edulis (Khat)

Catha edulis

Khat is a flowering plant native to the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.

Khat contains a monoamine alkaloid called cathinone, a "keto-amphetamine", that is said to cause excitement, loss of appetite, and euphoria. In 1980, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified it as a drug of abuse that can produce mild to moderate psychological dependence (less than tobacco or alcohol), although the WHO does not consider khat to be seriously addictive. It is banned in some countries, such as the United States, Canada, and Germany, while its production, sale, and consumption are legal in other nations, including Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Yemen.

Recreational use and issues of abuse

Stimulants enhance the activity of the central and peripheral nervous systems. Common effects may include increased alertness, awareness, wakefulness, endurance, productivity, and motivation, arousal, locomotion, heart rate, and blood pressure, and a diminished desire for food and sleep. Use of stimulants may cause the body to reduce significantly its production of natural body chemicals that fulfill similar functions. Until the body reestablishes its normal state, once the effect of the ingested stimulant has worn off the user may feel depressed, lethargic, confused, and miserable. This is referred to as a "crash", and may provoke reuse of the stimulant.

Abuse of central nervous system (CNS) stimulants is common. Addiction to some CNS stimulants can quickly lead to medical, psychiatric, and psychosocial deterioration. Drug tolerance, dependence, and sensitization as well as a withdrawal syndrome can occur. Stimulants may be screened for in animal discrimination and self-administration models which have high sensitivity albeit low specificity. Research on a progressive ratio Self-administration protocol has found amphetamine, methylphenidate, modafinil, cocaine, and nicotine to all have a higher break point than placebo that scales with dose indicating reinforcing effects.

Drug	Mean	Pleasure	Psychological dependence	Physical dependence.
Methamphetamine	5.53	6.0	7.0	3.0
Cocaine	2.39	3.0	2.8	1.3
Tobacco	2.21	2.3	2.6	1.8
Amphetamine	1.67	2.0	1.9	1.1
Ecstasy	1.13	1.5	1.2	0.7

Testing

The presence of stimulants in the body may be tested by a variety of procedures. Serum and urine are the common sources of testing material although saliva is sometimes used. Commonly used tests include chromatography, immunologic assay, and mass spectrometry.