Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system (CNS) stimulant. As an extract, it is mainly used recreationally, and often illegally for its euphoric and rewarding effects. It is also used in medicine by Indigenous South Americans for various purposes and rarely, but more formally as a local anaesthetic by medical practitioners in more developed countries. It is primarily obtained from the leaves of two Coca species native to South America; Erythroxylum coca and E. novogranatense. After extraction from the plant, and further processing into cocaine hydrochloride, the drug is administered by being either snorted, applied topically to the mouth, or dissolved and injected into a vein. It can also then be turned into free base form, in which it can be heated until sublimated and then the vapours can be inhaled.
Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, is the use of a drug in amounts or by methods that are harmful to the individual or others. It is a form of substance-related disorder. Differing definitions of drug abuse are used in public health, medical, and criminal justice contexts. In some cases, criminal or anti-social behavior occurs when the person is under the influence of a drug, and long-term personality changes in individuals may also occur. In addition to possible physical, social, and psychological harm, the use of some drugs may also lead to criminal penalties, although these vary widely depending on the local jurisdiction.
Alcohol abuse encompasses a spectrum of unhealthy alcohol drinking behaviors, ranging from binge drinking to alcohol dependence, in extreme cases resulting in health problems for individuals and large scale social problems such as alcohol-related crimes.
Substance-related disorders, also known as substance use disorders, can lead to large societal problems. It is found to be greatest in individuals ages 18–25, with a higher likelihood occurring in men compared to women, and urban residents compared to rural residents. On average, general medical facilities hold 20% of patients with substance-related disorders, possibly leading to psychiatric disorders later on. Over 50% of individuals with substance-related disorders will often have a "dual diagnosis," where they are diagnosed with the substance use, as well as a psychiatric diagnosis, the most common being major depression, personality disorder, anxiety disorders, and dysthymia.
Arboriculture is the cultivation, management, and study of individual trees, shrubs, vines, and other perennial woody plants. The science of arboriculture studies how these plants grow and respond to cultural practices and to their environment. The practice of arboriculture includes cultural techniques such as selection, planting, training, fertilization, pest and pathogen control, pruning, shaping, and removal.
Kernicterus is a bilirubin-induced brain dysfunction. The term was coined in 1904 by Christian Georg Schmorl. Bilirubin is a naturally occurring substance in the body of humans and many other animals, but it is neurotoxic when its concentration in the blood is too high, a condition known as hyperbilirubinemia. Hyperbilirubinemia may cause bilirubin to accumulate in the grey matter of the central nervous system, potentially causing irreversible neurological damage. Depending on the level of exposure, the effects range from clinically unnoticeable to severe brain damage and even death.
Chorea is an abnormal involuntary movement disorder, one of a group of neurological disorders called dyskinesias. The term chorea is derived from the Ancient Greek: χορεία, as the quick movements of the feet or hands are comparable to dancing.
Athetosis is a symptom characterized by slow, involuntary, convoluted, writhing movements of the fingers, hands, toes, and feet and in some cases, arms, legs, neck and tongue. Movements typical of athetosis are sometimes called athetoid movements. Lesions to the brain are most often the direct cause of the symptoms, particularly to the corpus striatum. This symptom does not occur alone and is often accompanied by the symptoms of cerebral palsy, as it is often a result of this physical disability. Treatments for athetosis are not very effective, and in most cases are simply aimed at managing the uncontrollable movement, rather than the cause itself.
Abuse is a run and gun video game developed by Crack dot Com and published by Electronic Arts in North America and Origin Systems in Europe. It was released on February 29, 1996 for MS-DOS. A Mac OS port of the game was published by Bungie and released on March 5, 1997. The game's source code, along with some of the shareware content, has been in the public domain since the late 1990s and has been ported to Linux and many other platforms.
Pemoline, sold under the brand name Cylert among others, is a stimulant medication which has been used in the treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy. It has been discontinued in most countries to due to rare but serious problems with liver toxicity. The medication was taken by mouth.
The intergluteal cleft or just gluteal cleft, also known by a number of synonyms, including natal cleft, butt crack, and cluneal cleft, is the groove between the buttocks that runs from just below the sacrum to the perineum, so named because it forms the visible border between the external rounded protrusions of the gluteus maximus muscles. Other names are the anal cleft, crena analis, crena interglutealis, and rima ani. Colloquially the intergluteal cleft is known as bum crack (UK) or butt crack (US). The intergluteal cleft is located superior to the anus.
Child abuse is physical, sexual, and/or psychological maltreatment or neglect of a child or children, especially by a parent or a caregiver. Child abuse may include any act or failure to act by a parent or a caregiver that results in actual or potential harm to a child and can occur in a child's home, or in the organizations, schools, or communities the child interacts with.
Paroxysmal nonkinesigenic dyskinesia (PNKD) is an episodic movement disorder first described by Mount and Reback in 1940 under the name "Familial paroxysmal choreoathetosis". It is a rare hereditary disease that affects various muscular and nervous systems in the body, passing to roughly fifty percent of the offspring.
Chorea gravidarum is a rare type of chorea which presents with involuntary abnormal movement, characterized by abrupt, brief, nonrhythmic, nonrepetitive movement of any limb, often associated with nonpatterned facial grimaces. It is a complication of pregnancy which can be associated with eclampsia and its effects upon the basal ganglia. It is not a causal or pathologically distinct entity but a generic term for chorea of any cause starting during pregnancy. It is associated with history of Sydenham's chorea. It mostly occurs in young patients; the average age is 22 years.
Paroxysmal kinesigenic choreoathetosis (PKC) also called paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia (PKD) is a hyperkinetic movement disorder characterized by attacks of involuntary movements, which are triggered by sudden voluntary movements. The number of attacks can increase during puberty and decrease in a person's 20s to 30s. Involuntary movements can take many forms such as ballism, chorea or dystonia and usually only affect one side of the body or one limb in particular. This rare disorder only affects about 1 in 150,000 people, with PKD accounting for 86.8% of all the types of paroxysmal dyskinesias, and occurs more often in males than females. There are two types of PKD, primary and secondary. Primary PKD can be further broken down into familial and sporadic. Familial PKD, which means the individual has a family history of the disorder, is more common, but sporadic cases are also seen. Secondary PKD can be caused by many other medical conditions such as multiple sclerosis (MS), stroke, pseudohypoparathyroidism, hypocalcemia, hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia, central nervous system trauma, or peripheral nervous system trauma. PKD has also been linked with infantile convulsions and choreoathetosis (ICCA) syndrome, in which patients have afebrile seizures during infancy and then develop paroxysmal choreoathetosis later in life. This phenomenon is actually quite common, with about 42% of individuals with PKD reporting a history of afebrile seizures as a child.
Crack cocaine, commonly known simply as crack, and also known as rock, is a free base form of the stimulant cocaine that can be smoked. Crack offers a short, intense high to smokers. The Manual of Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment calls it the most addictive form of cocaine.
Prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE), theorized in the 1970s, occurs when a pregnant woman uses cocaine and thereby exposes her fetus to the drug. Babies whose mothers used cocaine while pregnant supposedly have increased risk of several different health issues during growth and development.
Dyskinetic cerebral palsy (DCP) is a subtype of cerebral palsy (CP) and is characterized by impaired muscle tone regulation, coordination and movement control. Dystonia and choreoathetosis are the two most dominant movement disorders in patients with DCP.
Sustained load cracking, or SLC, is a metallurgical phenomenon that occasionally develops in pressure vessels and structural components under stress for sustained periods of time.
