PCP Addiction Treatment: Withdrawal, Detox, and Recovery

PCP stands for phencyclidine, a dissociative hallucinogen that was originally developed as an anesthetic. It is now a Schedule II controlled substance due to its high potential for abuse and dangerous psychological effects.

Drugs with similar effects to PCP include ketamine and dextromethorphan (DXM). These substances are also dissociative hallucinogens that can cause altered perception, detachment, and hallucinations.

Urine drug screens for PCP can sometimes cross-react with other medications, including dextromethorphan, tramadol, venlafaxine, and diphenhydramine. However, confirmatory tests are required to verify true PCP use.

PCP can cause severe physical and psychological harm, including hallucinations, paranoia, violent behavior, seizures, coma, and even death. Long-term use may result in persistent memory loss, speech difficulties, and depression.

Yes. “Angel dust” is a street name for PCP. It is often sold in powder form and may be smoked, snorted, injected, or ingested.

Common slang terms for PCP include rocket fuel, killer weed, ozone, whacko tobacco, love boat, and peace pill.

Phencyclidine blocks NMDA receptors in the brain, disrupting normal communication between neurons. This leads to its dissociative effects, hallucinations, and altered sense of reality.

A dissociative hallucinogen is a drug that distorts perception and causes users to feel detached from themselves and their surroundings. PCP is one of the most powerful substances in this category.

These hallucinations create a sense of detachment from reality, such as feeling like you are outside of your body or that the world around you isn’t real. PCP commonly induces these experiences.

Besides PCP, other dissociative hallucinogens include ketamine, DXM, and nitrous oxide. Each alters sensory perception and can produce dangerous psychological effects.

The page splits them in two, and says they vary with the dose. Psychologically: visual and auditory hallucinations, paranoia, confusion, anxiety, euphoria, psychosis, delusions of grandeur, disorientation, agitation, depression, hostile or bizarre behavior, and panic or fear of death. Physically: impaired motor function, blank staring, constricted pupils, nausea and vomiting, irregular heartbeat, convulsions, raised body temperature, salivation, shallow breathing, and coma or death. Long-term effects include memory loss, psychosis, speech impairment, suicidal thoughts and cognitive damage.