Khat-induced Paranoid Psychosis

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
For many hundreds of years the fresh leavesof the Khat shrub have been used for their stimulant properties. Several miffion people in East Africa Cathinone is considered the most active ingredient and has been recently isolated and synthesised (United Nations Document, 1975). The effects of cathinone closely resemble those of amphetamine (Halbach, 1972), to which it is chemically related. Regarding the beneficial effects of Khat, Carothers wrote in 1945: The chewing of this weed induces a happy and mellow friendliness and an increased intellectual vigour and acuity, thought tends to rise to a high plane, desire for war and women ceases, and conversation tends to concern itself with ‘the afairs of God’ and the accumulation of wealth by peaceful trade.

This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit: