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Khat-induced Paranoid Psychosis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Stephen Critchlow  and
Ruth Seifert
Stephen Critchlow*
Affiliation:
Hackney Hospital
Ruth Seifert
Affiliation:
Hackney Hospital
*
∗Hackney Hospital, Homerton High Street, London E9 6BE
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Extract

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.

Type
Brief Reports
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 150 , Issue 2 , February 1987 , pp. 247 - 249
Copyright
Copyright © 1987 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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References

Carøthers, J. C. (1945) Miraa as a cause of Insanity. The East African Medical Journal, Jan. 4–6.Google Scholar
Eddy, N. B., Halsach, H., Isbell, H. & Seevers, M. H. (1965) In “Drug Dependence: its significance and characteristics” Bulletin of the World Health Organisation, 32, 721–733.Google Scholar
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Laurent, J. M. (1962) Toxique et Tixocomonie peu connus, “Le Cath”. Annales Medico-Psychologiques 120, 649–657.Google Scholar
United Nations Document (1975) Études sur la composition chimique du Khat; recherches sur la fraction phenylalkylamine. MNAR, No 11.Google Scholar
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