POZ Community Forums
Meds, Mind, Body & Benefits => Questions About Treatment & Side Effects => Topic started by: natthai on November 01, 2010, 08:31:23 pm
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I ran across this article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7768059.stm) on the BBC, apparently teenagers (and adults)in South Africa are crushing and smoking HIV medicines to get high! They describe the high as having a hallucinogenic and relaxing effect. The article doesn't mention the name of the drug specifically but another website linking to the report said it was Sustiva.
Aside from the issue of these kids smoking the drugs I started wondering about Sustiva. I have heard about the disturbed dream or unusual dreams as a side effect and it got me to wondering, is Sustiva psychoactive? Has anyone who is currently taking this drug noticed any psychological properties or side effects?
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I ran across this article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7768059.stm) on the BBC, apparently teenagers (and adults)in South Africa are crushing and smoking HIV medicines to get high! They describe the high as having a hallucinogenic and relaxing effect. The article doesn't mention the name of the drug specifically but another website linking to the report said it was Sustiva.
Aside from the issue of these kids smoking the drugs I started wondering about Sustiva. I have heard about the disturbed dream or unusual dreams as a side effect and it got me to wondering, is Sustiva psychoactive? Has anyone who is currently taking this drug noticed any psychological properties or side effects?
Yeah this is kind of old news. Sustiva is meant to be time released, if you crush it up there is no timed release. This is the same reason people would crush up (and overdose) on oxycontin. There are definitely psychological effects associated with sustiva.
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Sorry if it is a repeat I seached before but didn't find anything. Do you think the psychoactive effects are due to the time release formulation or due to the drug itself? What other side effects if any have you heard about from Sustiva aside from disturbed dreams and the hallucionagenic effects reported in this article? I wonder why or how an anti-retroviral would have psychoactive effects, that class of drugs NNRTIs I believe are so specific as to their mechanism of action.
I have often wondered if brain chemestry plays a role in immunity. I.e. does high (or low) levels of seratonin, dopamine etc directly affect our immune system. If so maybe this explains some of the reported health benefits of meditation and yoga that some members have talked about on here.