Psychosomatic Medicine 35:390-405 (1973)
© 1973 American Psychosomatic Society

Effects of Amphetamine and Barbiturate on Body Experience

¹ Department of Psychiatry, State University of New York, Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse, New York 13210

Address for reprint requests: Dr. Jerry Clausen, Department of Psychiatry, Upstate Medical Center, 750 East Adams Street, Syracuse, New York 13210.

Two dosage levels of both d-Amphetamine and Pentobarbital and a placebo were given to 75 normal females in a randomized, test-retest, double blind study of body experience and mood. All the substances ingested led to an increase in the definiteness of the body boundary. The increase following both placebo and d-Amphetamine significantly exceeded that previously obtained under analogous nonspecific stress. It was proposed that the body boundary enhancing effect derived from the increase in body awareness that the ingestion of a "drug" produced. The only consistent alteration of body experience was depersonalization. All the substances ingested led to a significant increase in feelings of Depersonalization. With Pentobarbital this increase significantly exceeded the placebo group, the d-Amphetamine group, and those previously obtained in a variety of stress situations. Evidence exists that depersonalization is used by normal people as a common mode of coping with altered life experience. Pentobarbital ingestion apparently produces such an alteration. The Pentobarbital groups reported a significantly greater increase in fatigue and decrease in concentration than the d-Amphetamine groups. Considering all drug groups combined, depersonalization correlated significantly with increased fatigue and a decrease in concentration. While the predominant type of body experience distortion--depersonalization--was increased with these agents, the total distortion following these substances was significantly less than observed in a variety of stress situations. It has been proposed that habitual body landmarks might be predictors of body experience. The major finding was that the greater the potency of the drug the more likely the pattern of body experience was to alter from the habitual baseline body landmark. Questions were raised for future research as to whether body image variables play a role in the overuse of drugs.