Entactogen
The terms entactogen and empathogen are used to describe a class of psychoactive drugs that produce distinctive emotional and social effects similar to those of MDMA. The term "empathogen" was coined in 1983 by Ralph Metzner to denote chemical agents inducing feelings of empathy. "Entactogen" was coined by David E. Nichols as an alternative to "empathogen", attempting to avoid the potential for improper association of the latter with negative connotations related to the Greek root "pathos" (suffering); Nichols also thought the word was limiting, and did not cover other therapeutic uses for the drugs that go beyond instilling feelings of empathy. The word "entactogen" is derived from the roots "en" (within), "tactus" (touch) and "gen" (Greek: produce). Neither term is dominant in usage, and, despite their difference in connotation, they are essentially interchangeable, as they refer to precisely the same chemicals.
Subjective effects
The primary subjective effect of any entactogen is a single key component which occurs in a varying levels of intensity across a broad range of substances. This effect is listed and defined in its own dedicated article below:
Along side of this a variety of non essential secondary effects are often present. These generally include but are not limited to:
Examples
Putative members of this class include 2C-B, 2C-I(at 2-14mg), MDMA, MDA, MDEA, MBDB and 6-APB among others. The chemical structure of many entactogens contains a substituted amphetamine core, and most belong to the phenethylamine class of psychoactive drugs, although several (AET and AMT) are tryptamines. When referring to MDMA and its counterparts, the term 'MDxx' is often used with the exception of MDPV. Entactogens are sometimes incorrectly referred to as major hallucinogens or stimulants, which is untrue although their effects are often somewhat similar.[citation needed]