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 varying levels of intensity across a broad range of substances. This effect is listed and defined in its own dedicated article below:

• Increased empathy, love and sociability

Along side of this a variety of non essential secondary effects are often present. These generally include but are not limited to:

• Stimulation
• Euphoria
• Acceleration of thought
• Introspection

Examples

The chemicals below have varying degrees of entactogenic effects. Some of the chemicals have a minimal entactogenic effect while others may have a strong entactogenic effect. Many of these substances possess other effects including stimulant effects and psychedelic effects.

• 4-FA
• 4-MTA
• 5-APB
• 5-APDB
• 6-APB
• 6-APDB
• 2C-B
• 2C-I
• bk-MBDB
• 5-APDI
• MDAI
• MBDB
• MDA
• MDEA
• MDMA
• Mephedrone
• Methylone
• MMA
• 5-MeO-DiPT
• 5-MeO-MiPT
• AMT
• AET
• GHB

See Also

• Stimulants
• Psychedelics

References

• Nichols, D.E., Hoffman, A.J., Oberlender, R.A., Jacob P 3rd & Shulgin A.T. Derivatives of 1-(1,3-benzodioxol-5-yl)-2-butanamine: representatives of a novel therapeutic class 1986 J Med Chem 29 2009-15
• Nichols, D.E. Differences between the mechanism of action of MDMA, MBDB, and the classic hallucinogens. Identification of a new therapeutic class: entactogens 1986 J Psychoactive Drugs 18 305-13