Phencyclidine: pharmacologic and clinical review

Phencyclidine (PCP), discovered in Germany during the 1920s, has become over the past four decades the number one drug of abuse in the United States. While briefly showing promise as being the "ultimate" anasthetic agent during the late 1950s, it very quickly fell into disfavor because of untoward side-effects during post-anesthetic emergence (1960s). Some few years later (1970s), PCP began its ascent in the illicit drug market. PCP is a drug with a broad range of pharmacological activity. It has been implicated as a major cause of psychiatric decompensation and has a number of clinical syndromes described in the literature. In addition, PCP has been shown to cause significant medical morbidity and mortality.