The term narcotic hallucinosis is indebted to the Greek noun narkosis, which means petrification or anaesthesia. It translates loosely as 'a hallucinatory state due to the use of narcotics'. The term narcotic was formerly used to denote any substance capable ofinducing a state ofstupor or insensibility. In biomedicine, it is now considered obsolete. However, the term narcotic hallucinosis is still in use to denote a hallucinatory state mediated by the use of morphine and other opioids (i.e. *opioid-induced hallucinations). The hallucinations occurring in the context of narcotic hallucinosis tend to be *auditory or *visual in nature. As a nosological category, narcotic hallucinosis can be classified as a specific type of * hallucinosic syndrome. For more detailed information, see the entry Opioid-induced hallucination.
References
Rudgley, R. (1998). The encyclopaedia of psy-choactive substances. London: Little, Brown and Company.
Dictionary of Hallucinations. J.D. Blom. 2010.