Drugs & Behavior Chapter 14 Hallucinogens
What are the acute effects of psilocybin?
A growing number of studies have shown that following acute administration of oral doses ranging from 0.045 to 0.314 mg/kg, psilocybin does dependently induces intense changes in mood, perception and thought. The most frequently reported acute negative drug reactions are strong feelings of dysphoria and anxiety, and after taking large doses some users have reported headaches.
When does the peak effect of LSD kick in?
About one hour after ingestion intoxication peaks, but it is not until the second hour that changes occur in perceptions of self.
What scientist isolated the primary active agent of the Psilocybe mexicana, the most well-known psychoactive mushroom?
Albert Hoffman, the "father of LSD", isolated psilocybin in1958 and later synthesized this indole agent.
What is mescaline's mechanism of action on the CNS?
Although mescaline and other catechol halucinogens have a structure that resembles the catecholamine neurotransmitters, they act indirectly on the serotonin 2A receptors.
What is the effective dose of LSD and how long do the drug's effects typically last?
An effective dose of 30 to 100 mg taken orally will last approximately six to nine hours and it can be greatly attenuated at any time through the administration of chlorpromzine intramuscularly.
What is the primary psychoactive agent found in peyote?
Arthur Heffter isolated mescaline, but it is also important to note that since than more than 30 compounds have been identified in peyote.
What are the behavioral effects of mescaline?
At lower doses its effects are primarily euphoric, but higher doses give rise to full set of hallucinations.
What is Ayahuasca and what are its main components?
Ayahuasca is a psychoactive tea with its main psychoactive component DMT, but unlike DMT, it can be delivered orally as a tea because the tea contains a harmaline, a MAO inhibitor which prevents the degradation of DMT, thereby allowing it to reach the brain.
What research did the U.S. military perform with LSD and other hallucinogens, and why was it discontinued?
Between 1950s and 1960s, hundreds of soldiers and civilians were unwittingly administered does of these drugs. The goal of the military was to determine LSD's usefulness as a truth serum and also as a means of controlling opposing forces by disorientation. Most of the unwitting subjects of these trials were novices, and so felt like they were loosing their minds. Some suffered long-term psychiatric disturbances and other had difficulty adjusting to the usual lives. The practice was unethical and the U.S. government was required to pay compensation.
In the 1960s what were some of the unsubstantiated claims associated with LSD use?
Concerns about "bad trips", psychotic reactions, potential chromosome damage, self-injurious behavior, and "flashbacks" caused many people to begin to avoid LSD and other synthetic hallucinogens in favor of naturally occurring ones like psylocybin and mescaline.
How is DMT administered and metabolized?
DMT is ineffective when taken orally because it is metablolized by monoamine oxidase (MAO) before it reaches the brain. It is usually snuffed, smoked, or injected and its hallucinogenic effects are experienced within two minutes lasting for less than 30 minutes.
How does the potency of DOM compare to Mescaline and LSD?
DOM is about 100 times as potent as mescaline, but only 1/13th as potent as LSD.
What are some of the adverse reactions to LSD ingestion emphasized in popular and scientific literature?
Flashbacks, called "Hallucinogenic Persisting Perception Disorder" in DSM-V. A more common adverse effect is the panic reaction. These adverse effects are non-life threatening.
How is LSD metabolized?
Following ingestion, the brain contains less LSD than any of the other organs in the body, so it is not selectively taken up by the brain. Half of the LSD in the blood is metabolized every 3 hours, so blood levels decrease fairly rapidly. LSD is metabolized in the liver and excreted as 2-oxy-lysergic acid diethylamide, which is inactive.
Are natural hallucinogens less toxic than the synthetic ones?
Hallucinogenic drug toxicity is primarily related to the dose ingested regardless of whether the drug is natural or synthetic.
What are deliriants?
Hallucinogens that are not classified as indole or catechol are classified as deliriants, implying that these drugshave somewhat greater tendency to produce mental confusion and a loss of touch with reality.
What were the findings of Albert Hoffman's study of the seeds of the morning glory?
Hoffman found several active alkaloids as well as d-lysergic acid amide, which is about 1/10th as active as LSD.
When and why did the scientific study of LSD and other hallucinogens decline?
In 1974 a report by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) stated that their research had contributed little to the understanding of the "bizarre and potent effects of this drug" and consequently it stopped its in-house research as well as stopped funding university human research. In 1975 the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism stopped supporting research. Since then only animal studies have continued to better understand the mechanism of action at a neural level.
What are mescaline's acute toxic effects?
In animal studies where doses are 10 to 30 times the dose that causes behavioral effects in humans, death results from convulsions and respiratory arrest.
What are the psychological and physiological effects of MDMA?
In young adults its effects are more similar to amphetamine and methamphetamine than to classical hallucinogenics. Psychologically the drug increases sociability and euphoria, and physiologically it increases blood pressure, pulse, and body temperature and decreases appetite and sleep.
What are some pschotherapeutic uses of psilocybin?
It has been suggested for use in treatment of PTSD.
What are the typical autonomic signs that appear after ingestion of LSD?
LSD is a snypathomimetic with the typical symptoms including dilated pupils, elevated temperature and blood pressure, and an increase in salivation.
What is the typical delivery method of LSD?
LSD is usually taken by mouth and is rapidly absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract.
What is the mechanism of action on CSN of LSD?
LSD molecules resemble the chemical structure of serotonin and so it is thought that the drug acts upon the serotonin receptors to produce its effects. Evidence (from animal studies) suggests that LSD and several other hallucinogens, including mescalin and psilocybin, act by stimulating the serotonin-2A subtype receptors.
When did LSD use peak?
LSD use peaked in 1967 and 1968, after which its use tapered off.
What person first synthesized LSD?
LSD was first synthesized by Dr. Albert Hoffman, in 1938, when he was working as a scientist at Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland, but the drug did not enter the psychopharmacology until Hoffman recorded his LSD-induced experiences. The dose that Hoffman took was 5 to 8 times the normal effective dose. He became a cult hero among LSD enthusiasts and he remained a steadfast proponent for the use of LSD as a valuable psychotherapeutic tool for enhancing humans' understanding of their place in nature.
How was LSD orignially synthesized?
LSD was originally synthesized from ergot alkaloids extracted from the ergot fungus Clavicepts purpurea. This mold occasionally grows on grain, especially rye, and eating infected grain results in an illness called ergotism.
Who was Timothy Leary and how did he contribute to the research of LSD and psilocybin?
Leary was a Harvard scientist who came under criticism for his scientifically unsound research methods and ethically questionable behaviors in service to the study of hallucinogens. After being forced to leave Harvard he founded his own religion, the League of Spiritual Discovery with the motto "Turn on, tune in, and drop out" and LSD was the sacrament.
What is DMT and what are its effects?
MDT (Dimethyltryptamine) is one of the most important naturally occurring hallucinogenic compounds, and it is one of the active agents in Cohoba snuff used in some So. American and Caribbean indigenous cultures, produces hallucinogenic effects following acute administration and is unique in that tolerance does not develop to his physiological effects.
How is mescaline metabolized?
Mescaline is excreted from the body unchanged in the urine, and the metabolites identified thus fare are not psychoactive.
What is the pharmacological action of Mescaline?
Mescaline is readily absorbed if taken orally, but does not readily pass the blood-brain barrier, and so high doses are required for its effects.
What is onset of effect and half-life of mescaline?
Mescaline reaches maximum concentration after 30 to 120 minutes and it has a half life of 6 hours (but there is some evidence that mescaline persists in the brain for up to 10 hours.
What are the common LSD-related effects?
Modification of visual images, altered sense of time, changes is the perception of one's own body, some alteration of auditory imput, synethesia (mixing of the senses) where sounds might appear as visual images. These varieties of altered perception are often accompanied by enhanced emotionality.
How did PCP users become associated with violent outbursts?
Most users do not report feeling violent, and in fact report feeling so uncoordinated that they cannot imagine starting a fight. Perhaps the association arises from the anesthetizing effects of PCP such that use of restraints and their associative discomfort, have little effect, and users might not feel pain. But this idea should be considered as no different from trying to restrain a person inebriated on alcohol.
What is angel dust?
PCP crystals sprinkled on marijuana with rapid and potent effects.
How was PCP first discovered?
Parke, Davis & Company were searching for an efficient intravenous anesthetic. Animal studies showed that PCP was a good analgesic, but did not produce good muscle relaxation or sleep. Its first uses as a surgical anesthesia for humans indicated that PCP was a good analgesia without depressing blood circulation or respiration and it did not produce irregularities in heartbeat. Later the patients had no memory of the procedure. Therefore it was deemed medically safe for monkeys, but psychologically troubling for human use.
Being one of the most potent psychochemicals known, how toxic is LSD?
Pharmacologically, LSD is the most potent drug, it takes little LSD to produce effects, but there have been no links to even one instance of human overdose death.
What are some possible psychotherapeutic and medical uses for LSD?
Preliminary studies suggest that LSD could be useful for treatment of alcoholism. Also it has been reported to be useful for the reduction of cluster headaches.
What are the physiological effects of mescaline?
Pupil dilation, increase in pulse rate and blood pressure, and an elevation in body temperature, similar to LSD and other alkoloid hallucinogens. There are some signs of central stimulation, such as EEG arousal.
Who is Roland Griffiths and how did his study address the confounds of the Pahnke experiment?
Roland Griffiths is a Johns Hopkins University scientist and proponent of resuming the pharmacological research of hallucinogenics. He is the lead author of a rigorous test of the acute and long-term effects of psilocybin in adults, and his subjects reported an acute increase in mystical experience and a substantial personal and spiritual experience, with sustained positive changes in attitudes, mood and behavior. His study is one of the few recent research studies of hallucinogens, and his findings replicate the findings of the Pahnke experiment.
What are the long-term subjective effects of psilocybin?
Scientific data indicates an absence of subsequent drug abuse, persisting perception disorders, prolonged psychosis or long-term impairment of functioning in any participants.
What do studies indicate concerning MDMA's effects on brain cells?
Some studies show that large doses of MDMA given to laboratory animals can destroy serotonin neurons, but the relevance of this unclear. It is important to note that recreational users of MDMA do not use the large doses as seen in laboratory animal studies. Furthermore, in comparisons of users and non-users in cognitive studies, both groups perform equally well.
What is "Suicide Tuesday" and how does it relate to the use of MDMA?
Some users of MDMA report substantially negative mood states in the days immediately following its use. Some have speculated that initially MDMA causes a substantial release of serotonin, followed by a marked reduction of the neurotransmitter, lasting for several hours to days after the last dose. But there is little empirical evidence to support this position, so it is more likely that the depressed state relates to the lack of sleep and low blood sugar.
What are entheogens?
Substances (i.e. sacred mushrooms) that are thought to create spiritual or religious experiences.
What are entactogens?
Substances, such as MDMA, that are said to enhance feelings of empathy.
What religious group legally uses peyote as its sacrament?
The Native American Church of the United States use of peyote was protected by the constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion until the Supreme court allowed Oregon to prosecute members for its use; however, Congress amended the American Indian Religion Act of 1978 in order to reverse that decision.
What are the psychoactive effects of psilocybine?
The hallucinogenic effects of psilocybin are quite similar to those of LSD and the catechol hallucinogen mascaline,m and cross-tolerance exists among these three agents.
What are the two major classes of phantastica?
The indole and catechol hallucinogens, grouped according to their chemical structurs.
What are two synthetic hallucinogens are chemically related to amphetamines?
The molecular structures of MDMA, MDA, DOM and mescaline are similar to amphetamines, and MDMA and MDA are also very similar to methamphetamine and amphetamine structures, respectively.
What is the onset and half-life of psilocybin?
The onset is about seven hours after drug administration, and the effects are transient, lasting no more than a day after ingestion.
How is the group of catechol phantastica distinguished from indole phantastica like LSD?
The psychological effects between the catechol and indole fantastica are similar, but the difference is the catechol nucleus, with that nucleus froming the basic structure of the catecholamine neurotransmitters, norepinephrine and dopamine.
What effects does LSD have on creativity?
There is no good evidence to suggest that LSD increases creativity.
What was the goal of Walter Pahnke's "Good Friday Experiment"?
To test psilocybin's ability to induce meaningful religious experiences. 20 Christian theology students were assigned to two groups: one received psilocybin, the other received a placebo. The psilocybin group reported mystical experiences, while the control group did not. However, the groups were informed that they would receive psilocybin and so the results could be the result of anticipation and expectation.
How does mescaline tolerance compare to that of LSD?
Tolerance develops more slowly to mescaline than to LSD, but there is cross-tolerance between the two drugs.
Can use of LSD lead to tolerance or dependence?
Tolerance develops rapidly, usually within 3-4 days if the drug is taken daily on multiple occasions. Cross-tolerance has been shown among LSD, mescalin, and psilocybin. BUT physical dependence to LSD or any of the hallucinogens has not been demonstrated.
In the early years how did psychotherapists use LSD with their clients?
Used as a modern truth serum, replacing sodium pentothal, scopolamine, and amphetamines when patients hit psychological road blocks.
indole
a particular chemical structure found in serotonin and LSD
shaman
a person having access to, and influence in, the world of spirits, especially among certain tribal societies. Also known as medicine men/women
peyote
a type of hallucinogenic cactus
acute
abrupt or immediate onset of effects
chlorpromazine
an older drug once used in the treatment of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. Also known as a major tranquilizer
What is the most potent of the hallucinogen drugs?
d-Lyergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD).
phantastica
drugs that create a world of fantasy
psychotomimetic
mimicking psychosis
PCP
phencyclidine originally developed as an anesthetic; has hallucinogenic properties
psilocybin
the active chemical in Psilocybe mushrooms
mescaline
the active chemical in the peyote cactus
animism
the belief that objects attain certain characteristics because of spirits
synesthesia
the blending of different senses, such as "seeing" sounds
angel dust
the street name for PCP sprinkled on plant material
psychedelic
"mind viewing"
