4 ms·

I don't doubt that one would not want to take MDMA daily or regularly, and I doubt it will ever be prescribed or used like that - at least not in recreational d

I don't doubt that one would not want to take MDMA daily or regularly, and I doubt it will ever be prescribed or used like that - at least not in recreational doses. Their potential in large doses seems to be in therapeutic intervention. If you know, I'd love to hear more about the mechanisms of psilocybin in the way you described SSRIs - I've done some reading but my understanding is certainly at the layman level. Hopefully we will see research about related substances that exhibit therapeutic qualities with less toxic drawbacks.

TheAdamAndChe 9y ago
> I'd love to hear more about the mechanisms of psilocybin in the way you described SSRIs Sure, but keep in mind that 1) I'm just a hobbyist and what I think may be wrong, and 2) most of what I studied was a few years ago, things may have changed since then. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that acts upon serotonin(5-HT) receptors. Modification of these receptors by serotonin help control several systems of the brain, many of which are still being researched. Not all serotonin receptors are the same, and those different receptors affect different systems of the body differently, as well as interact with drugs differently. Examples of these are 5-HT1A, 5-HT2A, 5-HT2B, and many many others. Psilocybin partially activates(aka partially agonizes[1]) several serotonin receptors, mostly 5-HT2B and 5-HT2C receptors, but also 5-HT2A. 5-HT2C regulates regulates mood, anxiety, feeding, and reproductive behavior[2], while 5-HT2A links to the visual cortex and orbitofrontal cortex[3]. Agonism of these receptors modifies those systems they're linked to, causing emotional, behavioral, and visuospacial changes. Note how different this is from an SSRI. SSRIs basically increase existing serotonin, while this drug activates the receptors of the brain itself. A big reason psilocybin isn't physically dangerous(you can't die from OD) is because it's just a partial agonist, meaning it doesn't fully link into the receptor and activate it. There do exist full agonists like 25C-NBOMe that are psychedelic, but are also incredibly dangerous. You can die from those. If you are interested in psychedelics, IMO it's _super_ interesting to read about the history of the 2C generation of drugs. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partial_agonist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partial_agonist [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5-HT2C_receptor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5-HT2C_receptor [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5-HT2A_receptor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5-HT2A_receptor [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25C-NBOMe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25C-NBOMe

TheAdamAndChe 9y ago

> I'd love to hear more about the mechanisms of psilocybin in the way you described SSRIs Sure, but keep in mind that 1) I'm just a hobbyist and what I think may be wrong, and 2) most of what I studied was a few years ago, things may have changed since then. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that acts upon serotonin(5-HT) receptors. Modification of these receptors by serotonin help control several systems of the brain, many of which are still being researched. Not all serotonin receptors are the same, and those different receptors affect different systems of the body differently, as well as interact with drugs differently. Examples of these are 5-HT1A, 5-HT2A, 5-HT2B, and many many others. Psilocybin partially activates(aka partially agonizes[1]) several serotonin receptors, mostly 5-HT2B and 5-HT2C receptors, but also 5-HT2A. 5-HT2C regulates regulates mood, anxiety, feeding, and reproductive behavior[2], while 5-HT2A links to the visual cortex and orbitofrontal cortex[3]. Agonism of these receptors modifies those systems they're linked to, causing emotional, behavioral, and visuospacial changes. Note how different this is from an SSRI. SSRIs basically increase existing serotonin, while this drug activates the receptors of the brain itself. A big reason psilocybin isn't physically dangerous(you can't die from OD) is because it's just a partial agonist, meaning it doesn't fully link into the receptor and activate it. There do exist full agonists like 25C-NBOMe that are psychedelic, but are also incredibly dangerous. You can die from those. If you are interested in psychedelics, IMO it's _super_ interesting to read about the history of the 2C generation of drugs. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partial_agonist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partial_agonist [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5-HT2C_receptor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5-HT2C_receptor [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5-HT2A_receptor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5-HT2A_receptor [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25C-NBOMe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25C-NBOMe