Drugs of Abuse:
Psychedelic Agents
By: Kimber Bailey
Topics of Discussion

Hallucinogens
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Psychedelic Drugs
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Classes
LSD
Psilocybin mushrooms
Uses for Psychedelic Drugs


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Defined
Types
Previous practices
Past beliefs
Psychedelic Psychotherapy



Psycholytic Therapy
Psychedelic Therapy
Current Research and Therapy
Hallucinogens

These are mind altering elements that induce
experiences that are qualitatively different from those
experienced in ordinary consciousness.

Almost all hallucinogens contain nitrogen and are
therefore classified as alkaloids.

Many hallucinogens have chemical structures similar to
those of human neurotransmitters, such as serotonin,
and temporarily modify the actions of neurotransmitters
and receptor sites.
Hallucinogens
Serotonin
Neurotransmitter: Norepinephrine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norepinephrine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serotonin
Hallucinogen: Mescaline
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mescaline
Hallucinogens

Irony of Hallucinogenic Drugs
These drugs do not actually cause
hallucinations.
 Hallucinogens simply modify a person’s
regular perception.

 The
person is usually quite aware of the illusions
and nature of the perceptions that he or she is
experiencing.
Hallucinogens

Common Misinterpretation

It is believed that the effects of hallucinogens
mimic psychological conditions.
 For
example, many people believe the use of
hallucinogens will lead to the following:



Psychosis
Schizophrenia
Thought disorder
Hallucinogens

However, these types of drugs can actually result in
psychological trauma if consumed without a person’s
knowledge.

Date rape drugs are a common case that cause extreme
vomiting and loss of memory.
Hallucinogens
There are three types of hallucinogens:
1. Psychedelics

psychoactive drugs whose primary action is to alter the thought
processes of the brain
2. Dissociatives

reduce or block signals to the conscious mind from other parts of the
brain, typically the physical senses
3. Deliriants



also called anticholinergics
a special class of dissociatives which are antagonists for the
acetylcholine receptors
These three drug classes can all cause subjective
changes in one’s perception of thought, emotion, and
consciousness.
Psychedelic Drugs

Many psychedelic drugs are thought to disable
filters which keep signals that are unrelated to
everyday functions from reaching the conscious
mind.

This filtering has been described as mind expanding,
or consciousness expanding.


The drug “expands” the realm of experience available to
conscious awareness.
These filtered signals are presumed to originate
in several other functions of the brain, including
the senses, emotions, memories, and the
subconscious mind.
Psychedelic Drugs

The most remarkable characteristic of
psychedelic drugs is the variation in their effects.

The level and type of effect that is achieved is
dependent among:




Dosage
Set/Type
Setting
Many psychedelics are extremely nontoxic.

It is difficult to overdose on these compounds alone.

Combinations with other drugs make overdosing more likely.
Psychedelic Drugs

There are three common classes:

Serotonergic Psychedelics
 These

Empathogens and Entactogens
 These

are serotonin 5-HT2A receptor agonists.
are serotonin releasers.
Cannabinoids
 These
are CB-1 cannabinoid receptor agonists.
Serotonergic Psychedelics

This class includes the major hallucinogens

Tryptamine-based compounds


Phenethylamine-based compounds



LSD and psilocybin
Mescaline and 2C-B
At lower doses, these include sensory distortions
such as the warping of surfaces, shape
suggestibility, and color variations.
Higher doses often cause intense and
fundamental distortions of sensory perception
such as synesthesia or the experience of
additional spatial or temporal dimensions.
Empathogens and Entactogens

These are phenethylamines.
Examples include MDMA (or ecstasy), MDA,
and similar drugs.
 The effects are characterized by feelings of
openness, euphoria, empathy, love, and
heightened self-awareness.
 However, visual hallucinations is not
experienced by the user.

Cannabinoids

The cannabinoids are Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and
related compounds.


These compounds are capable of activating the body’s
endogenous cannabanoid system.
The effects associated with these drugs are




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General change in consciousness, mild euphoria, feelings of
general well-being.
Relaxation or stress reduction.
Increased appreciation of humor, music and other art, joviality,
metacognition and introspections.
Enhanced recollection of episodic memory, increased sensuality,
loss of inhibition, creative or philosophical thinking.
Disruption of linear memory, paranoia, agitation, and anxiety.
Two Examples of Psychedelic
Drugs
LSD
http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/photos/lsd/lsd_blotter_full_sheet.jpg
“acid”
Psilocybin Mushrooms
http://www.jeshannon.com/images/shrooms.jpg
“shrooms”
LSD


Lyrsergic acid diethylamide, LSD, LSD-25, or
acid is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug.
LSD binds to most serotonin receptor subtypes
except for serotonin 5-HT3 and serotonin 5-HT4.


Recreational doses can affect 5-HT1A, 5-HT2A, 5HT2C, 5-HT5A, 5-HT5B, and 5-HT6 receptors.
The hallucinogenic effects are attributed to its strong
partial agonist effects at 5-HT2A receptors.

Specific 5-HT2A agonist drugs are hallucinogenic, so large
5-HT2A specific antagonists block the hallucinogenic activity
of LSD.
LSD
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSD
LSD

LSD is, by mass, one of the most potent drugs
yet discovered.



Dosages are measured in micrograms.
Doses of almost all other drugs, both recreational and
medical, are measured in milligrams.
While a typical single dose of LSD may be
between 100 and 500 micrograms, threshold
effects can be felt with as little as 20
micrograms.

Dosages by frequent users can be as high as 1,200
micrograms, although such a high dosage may
precipitate unpleasant physical and psychological
reactions.
LSD

Estimates for the lethal dosage (LD50) of LSD
range from 200 μg/kg to more than 1 mg/kg of
human body mass.


LSD is not considered to be addictive.


There are no known human cases of such an
overdose.
Users do not exhibit the commonly accepted
definitions of addiction and physical dependence.
Rapid tolerance build-up prevents regular use.

This tolerance diminishes after a few days’ abstention
from use.
LSD



LSD’s psychological effects vary greatly from person to
person, depending on factors such as previous
experiences, state of mind and environment, as well as
dose strength.
LSD causes expansion and altered experience of
senses, emotions, memories, time, and awareness for 6
to 14 hours, depending on dosage and tolerance.
There is a reported 30% possibility of “flashbacks”.


A psychological phenomenon in which an individual experiences
an episode of some of LSD’s subjective effects long after the
drug has worn off—sometimes weeks, months, or even years
afterward.
Flashbacks can incorporate both positive and negative aspects
of LSD trips.
Psilocybin Mushrooms



Psilocybin is a psychedelic alkaloid of the
tryptamine family and is found in psilocybin
mushrooms.
It is present in hundreds of species of fungi,
including those of the genus Psilocybe and
Panaeolus.
The intensity and duration of recreational and
entheogenic use of psilocybin mushrooms vary
depending on species of mushrooms, dosage,
individual physiology, and set and setting.
Psilocybin Mushrooms
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybin
Psilocybin Mushrooms


Psilocybin is a prodrug that is converted, mostly in the
liver, into the pharmacologically active compound
psilocin in the body by dephosphorylation.
It is broken down by monoamine oxidase.
http://www.hallucinogen.dk/rusmidler/psykedelika/svampe/images/biokemi/dephosphorylase.gif

This chemical reaction takes place under strongly acidic
conditions or enzymatically by phosphatases in the body.
Psilocybin Mushrooms

Many types of psilocybin mushrooms bruise blue when
handled or damaged.


Psilocybin is rapidly dephosphorylated in the body to
psilocin which then acts as a partial agonist at the 5-HT2A
serotonin receptor in the brain where it mimics the
effects of serotonin.



This is due to the oxidation of active compounds, however,
bruising is not a definitive method of determining a mushroom’s
potency.
Psilocybin is an 5-HT1A and 5-HT2A/2C agonist.
The toxicity of psilocybin is relatively low – approximately
12.5 mg/kg
The psilocybin content of psychoactive mushrooms is
quite variable and depends on species growth
conditions, drying conditions, and mushroom size.
Psilocybin Mushrooms

Effects last from 2-6 hours depending on dose, species,
individual brain chemistry, and individual metabolism.

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Difficult trips may occur when psychedelic compounds
are taken in a non-supportive of inadequate
environment, by an inexperienced person, or in an
unexpectedly high doses.
At low doses, hallucinatory effects occur.


The effects are often pleasant, even ecstatic.
They including a deep sense of connection to others, confusion,
hilarity, and a general feeling of connection to nature and the
universe.
Walls seem to breathe, a vivid enhancement of colors occurs,
and organic shapes become animated.
At higher doses, experiences tend to be less social and
more entheogenic.

It often catalyzing intense spiritual experiences.
Uses for Psychedelic Drugs

Early military research focused on their use as
incapacitating agents.

They were hypothesized to induce a subject to talk
during an interrogation.



The drugs use was very inconsistent.
The individuals did not consistently speak accurately
and coherently.
The types of hallucinogens have been used
within medicinal and religious traditions around
the world.

They have been used in shamanic forms of ritual
healing and divination, in initiation rites, and in the
religious rituals of syncretistic movements.
Uses for Psychedelic Drugs

The rise of the Abrahamic religions (Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam) caused a decline of entheogenic
use.




The authority of scripture and the priesthood gradually
reduced the role granted to direct spiritual experience,
especially by the laity.
Interest in the drugs tended to focus on either the
potential for psychotherapeutic applications of the drugs.
Also, hallucinogens were used to produce a “controlled
psychosis”.


Ethenogenic is the term used to describe the effects of the drugs
during ceromonial or spiritual use.
This use was in order to understand psychotic disorders such as
schizophrenia.
Hallucinogens were also researched in several countries
for their potential as agents of chemical warfare.
Psychedelic Psychotherapy



Psychedelic psychotherapy refers to psychotherapeutic
practices involving the use of psychedelic drugs.
The use of the term psychedelic emphasizes the ability
of psychedelic drugs to facilitate exploration of the
psyche, which is fundamental to most methods of
psychedelic psychotherapy.
Many studies found that the use of psychedelic drug
greatly facilitated psychotherapeutic processes and
proved particularly useful for patients with problems that
were otherwise difficult to treat.


Alcoholics, drug addicts, sociopaths, and psychopaths
Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder (HPPD) is a
diagnosed condition where some effects of
hallucinogenic drugs persist after a long time.

Medical technology has yet to determine what causes this
condition.
Psychedelic Psychotherapy

Some hypothesize that drugs such as LSD may be
useful in psychotherapy, especially when the patient is
unable to “unblock” repressed subconscious material
through other psychotherapeutic methods.

Experiments concerning the use of psilocybin in the
treatment of personality disorders and other uses in
psychological counseling have also been conducted.
Psychedelic Psychotherapy

Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies
(MAPS) began in 2001 to study the effects of psilocybin
on patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
http://www.maps.org/pioneers/images/hofmann_large.jpg http://www.maps.org/pioneers/images/huxley_large.jpg
Psychedelic Psychotherapy
Psycholytic Therapy:
 Primarily studied in Europe, psycholytic therapy involves
the use of low to medium doses of psychedelic drugs,
repeatedly at intervals of 1-2 weeks.

The therapist is present during the peak of the experience and at
other times as required.

He or she assists the patient in processing material that arises and
is present to offer support when necessary.
Psychedelic Therapy
 Primarily researched in North America, psychedelic
therapy involves the use of very high doses of
psychedelic drugs, with the aim of promoting a
transcendental, ecstatic, religious, or mystical peak
experience.
Psychedelic Psychotherapy
Current Research and Therapy:
 Current research therapy includes using psilocybin with
terminally ill patients in the intention of helping them to
accept their condition.
 The stress and anxiety experienced by many terminally
ill patients causes them much suffering in the last
months of their lives


Some patients claimed that the use of psilocybin helped them
tremendously in terms of acceptance.
Other therapies include the use of MDMA, more
commonly known as Ecstasy, to treat Post-Traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Sources








http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSD
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychedelics%2C_dissociatives_and_del
iriants
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychedelic_therapy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybin_mushrooms
Benjamin, C. “Persistent Psychiatric Symptoms After Eating
Psilocybin Mushrooms.” British Medical Journal. 1.6174 (1979):
1319-20.
Eveloff, Herbert H. “The LSD Syndrome—A Review.” California
Medicine. 109.5 (1968): 368-73.
Snyder, Solomon H., and Elliot Richelson. “Psychedelic Drugs:
Steric Factors that Predict Psychotropic Activity.” Science. 60
(1968): 206-13.
The Lancet. “Reviving Research into Psychedelic Drugs.” The
Lancet. 367.9518 (2006): 1214.