Hallucinogens Flashcards
What sort of roles have psychotropic plant drugs played in most cultures?
Religious practices, magic rituals and healing.
What are the best known hallucinogens in Europe?
Opium, hashish and ‘magic mushrooms’.
What do hallucinogens alter?
Sensory perception, awareness and thoughts.
What are some other terms for hallucinogens?
- Phantasticants
- Psychotomimetic
- Psychedelic
What drugs are classed as hallucinogens?
PCP, LSD, Psilocybin, MDMA and Mescaline.
What chemical class does mescaline belong to?
Phenethylamines
What chemical class does psilocybin belong to?
Indolealkylamines
What chemical class does LSD belong to?
Lysergamides
What hallucinogen is an amphetamine derivative?
MDMA
What is the difference between dissociative anaesthetics and hallucinogenics?
They both produce hallucinogenic effects, but hallucinogens do not produce anaesthesia at high doses.
What plants is mescaline present in?
Cacti - San Pedro (Peru) and Peyote.
What is the proper name for ‘magic mushrooms’?
Psilocybe mushrooms.
How was LSD discovered?
It is a synthetic drug related to compounds found in ergot fungus, which has been responsible for many cases of bread poisoning throughout history. In the 1940s Hofman discovered its hallucinogenic properties.
Who recommended the use of LSD in the 1960s?
Dr Timothy Leary - hippie culture.
When was recreational use of LSD banned?
In 1967.
Although hallucinogens vary in potency, they are all taken orally and effects, which begin 30-90 minutes following ingestion, last for around…
6-12 hours, a little less for Psilocybin-containing mushrooms.
What kind of structure do most hallucinogens share?
A serotonin-like or catecholamine-like structure.
What is the name for serotonin-like hallucinogens?
Indoleamine hallucinogens.
Which hallucinogens are indoleamine?
LSD and psilocybin.
What do Indoleamine hallucinogens do?
They are serotonin agonists.
Which hallucinogen is catecholamine-like (a phenethylamine hallucinogen)?
Mescaline - similar to noradrenaline and adrenaline.
What do hallucinogens do to affect serotoninergic pathways?
They act in the locus coeruleus (LC) and cerebral cortex via 5HT receptors - mescaline is a partial agonist of 5HT2 receptors and LSD agonises 5HT1, 2, 5, 6 and 7.
What did Appel et al (2004) find?
That rats much prefer LSD to saline in a drug discrimination task - they like LSD.
If then pretreated with serotonin antagonists (removes effects), LSD lever responses decreased dramatically.
What are the three 5-HT2A receptor antagonists that are successful (according to Vollenwieder et al, 1998) in blocking psilocybin-induced visual illusions and hallucinations?
- Ketanserin
- Risperidone
- Haloperidol