Light microscopical examination of plant and fungal remains in the post mortem gut may be capable of demonstrating the ingestion of unexpected natural psychotropic materials. This is demonstrated here in a case in which a 'shaman' was accused of causing the death of a young man. The deceased had participated in a ceremony which involved the drinking of ayahu...
In the area of psychotropic drugs, tryptamines are known to be a broad class of classical or serotonergic hallucinogens. These drugs are capable of producing profound changes in sensory perception, mood and thought in humans and act primarily as agonists of the 5-HT2A receptor. Well-known tryptamines such as psilocybin contained in Aztec sacred mushrooms and...
This paper presents original research on prevalence, user characteristics and effect profile of N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a potent hallucinogenic which acts primarily through the serotonergic system. Data were obtained from the Global Drug Survey (an anonymous online survey of people, many of whom have used drugs) conducted between November and December ...
Psilocin (4-hydroxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine) is a hallucinogen that acts as an agonist at 5-HT(1A), 5-HT(2A), and 5-HT(2C) receptors. Psilocin is the active metabolite of psilocybin, a hallucinogen that is currently being investigated clinically as a potential therapeutic agent. In the present investigation, we used a combination of genetic and pharmacologica...
RationaleMany studies have reported deficits of mismatch negativity (MMN) in schizophrenic patients. Pharmacological challenges with hallucinogens in healthy humans are used as models for psychotic states. Previous studies reported a significant reduction of MMN after ketamine (N-methyl-D-aspartate acid [NMDA] antagonist model) but not after psilocybin (5HT2...
Patients with schizophrenia exhibit diminished prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the acoustic startle reflex and deficits in the attentional modulation of PPI. Pharmacological challenges with hallucinogens are used as models for psychosis in both humans and animals. Remarkably, in contrast to the findings in schizophrenic patients and in animal hallucinogen model...
IntroductionPharmacological challenges with hallucinogens are used as models for psychosis in experimental research. The state induced by glutamate antagonists such as phencyclidine (PCP) is often considered as a more appropriate model of psychosis than the state induced by serotonergic hallucinogens such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin and N...
Relatively few studies have assessed the reinforcing effects of hallucinogenic compounds, and no such studies have attempted to engender contingent responding for these compounds in animals with behavioral histories that include experience with serotonergically mediated reinforcing effects. The objectives of the present study were to investigate the capacity...
RationaleAyahuasca, a South American psychotropic plant tea, combines the psychedelic agent and 5-HT(2A/2C) agonist N, N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) with beta-carboline alkaloids showing monoamine oxidase-inhibiting properties. Current human research with psychedelics and entactogens has explored the possibility that drugs displaying agonist activity at the 5-H...
The role of 5-HT2A-mediated stimulation of phosphoinositide hydrolysis in the discriminative effects of hallucinogens was investigated in PC12 cells stably expressing the rat 5-HT2A receptor (PC12-5-HT2A cells). The hallucinogenic compounds, D-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), (-)2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylamphetamine (DOM), psilocybin, N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DM...
A series of fluorinated analogues of the hallucinogenic tryptamines N,N-diethyltryptamine (DET), 4-hydroxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (4-OH-DMT, psilocin), and 5-methoxy-DMT was synthesized to investigate possible explanations for the inactivity of 6-fluoro-DET as a hallucinogen and to determine the effects of fluorination on the molecular recognition and activa...
Pairs of male Sprague-Dawley rats were administered mescaline, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocin, N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), 3,4-dimethoxyphenylethylamine (DMPEA), or 5-hydroxydopamine (5-OHDA) IP prior to being placed in a shock-elicited aggression situation. When foot shock was delivered, controls struck each other with their forepaws, but neve...
The hallucinogenic indoleamine drugs N,N-dimethyltryptamine (N,N-DMT), psilocybin, bufotenin, 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine, and N-methyltryptamine, increased rat plasma prolactin (PRL) levels. The increase in plasma PRL produced by N,N-DMT, psilocybin, and bufotenin was inhibited by methysergide, a serotonin receptor blocker. Parachlorophenylalanine (PCP...
Previously, d-lysergic acid diethylamide was found to have a more powerful inhibitory action upon serotonergic (raphe) neurons than upon neurons in areas receiving an identified serotonergic input (e. g., amygdala, ventral lateral geniculate). In the present studies, using microiontophoretic techniques, the relative potencies of 3 indoleamine hallucinogens, ...
