[HN Gopher] LSD, Psilocybin, and DMT in Depression Treatment: A ...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       LSD, Psilocybin, and DMT in Depression Treatment: A Systematic
       Review
        
       Author : beefman
       Score  : 11 points
       Date   : 2021-09-14 17:47 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.mdpi.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.mdpi.com)
        
       | peanut_worm wrote:
       | > Psilocybin is an agonist of 5HT2a serotonin receptors; however,
       | unlike LSD, it has no effect on dopamine receptors
       | 
       | Thats surprising considering how similar their effects are.
        
         | beefman wrote:
         | Look at the receptor binding affinities in tables 1 and 3 (note
         | that psilocin is the active metabolite of psilocybin, and that
         | lower numbers indicate stronger binding)
         | 
         | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3110631/
         | 
         | LSD has about 8 times the affinity for 5-HT2A as D3, vs 25
         | times for psilocin. This doesn't tell us anything about how
         | they act on the receptors, or the affinities of the endogenous
         | ligands they're competing with, but I think it's unlikely the
         | dopaminergic activity is significant for either drug.
         | 
         | Edit: This does cite a paper from Nichols' lab[1] which claims
         | LSD has a second phase of action after the serotonergic phase,
         | where its dopaminergic activity dominates. This strikes me as
         | plausible... I'd have to read it.
         | 
         | [1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17618679/
        
       | samename wrote:
       | > 10 papers were included. Most of the selected studies showed
       | significant correlation between psilocybin and DMT use and
       | reduction in depression symptom intensity. By analyzing qualified
       | studies, it can be concluded that psilocybin and DMT could be
       | useful in depression treatment, but further observations are
       | still required.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-09-14 23:02 UTC)