• xapr@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago

    Upvoted for the news that these treatments are speeding towards approval. However, the point that no one knows how these new treatments work seems silly, given my understanding that no one seems to know exactly how antidepressants in general work either (or at least they didn’t until recently?), even ones that have been used for decades, like Prozac.

    Here’s a quote from an article from 2021: I’ve been making references on this blog for years about how we don’t even know how antidepressants work

    • TWeaK@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Hell there are a bunch of receptors in the brain that are called “cannabinoid receptors”, because at the time of their discovery the only thing we knew about them was that they were activated by cannabis. Since then, we’ve developed a slightly wider understanding of their function in the body’s normal operation, and yet the name still stands.

    • AgentOrangesicle@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I mean, this is going to sound super-oversimplified but hopefully correct: we know that Tryptamines like LSD and psilocybin serve their most novel functions on 5-HT2A serotonin binding sites and there are a lot in the thalamus, which is largely responsible for routing information to other parts of the brain. That would explain a lot of people’s accounts of synesthesia.

      The circumstances that are necessary to promote neuroplasticity weren’t clear when I was in skool, but the fastest way to get a credible answer on the internet is to be wrong about something, so I’m going to claim it was 95.6% magic.

        • AgentOrangesicle@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Lysergemise deez nuts…

          But in good faith and context, what are the differences in action potentials? Is it worth writing about? That’s an actual question, because (apologies) I’m stoned as fuck.

          Also, how is it suddenly not a tryptamine?

          • havokdj@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            It’s all good homie lol.

            It’s not a tryptamine because that’s a different molecule altogether. LSD is a lysergic acid, while psilocybin or DMT are tryptamines

            Best way I can describe them is that lysergamide is like meeting the universe, while tryptamine is like being one with the universe.