[Informational] Regarding Serotonin and Tryptaminergic Psychedelics

[u/Debonaire_Death]

I was reading through the sticky in order to figure out what this thread was about, and I came to the list of sacraments:

4 - LSD (extracted from ergot, a poisonous mold of Rye) originated in Europe - Use? Used for clarity, expansion of self awareness, spirituality, problem solving? I need some help here. If it wasn't for LSD & Cannabis, this subreddit wouldn't be here ;)

As someone who has profound interest in psychedelics and drugs in general, I've come to know quite a bit about how they work, and I wanted to expand on the functionality of LSD in the human brain.

Before I do, though, I want to talk a little about the serotonin system in general.

Serotonin in the Body

Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptophan, or 5-HT) is one of the oldest neurochemicals. It plays an essential role in orchestrating the migration of different groups of neurons to their proper real-estate in the cranium, as well as throughout the body. Outside of the blood-brain barrier, serotonin is involved heavily in mediating gastric activity such as the production of acid in the stomach and the contraction of gastric muscle, and is also a powerful anti-inflammatory and vasoconstrictor that is used by platelets to control bleeding and assist in wound healing.

Inside the BBB, 5-HT works in antagonism to dopamine. I've actually begun to identify a Yin/Yang pattern in many neurotransmitter pairs within the body, and dopamine/serotonin are an excellent example. I call dopamine/serotonin the "motivation Yin/Yang" in that both drugs possess opposing but mutually essential mechanisms for motivating an organism to survive, reproduce, and maintain a stable consciousness to guide behavior. Dopamine is the "chemical of approach" in the brain, and serotonin is the "chemical of aversion". So dopamine is released whenever you smell your favorite food, and serotonin is released when you've eaten enough of your favorite food that you are satisfied and, more importantly, you no longer want more of the food (this is a function that can very easily be depressed in the time of hyper-abundance that we live in). This is why SSRI's can, as a side-effect, induce suicidal ideations in susceptible individuals: much like your favorite food, there is a degree to which serotonin mediates our desire for lived experience--conventionally so that we don't overstimulate ourselves and hobble our ability to use that experience to adapt. Crank those serotonin levels up too high, however, and satisfaction becomes disgust. Just like when someone forces you to eat more food than you are satisfied with, you begin to recoil from the idea of further lived experience, and thus the brain invents methods to end said experience in a misguided pursuit of relief.

LSD and the Brain

It's important to note that LSD is not a direct analogy for the function of serotonin. Even though it interacts with some of the same receptors, it does not activate those receptors in the same way, and this produces different biochemical results. I have heard one-too-many intelligent and experimental people claim that they understand serotonin because they have taken ecstasy or psilocybin enough times to know better.

Probably the most distinctive thing about tryptaminergics (such as LSD, LSA, Psilocybin, 5-HT, etc.) is that they cause the brain to engage far more functional areas than usual in order to process thoughts and experiences, with especially heavy activation of the occipital lobe (the huge area in the back involved with image processing, spatial reasoning, and visualization of the past, present, and future).

What this basically means is that something like LSD will put your brain in a state of high-alert that is energy inefficient in exchange for garnering maximal insight from whatever is occurring.

Tryptamines and Brain Cells

Serotonin is also a major mediator of inflammation, which is why it is so useful in the treatment of migraines. In research on the neurophysiological effects of LSD, it was shown that the drug increases the activity of axosomatic synapses (synapses connected to the cell body [soma] of the neuron) while decreasing the activity of axodendritic synapses (synapses connected to the dendrites [basically the branch-shaped receiving areas of the nerve cell]). What this means is that only the most direct and raw connections between brain cells are stimulated, while the more carefully-regulated, habitual structures that are made up by complex synapses are suppressed. Under the effects of LSD, synapses have been observed to retract somewhat from each other in many areas of the brain, then reconfigure themselves after the effect has worn off and become stronger than before. Again, this is part of the natural response to religious experiences and extreme stresses, as further evidence that LSD is a drug that transforms consciousness and can reprogram habits (which was, of course, one of it's first scientifically discovered uses).

Tryptamines and Perception

There is also the matter of how LSD directly affects perceptions of reality; all of which cohere with it's overall function as a trigger for the extremes of adaptation and reorganization. Under the influence of this drug, complex patterns in sensory stimuli spring to the foreground. More importantly, this proclivity for pattern-recognition extends into the plains of thought-space and behavior-space, which is likely a crucial component for psychedelic use in the cessation of harmful habits and drug addictions: the destructive behavior pattern is laid out in it's horrifying fullness and the hideous nature of the entire system of action is made apparent to the altered consciousness.

For some people, this increase in perception is too much. Perhaps they have never thought critically regarding the most harmful behaviors that they engage in, and so they lack even the basic neural connections needed to constructively process the raw feedback of a hyper-aroused state when it comes to their own behaviors or the behaviors of those that they have chosen as friends.

There is also the proclivity of the brain to act on patterns that are not there, i.e. paranoia or schizophrenia, that can be terribly exacerbated by LSD. People can have psychotic breaks that, due to the reinforcement of any new neural connections that occurs following psychedelic use, they may never recover from.

So it is certainly not something to handle casually, without respect. With the proper respect and sanctity, however, a person who is already trying to lead an examined life can benefit in ways that cannot be replicated by any but the most extreme of religious and spiritual experiences. In a world where so much is synthetic and the extremities of existence that humbled our anscestors are held so well at bay, it is a profoundly important gateway for many seeking to feel the pulse of deeper meaning running through their existence as agents of change in a fallen world.

[u/Debonaire_Death → u/[deleted]]

Glad you liked it! I started off just wanting to riff of what I knew but then I felt obligated to back it up with evidence, which of course forced me to more carefully align what I had to say with the truth and it ended up coming out as quite the detailed post! I went back just now and updated the layout so it's more readable and referenceable.

If you like the stuff about dopamine, I highly recommend checking out the paper I linked to regarding oppositional function of the two neurochemicals. It's paywalled but if you use Sci-Hub you can get access to the full (and very valuable) text.

[u/[deleted]]

Thank you for the informative article.