Mini Review on Psychedelic Drugs: Illumination on the Hidden Aspects of Mind

Psychedelics constitute a class of psychoactive drugs with unique effects on consciousness. Psychedelic means mind/soul "revealing" and refers to the ability of these drugs to illuminate normally hidden aspects of mind or psyche. Many psychedelic agents occur in nature; others are synthetically produced. Naturally occurring psychedelic drugs have been inhaled, ingested, worshiped, and reviled since prehistory. The phenomenology of the hallucinogenic experience is extremely complex, sensory, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual, levels. Most psychedelic drugs structurally resemble with neurotransmitters: acetylcholine, two catecholamines (nor epinephrine and dopamine), and serotonin. These structural similarities lead to three classes for categorizing psychedelic drugs: anticholinergic, catecholamine-like, and serotonin-like. And also a fourth class of psychedelic drugs can be included, the psychedelic anesthetics. This mini review focuses on pharmacological and medicinal aspects of this class.

Author(s): Lemlem Hussien Salih and Atul Kaushik

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