Alright /sci/, here's a test for your pharmacological knowledge.
I, like entirely too many people, am dependent on antidepressants in order to not an hero right now. Most of these people will tell you how these meds suck shit and its side effects are much, much more common than its intended effects. No doubt this is because the serotonin theory of depression is bunk, rendering the first two generations of antidepressant medication placebo. The next one will be more effective because it will be modelled after certain drugs which actually do something against depression, but will remain ruinously expensive, no doubt.
Clearly, self-medicating with the drugs themselves already is and will continue to be better than meds for the foreseeable future. The key problem here is that almost all drugs with antidepressant action are psychedelics, and they conflict with most common class of antidepressant meds, SSRIs. The most obvious course of action to start self-medicating with drugs is to get started, then wean off the meds off after the drugs are in effect, but that's not really viable because psychedelics seem to work chiefly as 5-HT2A agonists, whereas SSRIs antagonize that, so they cancel each other out. So we want to make the leap, but the trouble is making the leap without staying unmedicated in the interim. Anyone who has been through obsessive suicidal ideation knows that this is a harrowing prospect.
The only other drugs which seem to fight depression are dissociatives. Ketamine is confirmed as effective, and there are persistent rumors but sadly few reports regarding yohimbine, ibogaine and Salvinorin A. The latter is particularly promising, as it has no known side effects, most likely owing to its high neurotransmitter selectivity.
Still, I come to you to ask about opinions, reports and anything else on this topics, and most of all, to ask for any other potential leads for drugs with antidepressant effects.
I, like entirely too many people, am dependent on antidepressants in order to not an hero right now. Most of these people will tell you how these meds suck shit and its side effects are much, much more common than its intended effects. No doubt this is because the serotonin theory of depression is bunk, rendering the first two generations of antidepressant medication placebo. The next one will be more effective because it will be modelled after certain drugs which actually do something against depression, but will remain ruinously expensive, no doubt.
Clearly, self-medicating with the drugs themselves already is and will continue to be better than meds for the foreseeable future. The key problem here is that almost all drugs with antidepressant action are psychedelics, and they conflict with most common class of antidepressant meds, SSRIs. The most obvious course of action to start self-medicating with drugs is to get started, then wean off the meds off after the drugs are in effect, but that's not really viable because psychedelics seem to work chiefly as 5-HT2A agonists, whereas SSRIs antagonize that, so they cancel each other out. So we want to make the leap, but the trouble is making the leap without staying unmedicated in the interim. Anyone who has been through obsessive suicidal ideation knows that this is a harrowing prospect.
The only other drugs which seem to fight depression are dissociatives. Ketamine is confirmed as effective, and there are persistent rumors but sadly few reports regarding yohimbine, ibogaine and Salvinorin A. The latter is particularly promising, as it has no known side effects, most likely owing to its high neurotransmitter selectivity.
Still, I come to you to ask about opinions, reports and anything else on this topics, and most of all, to ask for any other potential leads for drugs with antidepressant effects.
