Chemistry and Synaptic Transmitters

Chemistry and Synaptic Transmitters

The most common psychoactive substances can be divided into

depressants (i.e., alcohol, sedatives, hypnotics), stimulants (i.e.,

cocaine, amphetamines, ecstasy), opioids (i.e., morphine and heroine),

and hallucinogens (i.e., PCP, LSD, cannabis). The brain has different

effects to different psychoactive substances. They bind to different

receptor types, and can increase or decrease the activity of neurons

through several different mechanisms. Consequently, these

psychoactive substances have different behavioral effects, different

rates of development of tolerance, different withdrawal symptoms, and

different short-term and long-term effects (Vaccarino & Rotzinger,

2004).

In this team project we will take a closer look at the

hallucinogen, LSD by explaining the chemistry and route of access of

LSD, synaptic transmitters and the parts of neurons affected,

inhibitory/excitatory potential changes, physiological changes, primary

behavior changes, side effects of behavior changes, and effects

reported by users.

LSD is considered to be one of, if not the, most potent

hallucinogenic drug known (Leicht, 1996). To understand LSD first we

will give a brief history of how LSD came into existence.

In 1938, Albert Hoffman was an employee in the pharmacological

department of Sandoz, in Basel, Switzerland. Hoffman was studying

derivatives of lysergic acid, including systematically reacting the acid

group with various reagents, to produce the corresponding amides,

anhydrides, esters, etc. One of these derivatives was the

diethylamide, made by addition of the –NC2H5)2 group, and it was

named LSD-25. But the new substance didn’t appear to have any

particularly useful medical properties, although the research report

noted, in passing, that “the experimental animals became restless

during the narcosis”. (May, 1998). LSD was not looked at for the next

five years until Hoffman couldn’t get this new substance out of his

mind and decided to reexamine LSD. Hoffman stated: “A peculiar

presentiment- the feeling that this substance could possess properties

other than those established in the first investigations- induced me,

five years after the first synthesis, to produce LSD-25 once again so

that a sample could be given to the pharmacological department for

further tests.” So, in the spring of 1943, he repeated the synthesis of

LSD-25. Hoffman is quoted in his laboratory journal on April 19, 1943.

17:00: Beginning dizziness, feelings of anxiety, visual distortions,