shroombee wrote:downwardsfromzero wrote:Patients on SSRIs shouldn't bother taking psychedelics because they won't work - but has anyone ever examined whether the neuroplasticity effects still occur when co-administering SSRIs with serotonergic psychedelics?
Safety restatement: do not combine SSRIs with MAOIs including RIMAs such as harmala alkaloids found in ayahuasca or Syrian rue.
Hmmm... isn't THH an SSRI? So what's the deal with combining it with harmine/harmaline and using it to potentiate psychedelics like psilocybin and mescaline? Is there some risk here?
Good question, although I was being over-cautious on the safety statement as a matter of habit. Since
THH is only a weak inhibitor of serotonin uptake, this may distinguish it from the synthetic pharmaceutical SSRIs which are designed to be active at lower doses and with higher levels of efficacy. Thereby pharmaceutical SSRIs contribute to a greater buildup of extracellular serotonin than THH does, thus leading to the danger of serotonin syndrome. Although that doesn't answer why THH apparently doesn't cause serotonin syndrome at lower doses, nor why it doesn't appear to adversely affect the efficacy of psychedelics. It clearly has pharmacological properties that differ significantly from the typical pharmaceutical SSRIs, just as harmala alkaloids differ from the irreversible MAOIs.
I'll be honest - I don't know right now, but I'm sure that between us all we can find out.
Also, I wouldn't exclude the possibility that extremely high doses of ayahuasca could cause seerotonin syndrome. And then on the other hand we may, IIRC, see some level of blocking of the 5-HT receptor sites by the harmala alkaloids that perhaps attenuates the ability for elevated levels of serotonin to cause over-activation of the 5-HT receptors.
This seems like an important thing to read up on so it'll be on my list for the coming weeks. Any further pointers gratefully accepted.
Now, off to bed before I spout any further nonsense.

“There is a way of manipulating matter and energy so as to produce what modern scientists call 'a field of force'. The field acts on the observer and puts him in a privileged position vis-à-vis the universe. From this position he has access to the realities which are ordinarily hidden from us by time and space, matter and energy. This is what we call the Great Work."
― Jacques Bergier, quoting Fulcanelli