Psychiatry researchers should rethink the role of serotonin – paying attention to the way it works with psychedelic drugs, according to British experts.
SSRIs are thought to target a serotonin 1A receptor, which plays a role in stress management.
But a second receptor, 2A, is activated by LSD and some other psychedelic compounds.
The experts at Imperial College, London, say that targeting 2A may hold the clue to new treatments for other conditions.
The analysis, in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, suggests that 2A when activated makes people open to change and sensitive to context.
Triggering this could help treat conditions such as obsessive compulsive disorder, addiction and treatment-resistant depression, they say.
One of the authors Professor David Nutt said: “This is an exciting and novel insight into the role of serotonin and its receptors in recovery from depression that I hope may inspire more research into develop 5-HT2A receptor drugs as new treatments.”
Dr Robin Carhart-Harris, head of psychedelic research at the college, said: “I think our model suggests that you cannot just administer a drug in isolation, at least certainly not psychedelics, and the same may also true for SSRIs. We need to pay more attention to the context in which medications are given.
"We have to acknowledge the evidence which shows that environment is a critical component of how our biology is expressed.”
Serotonin and brain function: a tale of two receptors Journal of Psychopharmacology 31 August 2017 [abstract]
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