Enthio@aol.com writes:
> >How about this, a drug whose effects can be immediately turned off if the
> >effects become unpleasant. An immediately-acting antidote to the
> >psychedelic.
>
> Like an antidote (niacin works well to counteract LSD).
I didn't see much support for this in Medline, could it be that this
is more of a "folk remedy" that works by placebo?
> Or a drug could possibly be designed to antidote itself
> if the users adrenalin or pulse got too high, as often the
> cause of a "bad trip" is excessive anxiety.
Interesting idea. Suppose we add a simple receptor structure to one
end of the molecule, so that high levels of (say) adrenaline would
make it change conformation and hence not fit the receptor... I see
some problems in this, 1) getting the larger molecule past the blood
brain barrier, 2) avoiding having the receptor block the active
binding with the synaptic receptor and 3) finding useful signals of
distress that are "visible" to the molecule even when it is in an area
of the brain that does not receive (for example) adrenaline (blocked
by the BBB) or other clear signals. Sounds like rather advanced
molecular engineering, still a few years away. On the other hand, this
kind of design is definitely what pharmaceutical research is aiming
for, so the above ideal drug would be a spin-off from other research.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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