Table Info

Table 1.

Pharmacology of the psychedelics

Substance	Mechanism of action	Pharmacokinetics
Psilocybin	Metabolized in the body to psilocin, which primarily binds to serotonin receptors (5-HT_2A) in the brain	Dose-independent Bioavailability: 50–70% (oral) Onset of action: 20–30 minutes Time to peak plasma concentration: 2–3 hours Half-life: 1.5–3 hours (psilocin) Duration of action: 2–6 hours
LSD	Binds primarily to serotonin receptors (5-HT_2A) in the brain	Dose-dependent Bioavailability: 70–72% (oral) Onset of action: 60 minutes Time to peak plasma concentration: 30 minutes Half-life: 3–4 hours Duration of action: 6–12 hours
MDMA	Increases serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine levels in the brain by inhibiting their reuptake	Dose-dependent Onset of action: 30–60 minutes Time to peak plasma concentration: 2 hours Half-life: 8–9 hours Duration of action: 6–12 hours
Mescaline	Binds to serotonin receptors (5-HT_2A) and dopamine receptors	Dose-dependent Onset of action: 30 minutes Time to peak plasma concentration: 2 hours Half-life: 6 hours Duration of action: 10–12 hours

LSD: lysergic acid diethylamide; MDMA: 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine

Declarations

Author contributions

BY: Data curation, Methodology, Project administration, Formal analysis, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. SM: Data curation, Validation, Writing—original draft. GT: Methodology, Validation, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. AB: Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing.

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

Not applicable.

Consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent to publication

Not applicable.

Availability of data and materials

Not applicable.

Funding

Not applicable.

Copyright

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