The pharmacology of psilocybin
Addiction Biology – October 01, 2002
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
Despite its experimental medical use in the 1960s, comprehensive pharmacological data on psilocybin, a major hallucinogen and alkaloid, was surprisingly minimal until recently. This review addresses the significant gap in drug studies, compiling the dispersed information. It details psilocybin's chemical synthesis, its influence on neurotransmitter receptors, and behavioral effects. This synthesis is vital for understanding this psychedelic compound, especially given its growing capacity for abuse and potential in medicine.
Abstract
Abstract Psilocybin (4‐phosphoryloxy‐N,N‐dimethyltryptamine) is the major psychoactive alkaloid of some species of mushrooms distributed worldwide.These mushrooms represent a growing problem regarding hallucinogenic drug abuse. Despite its experimental medical use in the 1960s, only very few pharmacological data about psilocybin were known until recently. Because of its still growing capacity for abuse and the widely dispersed data this review presents all the available pharmacological data about psilocybin.