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Cholinergic Mechanisms in Mental Illness: Anticholinergic Hallucinogens

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Recent Advances in Biological Psychiatry

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Abstract

For more than half a century, hallucinogenic substances have intrigued experimentalists seeking to understand the peculiar perceptual disturbances and thought disorders of the insane. Early studies of mescaline, opium alkaloids, and morphine have been followed more recently by interest in the amphetamines, LSD, and psilocybin. A special enthusiam for LSD was generated in many observers who ascribed significance to its ability in uniquely small quantities to stimulate perceptual distortions without confusion or disorientation, simulating naturally occurring psychoses. The mode of action of LSD and mescaline was related to the effects on centrally active catechol amines and their breakdown products. Interest in the biogenic amines was further enhanced by the development of reliable laboratory measures and by demonstrations that orally administered monoamine-oxidase inhibitors may have favorable effects in the treatment of some mental disorders, particularly depressive states.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry at the Missouri Institute of Psychiatry, University of Missouri School of Medicine, 5400 Arsenal Street, St. Louis, Missouri, USA

    Max Fink M.D. (Moderator)

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  1. Max Fink M.D.
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Downstate Medical College, State University of New York, Brooklyn, New York, USA

    Joseph Wortis M.D. (Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry) (Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry)

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Fink, M. (1966). Cholinergic Mechanisms in Mental Illness: Anticholinergic Hallucinogens. In: Wortis, J. (eds) Recent Advances in Biological Psychiatry. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7313-9_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7313-9_17

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-7298-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-7313-9

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