GET THE APP

 

Alterations in brain Nitric Oxide (NO) in LSD Hallucinations and Psychosis

Abstract

Nicola Petrogalli

The main neurotrasmitter involved in psychosis is dopamine, but recent findings show that the alteration of the dopaminergic neurotransmission may be secondary to Nitric Oxide (NO) dysfunction. LSD Hallucinations are due to a diminished cerebral blood flow (CBF) in some brain regions, such the ones belonging to the Default Mode Network (DMN), and an enhanced CBF in regions which usually don???t communicate. This is the reason why the brain works in a chaotic way under the effect of LSD. The main molecule which controls the physiology of Cerebral Blood Flow is Nitric Oxide, which is necessary altered in a brain under the effect of LSD. Since LSD Hallucinations can be seen as an experimental model of induced psychosis, this paper extends such a role of NO in determining unconventional neural pathways also in psychosis, providing for the first time a possible mechanism beneath this pathological condition.

PDF

Share this article