Cholinergic mechanisms in mental illness: anticholinergic hallucinogens.

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.KeywordsDepressive StateCholinesterase ActivityAnticholinergic AgentCholinergic MechanismPerceptual DistortionThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.