At Numinus, we prefer to use the term psychedelic medicine since psychedelics have been heavily stigmatized due to the war on drugs over the years.
While many compounds are referred to as a drug, medicine is particularly important in this context to actively work to reduce the stigma against psychedelics.
Categorizing Psychedelics
Psychedelic medicines can be broken down into different categories. A lot of people tend to conflate the word psychedelic with the classical psychedelic category.
Please ensure that you read through all items before proceeding by selecting each title.
Classic Psychedelics
This category includes substances that are ergolines and tryptamines and the closely related group of phenethylamines. These are substances like:
These substances tend to have a certain way of acting on receptors in the brain, particularly the 5-HT2A receptors which is a serotonin receptor.
Phenethylamines
Mescaline (in peyote, huachuma, san pedro cacti)
These are also included in this classic psychedelic category, even though their actions are slightly different but similar enough to be grouped together.
Did You Know?
When researchers were looking at the LSD molecule, they noted that it looks structurally very similar to another molecule: serotonin. At that time, serotonin was primarily being researched for its role in blood clotting. It was because researchers knew that LSD had profound psychoactive effects that there was a hypothesis that serotonin might have also effects in the brain. This led to learning that serotonin is indeed a very powerful neurotransmitter in the human brain and elsewhere in the body (Nichols, 2016).
Empathogens
This category is also known as entactogens. What makes these substances similar is that they are mixed serotonin and dopamine reuptake inhibitors and releasers. They include:
This category has an amphetamine-like backbone to the molecule, whereas the classic psychedelics are more serotonin-like in the molecular structure.
Dissociative Anesthetics
The dissociatives have a tendency to unhook the central nervous system from the inputs that are flowing from the rest of the body, from the spinal cord. These include:
Ketamine is a really important medicine. In fact, it's one of the World Health Organization's essential medicines because it is a very powerful anesthetic at high doses and can be used for surgical procedures and other procedures without needing to control for a person's airway or require a respiratory machine (WHO, 2023).
So, you can imagine that, in many places, around the world where this type of equipment is very expensive and less accessible, ketamine is very important. It was actually first developed prior to the Vietnam War. It was carried around by soldiers and known as the buddy drug which would help soldiers to transport their bodies safely off the battlefield when they were wounded so that they could access care.
Atypicals
Finally, we have the atypicals, which is a little bit of a catchall category. It includes:
Salvinorin A (from a plant called Salvia)
Ibogaine (and iboga-derived alkaloids which come from the root bark of an African shrub)
THC (main active ingredient from the cannabis plant)
The atypicals all impact the brain in different ways. As a reminder, the definition of psychedelic (to manifest non ordinary qualities of mind) is part of why we even consider cannabis as a psychedelic.
Resource
Visit this quick reference for all the categories of psychedelics.
References
Nichols D. E. (2016). Psychedelics.Pharmacological reviews, 68(2), 264–355.
