I would wager all of you are too young to have experienced the 60's. LSD was the 'harmless' hallucinagen, which 'was not addictive' with no long-term side effects.
That proved to be false and many suffered from the short and long term consequences of its use.
Re Hallucinogens:
"It has been proposed that symptoms of HPPD are caused by damage to inhibitory interneurons expressing 5-HT2A serotonin receptors to which most hallucinogens bind. This loss of cortical inhibition (21, 22) may manifest in aberrant occipital delta oscillations (23–25) associated with visual hallucinations." [source]
"The available evidence suggests that HPPD symptoms may be a result from a misbalance of inhibitory-excitatory activity in low-level visual processing and GABA-releasing inhibitory interneurons may be involved." [source]
With "damage", I suspect they mean the death of GABA-releasing neurons through overstimulation of 5-HT2A receptors. This damage may extend to other brain areas, and cognitive or psychiatric symptoms may be involved. The reason that the damage doesn't resolve on its own is that neuronal loss is tenacious and creates a non-permissive environment near the site of injury, preventing proper healing which results in persistent functional defects.
And gentlemen (and any other ladies on the website) please don't put too much stock in 'recent studies' which have shown potential efficacy in micro-dosing those with mental illness.
- These studies do not study long term use effects, i.e. these ought not be used to advocate for recreational use.
- If the last two and a half years have taught us anything, studies are published which withhold data, exclude participants, and draw conclusions which are trumpeted, but when the underlying data is examined the turn out to be baloney. ("provide robust long-lasting immunity", "stop transmission" for example) especially with real world result disprove those early 'studies' and findings.