Evidence receipt / uncertainty
Published · transcript-backedMichael Pollan: uncertainty
15 Aug 2018 Conversations with Tyler Michael Pollan on the Science and Sublimity of Psychedelics
“One thing, though, people who are on an SSRI to raise their serotonin levels — although actually, we don’t even know that SSRIs do that, believe it or not; it’s incredible what we don’t know about them — but they do occupy the same receptor sites.”
Source trail
Everything needed to verify it.
- Speaker
- Michael Pollan
- Attribution
- Verified speaker
- Claim type
- uncertainty
- Recorded
- 15 Aug 2018
- Publisher
- Conversations with Tyler
Transcript context
…Many psychedelics operate through the serotonin system. If I have a serotonin imbalance, am I at some kind of special risk? Or do we not even know? We do not even know. One thing, though, people who are on an SSRI to raise their serotonin levels — although actually, we don’t even know that SSRIs do that, believe it or not; it’s incredible what we don’t know about them — but they do occupy the same receptor sites. People on an SSRI will not be admitted to these trials. The reason is not that there’s a counter-indication that it would make you sick or do something bad to you, but it won’t work. The psychedelic often won’t work if you’re on an SSRI. So people who want to take them would need to taper off them. But that carries its own risks, of course, of suicide. In general, they want you not to be on an SSRI for that reason. You cite the work of psychologist Alison Gopnik, who compares being on LSD to the consciousness of children. Do you agree with her view? If you do, how does it fit into there being this not-so-fun, sublime yet somewhat terrible aspect of psychedelics?…
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