Its used in medical biotech studies to lesion and destroy nerve pathways via microinjection into regions of the brain under study so such pathways can be selectively targeted for destruction. Does that sound like something you want to take? Excitotoxins are capable of PERMANENTLY crippling a human if they are not killed outright. Could reduce you to a dribbling basket case for the rest of your existence thats little more than a tube of humanoid shaped meat that gets food put into it by a carer or nasogastric tube at one end, has it come out the other end and spends the rest of the time busily suffering.
Just look at what the not too dissimilar excitotoxin domoic acid does to the poor fucking bastards that survive eating contaminated shellfish. Its not an NMDA agonist, rather its an AMPA receptor (a closely related ionotropic glutamate receptor type) agonist.
Causes seizures, and massive calcium influx to the neurons in question causing them to burn to a crisp and die. Both NMDA and AMPA receptors are expressed highly in a region of the brain called the hippocampus, although are widely distributed throughout the brain, being responsible for the large majority of fast excitatory synaptic neurotransmission. The results of domoic acid poisoning, for example, if it doesn't kill the victim, they lose the ability to learn, to form new memories, and end up crippled. Recovery from excitotoxic brain damage is slow, IF it occurs. Which it may not. Or there may be a partial recovery, leaving somebody a burnt out hollow crippled, brain-damaged shell of what they used to be. A husk, dried out and burnt, leaving behind echoes of who the person once was.
You want to aim for something like that? there is a reason they are called excitoTOXINS. They are excitatory, and they are toxic. What NMDA, AMPA and KA (kainate) receptor orthosteric agonists have in common with each other as excitotoxins, is that the damage produced by poisoning by this kind of toxin is extremely long lasting, if it heals at all, and has the potential to leave the victim permafucked in a really severe and unpleasant kind of way.
As for medicinal PCP-I could see one specific instance where it may possibly be of medical value, perhaps two or even three. Similarly to ketamine, in refractory depression. Neuropathic pain when used at low doses, as an alternative to opioids where the pain is solely or mostly neuropathic in origin and where a longer acting NMDAr antagonist than ket would be desirable, since opioids are pretty piss poor remedies for neuropathic pain. Something like a low-dose extended release PCP tablet, or transdermal patch perhaps even better given it could be applied directly to the affected area, such as the source of phantom limb pain.
Also, again in low dose, possibly for those who have just been through something traumatic that they would wish to not commit to memory.
And it ought to be made mandatory for anybody in or going to be entering politics, since given their ideas of what sanity consists of, they could use being driven off the deep end (from their point of view of bat shit mental rather than the perspective of a human being)
And Cotcha, electrical 'autoreceptors'? that is fascinating. That just became my breakfast journal article (I don't much care for a serving of greasy lies, half-truths and misinterpreted, poorly understood bollockspeak from a morning paper to be shoveled down me neck hole, and would far prefer some interesting chemistry, biology or particle/condensed matter physics article right from the horse's mouth as opposed to coming out of *A* generic horse's arsehole with my morning bowl of porridge)
Definitely one of the better appetizers, thanks.
