Pharmacology How does reverse tolerance work?

[Juicewrldfan]

So, I don’t really understand how reverse tolerance works. It seems there are some drugs that are said to have reverse tolerance such as Kanna and kava. But that has not been my experience with them.

Just the concept as a whole, I don’t understand how it would work. Is there really a such thing as reverse tolerance verses a substance just building up in your system?

If there is truly such a thing as reverse tolerance, can someone please give me an example of a drug and breakdown how it works? It could be any drug, doesn’t have to be recreational necessarily.

 

[Mjäll]

Both desensitization and sensitization are intuitively valid reactions to novel stimuli. Sometimes we need to be able to tolerate more of something, and sometimes we need to be able to notice it more readily.

I guess the brain works like that in the micro scale too. As for specific pharmacological mechanisms, i don't know. And i don't know what the determining factors are.

 

[Juicewrldfan]

Yeah it seems like no one knows the mechanism. All I am find is articles like the listed below that say it’s a phenomenon.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/reverse-tolerance#:~:text=Sensitization%2C%20also%20referred%20to%20as,persist%20for%20weeks%20or%20months.

 

[Mjäll]

It's a fabled and mythical concept to drug nerds and scientists alike. Maybe they should collaborate with us.

I'd guess some mechanisms of reverse tolerance are studied, just too technical and maybe too little to be available as common knowledge.

 

[AlsoTapered]

EXPECTATION

 

[Phobos]

So, I don’t really understand how reverse tolerance works. It seems there are some drugs that are said to have reverse tolerance such as Kanna and kava. But that has not been my experience with them.

Just the concept as a whole, I don’t understand how it would work. Is there really a such thing as reverse tolerance verses a substance just building up in your system?

If there is truly such a thing as reverse tolerance, can someone please give me an example of a drug and breakdown how it works? It could be any drug, doesn’t have to be recreational necessarily.

I do not know the mechanics of it, but Testosterone is known to increase the amount of androgens receptors over time, so taking supraphysiological amounts of it speeds up the process and you become more sensitive to the effects of it the longer you keep taking it.
So you get increased effects from the same dose, or you can get the same effects from a lower dose.

 

[Foreigner]

Pretty sure salvia works this way.

 

[MuertaMan]

I know late stage alcoholics can experience this from the liver being so damaged it cant process the alcohol anymore so they can get smashed off like 2-3 beers, sounds awful.

 

[AlsoTapered]

I know late stage alcoholics can experience this from the liver being so damaged it cant process the alcohol anymore so they can get smashed off like 2-3 beers, sounds awful.

EXPECTATION.

Believe me, I've seen end-stage alcoholics to the extent that I've poured them a pure, cool. clear glass of alcohol-free beer and they STILL got drunk.

 

[SpiralusSancti]

With psychedelics people with a lot of experience tend to notice very light doses that someone without experience would hardly notice, but that isn’t really reverse tolerance. I think same sometimes happens to people with weed and some other things too.

Another fake reverse tolerance that’s not rare is when person is already addicted to something so upon taking dose that didn’t feel so strong before actually feels stronger as it removes WD that’s creeping in. Coke can do that, psychological addiction can kick in even when it’s used only during weekends and first can feel as better than line of same stuff last weekend. Some will become more economical and stretch out coke they got. Some people will call acquired taste while it’s in fact getting addicted to something.

Sometimes if you were taking some drug for purely non-medicinal reasons when you experience taking it for what it’s officially used and not only to feel great it can seem stronger. That can happen with pain-relief meds but a lot more with meds used for anxiety and depression. Very high dose of diazepam might seem totally unimpressive and weak yet some time after 10mg taken for anxiety can fee strong and just enough.