What's the simplest psychoactive molecule?

[wungchow]

I was gonna say Xenon, but technically that's an atom.

Chloroform?

 

[theWorldWithin]

nitrous oxide?

 

[MurphyClox]

Xenon = psychoactive? How?

 

[Hammilton]

it's like nitrous.

 

[Rectify]

Formaldehdye (HCOH).

 

[Slay]

oxygen

 

[stirfry]

methane is psychoactive as an inhalant i believe.

 

[Slay]

^^ cow fart you mean?
:D:D

 

[Temeraroius]

I thought methane was poisonous.

 

[Jabberwocky]

can a psychoactive substance not also be poisonous?

 

[indelibleface]

methane is psychoactive as an inhalant i believe.

No, I think methane is actually inert in the human body, surprisingly enough.

The MSDS for methane describes the chemical as non-toxic.

 

[LuxEtVeritas]

EtOH

 

[MurphyClox]

Methane is absolutely non-toxic.
BUT it can lead to death due to lack of oxygen when inhaled too much.
These 2 things must not be confused!

 

[Limpet_Chicken]

Xe decreases activity of NMDA, AMPA and kainate receptors somehow, although I'm not sure how, on a molecular level, I was kinda baked when I read the patch-clamp results

 

[MattPsy]

Xe should be the "smallest" (in terms of atomic radius) and simplest (as it is one single atom), but as far as molecules go it'd be NO and N2O, right?

 

[fastandbulbous]

^ nitric oxide (NO) is a death sentance as it oxidizes to NO2 in the presence of oxygen and NO2 will fuck your lungs in a terminal manner

CO2 is psychoactive in high concentrations

 

[wungchow]

Attached a little snippet on the pharmacology of xenon. No GABA activity, interestingly enough. The authors compare it to ketamine, of all things!

The book is Pharmacology for Anaesthesiologists by J. P. Howard Fee & James G. Bovill

 

[MurphyClox]

Interesting info wunchow! Thx for sharing...

What I found so far:

The GABA receptor is a macromolecular complex that represents a putative mediator for many, but not all, general anesthetics. The ‘inert’ anesthetic gas, xenon, was found in cultured neurons to be essentially inactive on GABA-activated currents but very effective to inhibit NMDA receptors. Similarly, effects of nitrous oxide, on the GABA receptor are minimal or inconsistent, but, like known NMDA receptor antagonists, inhibits both NMDA-mediated ionic currents and neurodegeneration. We now report that, at one atmosphere, xenon and nitrous oxide, but not nitrogen, bind within the P450 heme cavity, an occupation linked to perturbation of the catalytic activity of P450 enzymes.

The NMDA-theory seems not to be this far-fetched...
The article continues a bit later:

The presumed relevance of the interaction of general anesthetics with heme proteins is perturbation of steady state levels of eicosanoids and other cognate chemical signals that determine cell sensitivity and response. A prominent role for eicosanoids generated in nervous tissue cells is modulation of the diverse complement of ion channels.

Ah yeah, the source: European Journal of Pharmacology 1999, 381, R1–R3

Peace! Murphy

 

[Riemann Zeta]

If people are excluding Xe because it is noble, hence a monoatomic allotropic species, then the answer has to be N2O. It is a 3 atom molecule. I can't think of any 2 atom molecules that are truly "psychoactive" (no, O2 does not count).

The only other candidate I can think of is Li+ (an ion), but it would technically be disqualified by the same logic used for Xe.

Edit: Cyclopropane is also pretty damn small (and cute), but technically has 9 total atoms, so N2O still beats it.

 

[LuxEtVeritas]

H2 =d