Effects - Will a diet rich in tryptophan affect LSD trips

[VitaminK22]

Swim has been doing alot of research on how serotonin is produced in the brain. He has read that food rich in tryptophan but low in other amino acids will help swims brain produce serotonin. Swim also read that having more serotonin will reduce depression and anxiety. Will this extra serotonin affect an LSD trip or make the effects of MDMA better? (or worse?)
Will 5-HTP work in a similar way to eating tryptophan rich foods?

[Felix Guattari]

Off the top of my head, I'd say it's unlikely in the case of LSD.

LSD works by mimicking certain roles played by endogenous tryptamines; it trips some of the same switches as serotonin, but it wouldn't seem to follow from this that having more serotonin would make one trip harder. cf. the fact that SSRIs are generally reported not to increase, but rather decrease the effects of LSD.

MDMA is a somewhat more interesting case:

The primary pathway of action for MDMA (owing, likely, to the methylenedeoxy group at the 3 and 4 positions of the benzene ring, on the 'left' of the molecule) is through affinity for SERT, which is the serotonin re-uptake pump. MDMA not only prevents serotonin from being 're-cycled' back into the neuron, but makes it work in reverse, pumping serotonin into the synapse. The tremendous efflux of serotonin and the resulting depletion of neuronal serotonin reserves is the likely cause of both the associated feeling-like-shit-the-day-after effect and much, if not all, of MDMA's neurotoxic effects.

One would hope that by increasing 5-htp, one could 'get higher'; unfortunately, the rate-limiting factor for serotonin production is tryptophan hydroxylase, not 5-htp, so it is unlikely that 5-htp could help in quite this way. However: taking 5-htp before and after MDMA use is still a good idea, as it is both an antioxidant (scavenging the free-radicals created by MAO), and having a standing reserve thereof helps your body replenish depleted serotonin supplies, thus mitigating the hangover.

Hope this helps.

also: If SWiY is looking for ways to enhance his/her LSD trips and/or MDMA rolls, try preloading with piracetam and/or aniracetam. Check out this thread and this thread, respectively. Another great doc. on preloading for MDMA is the Ecstasy Manifesto, which can be easily found either w/ google or the forum search engine.

[psyche]

That is basically it. If something, extra serotonin diminishes the effects of LSD.

One would hope that by increasing 5-htp, one could 'get higher'; unfortunately, the rate-limiting factor for serotonin production is tryptophan hydroxylase, not 5-htp, so it is unlikely that 5-htp could help in quite this way.

Yes, and since that rate limiting step is omitted by administering 5-HTP it would work all the better. Tryptophan hydroxylase is needed to make 5-HTP from l-tryptophane, which in itself as supplement has definately noticeable effect for SWIM.

[SocialMonster]

This is all great analysis. I just want to add that, since SSRI's work by increasing the amount of serotonin in synapses and causing the body to decrease the number of serotonin receptors, it should be no surprise that a serotonin agonist like LSD would have a lesser effect. In essence, by having more serotonin in your synapses all the time, you've build up a tolerance.