Asking because my gf has ADHD and she told me that, the first time she took ritalin (methylphenidate), she thought to herself “So this is what it feels like to not have ADHD?”
That got me thinking, is there a drug that has a similar effect on autists, that allows them to experience what is it like to “not have autism”?
IIRC cocaine functions as a reuptake inhibitor for dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine, while things like SSRIs and SNRIs inhibit the reuptake of just serotonin, or serotonin and norepinephrine. Clinical trails on coke could be interesting but id expect it more to target things like depression or maybe anxiety, which I know a lot of us develop trying to cope with the tism.
@nondescripthandle @AllNewTypeFace we pretty much have the data there, all that could separate are minor side effect differences… but it’s all overshadowed by the severe addiction side effect of cocaine.
A lot of people with ADHD have cocaine habits because, being a major stimulant, it helps with ADHD symptoms… plus cocaine is often easier to get ahold of than ritalin/adderall despite the latter being safer.
Do we have less data on drugs like Ketamine or MDMA? I’ve seen fairly recent tatgeted clinical trials for those for things likes PTSD and MDD. I just assumed no one tried to study cocaine in those types of settings yet.
@nondescripthandle I get what you’re thinking, the thing is that cocaine is really awful and we’ve got so many better alternatives. One of the biggest elements being the addictiveness, which generally means a drug loses it’s effectiveness over time (it’s why caffeine can help a tiny amount with ADHD but really isn’t recommended, because it actually makes it worse in the long run)
MDMA and Ketamine, while strong, aren’t especially addictive.