Psychological Effects and Metabolism of N,N-diethyltryptamine in Man

A simple indole derivative, N,N-diethyltryptamine (DET), produces psychotogenic-like symptoms similar to LSD and mescaline. Its metabolism involves 6-hydroxylation, a pathway shared by other naturally occurring indoles like tryptamine, skatole, and melatonin. This raises the possibility that this enzyme system could be involved in spontaneously occurring psychoses. The study compared DET metabolism in ten chronic schizophrenic patients and ten normal volunteers after a 1 mg/kg intramuscular dose, aiming to correlate the rate of DET metabolism with its psychological effects in humans.

Study at a glance

Abstract

SIMPLE INDOLE derivatives like the alkylated tryptamines, N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and N,N-diethyltryptamine (DET), produce psychotogenic-like symptoms similar to lysergic acid diethyemide (LSD) and mescaline.1-4 One of the important metabolic pathways of DET has been shown to be by 6-hydroxylation.5The known metabolic pathways of DET are summarized in Fig 1. Other investigators have reported that naturally occurring indole derivatives, ie, tryptamine itself, skatole, melatonin, can also be hydroxylated in the six position.6-8This suggests the possibility that this enzyme system might be involved in spontaneously occurring psychoses. The present study was undertaken to compare the metabolism of DET in a group of chronic schizophrenic patients and in a group of normal volunteers and to correlate the individual rate of DET metabolism with the psychological effects in man. Methods Experimental Procedure.—A 1 mg/kg dose of DET was administered intramuscularly to ten normal