Mushrooms - P. tampanensis & Citalopram
I have been taking an SSRI (cipramil, (citalopram)) for about 6 weeks. I wanted to have a fun guy trip but I was obviously concerned about the possibility of a dangerous interaction. I asked a mate of mine who does biochem about it, he suggested that an interaction was unlikely. But he also said he wasnt really sure, so I resigned myself to a long trawl through the internet. I hardly found anything on the subject, a few dubious accounts but nothing much. I thought for a while and reasoned that if it was going to kill me I would have found something on the net about it. Not rock solid reasoning I grant you but I'm a nihilistic depresive fucker at heart so I thought, what the hell. To cut a long story, and a very pleasant trip, short, I had no problems at all. Trip intensity seemed about normal for 10g of philosophers, which is consistent with other reports I have read.
Trip details:
I took the mushies (gave a particularly intense citrus flavour in the back of my mouth) in the evening. My current house mates would not approve of this kind of exploration, so I didnt tell anyone I was going to trip. But I also wanted to be around people if something went wrong, so I sat in the lounge and watched the simpsons with a couple of mates. I fully appreciated that hiding the fact that I was tripping from close friends was going to be tricky. There were a few difficult moments but I got away with it. The experience was pretty interesting, trying to seperate paranoia from reality.
After about 3/4 of an hour the experience was getting pretty intense so I thought it best to retire to my room. I had reasoned before hand that if something was going to go dramatically wrong it would have done so by this point (I had also secreted a note into my pocket explaining the situation to the paramedics :) if your gonna take risks make sure you cover yourself.. ish). The following 2 hours consisted of intense introspection set to pink floyd. Why is it that every time I trip I get out my pen and paper, fully intending to record some of those 'deep' introspections and end up with absolutely dick all? I'm having too much of a good time to be arsed is part of the answer...
In conclusion: I had no problems with mushies while on Cipramil but obviously this doesnt mean you wont have any problems. It also does not mean that other SSRI's will behave as well under the same conditions.
As a parting note: Read around very carefully before you do anything and certainly dont take anyone's advice as truth, including mine...
[Erowid Note: see also
SSRI Vault]
