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Dear Community, The initial results are public. Dr. Abraham presented the report at the Annual Meeting of the Biological Psychiatry Society earlier this year. I have included a copy of the Abstract in this post and providing a link to Dr. Abraham's additional discussion and graphs at the bottom. My emphasis added, but to restate Dr. Abraham's website: "This study is NOT the gold standard of proof that this approach works. . .These medications are not approved for use in HPPD. Any interest in them should be discussed with your physician." I know we have discussed COMT, genetic variations and watched the board's discussion move from the serotonin system to the dopaminergic system having originally focused on the GABAergic system. These are not systems locked in single compartments, single receptors and single cell types, but have complex interactions and as you are aware we are just touching the surface of Neural Science and Behavior/Perception. However, the basic discussion was on target: Dr. Abraham hypothesized that inhibition of COMT would reduce symptoms in HPPD. Consequently, COMT inhibitors were tolcapone and Sinemet Again, these are not approved for HPPD and should only be tried with a clinician. Here is the abstract from the conference: Catechol-O-Methyl Tranferase Inhibition Reduces Symptoms of Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder Henry D. Abraham, Psychiatry, Tufts University, Boston, MA Background: Hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD) is a poorly understood disorder arising from the use of hallucinogens. It is characterized by continuous visual disturbances which can be lifelong. There is no known treatment. Studies of HPPD patients with qEEG mapping show that the disorder is represented by disinhibition in the cerebral cortex. Inhibition of catechol-O-methyl transferase (COMT) increases inhibition of sensory input in humans carrying the G/G polymorphism. Accordingly, I hypothesized that inhibition of COMT would reduce symptoms in HPPD. Methods: A single-dose, open label trial of a tolcapone, carbidopa, and L-dopa was conducted in 17 consecutive HPPD subjects. Visual symptoms in each subject were coded on a 0 to 7 Likert scale before, and two hours after, drug administration. A paired Student t-test was used to determine statistical significance. Results: The mean pre-drug visual symptom score for the entire sample was 4.7 +/- 2.6, compared to the post-drug score of 3.7 +/- 2.8 (P= .001). A post hoc median split of the percent response of each subject was 51% symptom reduction in the upper half of responders compared to 1% in the lower half, suggesting a bimodal sample. Conclusions: Inhibition of COMT is a novel approach in the treatment of HPPD. The bimodal treatment response is consistent with the action of a functional polymorphism in the COMT gene. Future directions include a double blind, placebo controlled trial of this treatment and a determination of COMT polymorphism in responders and non-responders. Keyword(s): HPPD, COMT, tolcapone, carbidopa, DOPA (Retrieved from Convention eBook downloaded from: http://www.sobp.org/...?pageid=345267; Kindle Locations 21096-21098. SOBP. Kindle Edition.) LINK TO Dr. Abraham's Web Page regarding this study: http://amrglobal.pow...atment-for-hppd Best wishes, - David Kozin