David S. Kozin

Vision Simulator links and more... content added continuously.

https://www.flashback.org/t153280p2

20 readers so far. In a community of journalists, researchers, addiction counselors, prominent drug bloggers.

http://perceptualpsych.org/ Is a wordpress based blog that is being integrated to feed to my Twitter Following. This includes journalists in specializing in addiction and neuroscience and who have regular segments on sites including Time Magazine Online, Addiction Blog, and features in NYT, Boston Globe, and other outlets. Fortunately, my Twitter following has expanded to include the journal Addiction, Addiction Support Sites, Researchers, the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation Capital and Public Health Groups, and individual bloggers and tweeters who carry influence for taking a tiny message from me and amplifying it to many who count. I have given expressed permission for a member of the media to review this site, in addition to my writings and the clinical literature, to consider writing about the story of this (our) forgotten patient population. The perceptualpsych.org web site is preparing for daily HPPD updates from my text, but I need editors and other content writers. Graphic artists. The research I designed will be administered through this web site. I advise individuals with twitter accounts to follow me at davidkozin or go to the site and retweet the current articles. So far, I have published the following items: 1) An Annotated Bibliography of a Mythological Disorder. Then I include a comprehensive list of HPPD-related research nearing 100+ articles and abstracts. 2) A link to this message board. 3) A collection of descriptions of HPPD symptoms in your own words. So far, I have been contacted for more information. Individuals interested should contact me at dkozin@me.com - David

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Individuals interested in meta-analytic research with the large amount of data in these public posts can participate either by asking a question, "How often is the phrase 'visual snow" used instead of "paliponesia" or what are all posts contiaining the generic and non-generic drug name for Risperdal and foreign spellings. If you are Interested in the participation of the quantification of this research with questions involving analysis of patterns, words, and other areas to replicate and improve on results from the prior characterization study. It will be very similar to the way the research was conducted with Depersonalization and is very cost-effective and produces amazing results. More information to come. Additionally, I have asked for additional help to organize the message board because of publicity in the near future for the site. - David

The message board before our last one contained the following members, which joined in this order (sorry for lack of commas). I have e-mailed the accounts addresses on file to advise them of a few updates. Importantly. 11.000 posts are organized and a group of researchers will use this for meta-analysis. I hear of numerous problems, and working back on the site because I am seeking IRB to approve the research study design that can be implemented quite quickly. Anonymous Administrator Lucid shaman1993 chilly187 Nacho_03 Meth Lab pogb koolaid hppdonline dkozin misterD shawn chilly JILL1023 jft NikosP NeedHelp Unbrokenchain21 TonyHart Techsan DK Gitcha NAH! Shaynie Tverras kyleupchurch2003 NeedHelpUrgent doglike spofoman staind96 Cologero Flash Guitar makeitstop memyselfandeye Joseph P W Sprint bill False Prophet EraserHead VisionsOfJohanna wakkothesane XTC_Induced_Hppd Emily Headdropunit Keir benza Nihil Louis jason678 1998 Pineboy104 trypyamine Mike GloriousMorning bdjones komcaz51 mushis Lars Pontus vanilla sky Longshot doc51 Jake Figment washappy dave Rancidmilk2go postsynapse rottenmilk2go elroy jettson raoul Sephiroth HHD3 James mint400 milo1346 brackenduck hppdsupporter gringo AguyWithProblems PrimeDaz Mr.Bishie james21 Finewithit francisfay Louise Brisk ReggaeDave clyde54 psilocybin420 Methodone20 Tamarick Gaba joe dntknhw2b venus SnoShadow Neuroactive disturbded247 PRETENDWHEREDEAD staticman crazychickuk Ancient TellMyBrainImSorry holiertrippp newmoon kojak coinz500 gamma Tenebrous arch Girone Pengwin acidpsilobinhppd Quade SpacemanSpliff DrLerner MyCall81 Space Case annon dontmindme sydbarrett whitegoldenqueen syd needtorelax chickenboots i_am_hydrogen william euphoriagloria Jon18 Lost Prophet snowman theshiftingwalls fattytire jwalker Snowblind jftmn TWill acidcasualty damagedone danielbnelson Trippingintotheblue Mr.NoFace Calmfixup rory 1972 xPyr0x oldguy WakkoReborn zelda2803 ahhmakeitstop Ahhhmakeitstop stevenjc Valaki HammerTrain Sloop billgates955 Jono_aus jarby mm28 Lex_Averial since96 Coz max Zelda Cormac enthenoel yakams berg moree xxxx chuck_hell TwiceBjørn™ stillTRIPPIN Sklavenitis BEARPAW MrJynxx timmy Icculus Stoic NikkiD Eddie Spaven Loft DT hppd12 cdandmr dj lebarron psychadelic3lephant Plagued nytejade Brainstorm fried twisted SteveH thrushing77 joseph2515 Roland flip val rocky sydskyd nick sam442200 Saga Sthump Trippy_Cornflakes burnt-out john_henry Joaquim shelly78 Heather raezorz43 Doz nev John Henry traubert RebeccaS Psy-T sonalised realtime Lakes26 Since1995 SteveMH dark_natured fvoa Nebulus Fluke Pearce Jecht lazure PoeticAudio Choara Red Dawn KWH K-W-H Desired22 EndlessNameless Bukakke-Sake Julzy Gregarrio acidxstar SoulBrotha daybyday darkprince GodofStyx Big J Jay6785 UncaSid ramu1234 Gary The bag Zamtin00 Stranger introvert beanie kehrlein Manuel76 JD trails dofishoilswork? tom traubert pmcleod yankeehotelfoxtrot Ella_Guru laughingcow haptic

Residual neurocognitive features of long-term ecstasy users with minimal exposure to other drugs. Addiction. 2011 Apr;106(4):777-86 Authors: Halpern JH, Sherwood AR, Hudson JI, Gruber S, Kozin D, Pope HG In field studies assessing cognitive function in illicit ecstasy users, there are several frequent confounding factors that might plausibly bias the findings toward an overestimate of ecstasy-induced neurocognitive toxicity. We designed an investigation seeking to minimize these possible sources of bias. PMID: 21205042 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] View the full article

Don’t drink and go online. It’s like the drunken phone call, but much much worse. Since that person and all of his or her friends have now seen you lash out too, making you seem pathetic or of train wreck status. Turn it off. Now you have to shut both your computer and your phone (ok your iPad too) to get away from social media, but not being online is the first step in not doing anything stupid online. Pissed off that someone insulted you or tagged an embarrassing photo of you? Go for a jog instead of posting to all of your friends what a jerk that person is. Remember you like being employed. Most employers are aware of the social media activity of their employees, especially monitoring what it said about the company or its employees. So complaining about your horrible boss or complaining about how little you make for all the work you do can make you the recipient of a “you’re fired” tweet! Don’t think you can talk behind someone’s back. So you blocked your no-good ex from your Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc. And you unfriended all his friends too. Or so you think. All you need is one person left off and that person tells your ex, ex-best friend or whoever else you’re trashing and you’ve become the bitter loser. Remember words can’t hurt you. I’ve had people tweet me that my face looks like it got ran over, am I pregnant because I obviously gained weight and that I was going to hell for certain political opinions I have. If I took every comment to heart I would need years of psychotherapy. Think of how much people must hate their own lives to insult yours. Vent to yourself. When you can’t scream or vent to someone in person (and sometimes you shouldn’t that’s what therapists are for), writing can help relieve frustration and stress. But don’t send that email, tweet or facebook message off. Instead, address that email to yourself. You’ll get the relief from getting your emotions out with the fallout from hurting your intended recipient or regretting your words later. 24 hours later, if you still feel you must send the email to that person, do it. Wait a week to change your relationship status. The game of love seems to spark a lot of online rage. A lot of my friends complain about dating online then wonder why no one wants to date them. Ever seen people that go from “in a relationship” to “single” to “it’s complicated” to “in a relationship” in a day. Don’t air your dirty laundry. No one needs to know you’re fighting, that’s a problem that’s personal between the two of you. It’s really hard to repair a relationship when your status yesterday was “single now hot men call me now.” Figure out what you really want first. Write a joke or a positive message. Resist the urge to write “all people suck” or tweet back nastiness at the 20 people who didn’t like your picture. Instead write a more upbeat message. This tells your haters that their hate didn’t bother you because you’ve already moved on. Whether you have or not. If you engage haters they will keep bothering you and bring in reinforcements. Twitter interaction can snowball, so defending yourself can be more of a loss than just updating your status. That is the beauty of social media: with so many feeds and users, almost any online fight or embarrassment is gone within a day. from Dr. Michelle Noonan, Scientifically Proven Tips for Better Living. Neuroscientist, writer, host & TV personality.http://www.doctormichele.comFROM

http://www.jointcommission.org/assets/1/18/speakup_research.pdf Information about participating in research. "What happens during research studies of new medicines? First, a few volunteers test the safety of the medicine and how much should be taken. Then, larger groups of people test the long term safety of the medicine and how well it works. Find out which group you will be in." LarryC is on topic.

oops... david.s.kozin@gmail.com

If you are already a member of Google + and interested in connecting with me or other HPPD individuals.... I have circles for different levels of privacy, and looking how social media can be used for HPPD. I have spoken with some very tech savvy people and I see that you can have VERY IMPRESSIVE video chat with 5 or more people talking at once. If you want to join Google +, e-mail me at david.s.kozin@me.com with a simple heading "Invite me to Google +" and I will send you an invite and put you in a private circle. - David

Obviously, it has been a conscious decision for me to stay out of this discussion (for the most part). This is not because I am formally associated with any aspect of Dr. Abraham's work, but because I have experience working in the research and clinical landscapes and do not want to damage or potentially affect any ongoing research project because it does not benefit the community as a whole or HPPD members. I want to first say that I am very impressed with a few parts of this discussion: 1) Many individuals who participated in trial medication(s) have remained silent on the issue despite their discussion with me regarding their personal outcome. I know this is difficult. 2) Individuals who chose (as is your right) to discuss any treatment or treatments in your experience have pointed out a few key themes that should be repeated. First, all medications have risks and I am happy to see that these are discussed. My personal fear is that someone will decide on their own to try a new medication without supervision and harm themselves. The worst outcome is any person harming themselves whether it be taking a new substance being prescribed for HPPD, for example: individuals becoming addicted to a drug like clonazepam because they were using it from illicit sources and taking the drug in dose ranges (or with alcohol) resulting in addiction/etc or someone taking a trial medication or medication simply based on the recommendation of another member. We all have a unique brain chemistry, variations of a theme (HPPD has different flavors), and as a whole because we have HPPD we have shown we have a unique reaction to substances and should be careful with what we take. Not to be a hypocrite, I will admit that in the past I have not followed this advice and learned the hard way that I have only further compounded my problem in other ways. I am glad the reports are honest, do not exaggerate claims, and in many cases focus on some of the ways HPPD can be managed simply by knowing a few things: A) HPPD does not have to control your life. I have spoken with perhaps a 1,000 individuals with HPPD including jobs requiring a high level of functioning, focus, and overall positive emotional outlook on their health including: high-rankingm ilitary officers, medical doctors, students graduating with highest honors, multimillionaires, mothers, and the list goes on. The thread is discussing hope, even for those individuals reporting no effect with any trial medication. C) The Dopamine Hypothesis. I started this topic off a few months ago in another section with hesitation, but decided to let it pass because the information is present in the scientific literature if you piece it together. I recommend any person wanting to get a "feel" for the complexity of the mechanism(s) of action with hallucinogens read an excellent paper by Dr. David Nichols, which is available along with many interesting literature articles at Erowid.org. The link is: <a href="http://www.erowid.org/references/texts/show/6318docid5883">http://www.erowid.org/references/texts/show/6318docid5883</a> Brief excerpt of timed writing exam asking about current psychological and pharmacological treatments and HPPD for degree "The current standard treatment for the symptoms of visual disturbances and associated anxiety with HPPD is clonazepam. Clonazepam is effective at reducing symptoms and in many cases prescribed for long periods. In some HPPD cases, individuals are unable to drive at night or distinguish stars from visual static without the use of clonazepam. However, the potential for dependence and abuse is a concern if the patient has a history of substance abuse, but HPPD alone does not necessitate a diagnosis of substance abuse. Individuals with HPPD can be strongly adverse to new psychotheraputics and resist medication treatment. The discovery of a therapy providing the same type of amplification of the inhibitory transmitter GABA, as exists with clonazepam, but without dependence could be a breakthrough for this population. Areas including increasing dopamine in the ventral tegmentum, which projects to the limbic system, is one area to consider increasing inhibition in the system. The limbic system is strongly associated with lasting effects from trauma and the processing of visual information."

Line by Line editing of System Settings, Security, Products, and other details are underway. Please advise me if you have any trouble with the web site. July 6th Updates (edited hourly): 1. Search Engines are now allowed on message board. (To do: create section search engine bots are unable to visit) 2. Increased security for Logins, but returned to user validation. 3. Updated Search features. 4. Changed basic system variables.

Mutts, Thank you for your fine post. Dr. Abraham has the highest ethical standards of any researcher I have known. - David

1) Cellular death would be detectable only if the neuronal damage large enough scale. However, this is unlikely because 1) not dose dependent to severity correlational, let alone causal relationship, 2) delayed onset post-precipitant event when assumed to be hallucinogen related. 2) Regarding the depletion of neurotransmitters: I cover this in my Neurobiology section, but here is the very short version: Depletion can occur via multiple mechanisms. Including agonism at the receptor resulting in depolarization of the cell and release of transmitters in the cell and receptor density lowering immediately. Receptors are replaced and damage to a receptor would persist only if the genes encoding for the receptor were altered, a specific sub-unit of a receptor is improperly coded, or the early immediate-early gene like c-fos. If HPPD individuals were particularly sensitive to returning to normal gene expression after experiencing changes then you have one possible explanation. The neuron is not making receptors at the same rate because of long-term potentiation for example. In the case of benzo use, the GABA receptor will down-regulate. It takes a long time for the cells to process and eventually return to the normal rate to generate the receptor complexes. 3) LSD is great at binding to specific 5-HT receptors. If LSD were to cause a conformational (structural) change in a receptor, it would happen to all users of LSD. Unless, the HPPD individual has a receptor complex that is just enough "off" in structure to be suceptible to this alteration in structure (for example, some chemicals will actually get stuck and block the receptor, I think picrotoxin operates this way. However, the affect would be dose dependent and we would look for problems with other serotonin agonists (including serotonin itself). LSD also is rare in that it has Dopaminergic action as well. I'll try to get this out as soon as possible. Do know that 5-HT receptor density in blood platelets is one way to measure what is happening in the brain.

Uploaded Horowitz article for users. Do not distribute besides personal use. I think it is eye opening to see what was being said so long ago. Link in original post.

History_HPPD.pdf updated PDF. This is a very tiny section. Just felt historical today. - David

I like this little piece because it shows a history of our disorder from 1955 that remained constant and if you read the old articles the descriptions match what is know today. The question is: How was this ignored for so long? In 1969 we knew almost all of the characterization of HPPD. - David

This post has been promoted to an articleHistory_HPPD.pdf horowitz_flashbacks.pdf History_HPPD.pdf

Dr. Henry David Abraham has a web site at: www.drabraham.com. Individuals able to travel to Boston for proper evaluation and possible medication can contact him directly on this web site. Before contacting him, my advice based on personal experience and that of others: Even without the schedule Dr. Abraham has, I know the amount of e-mails and requests on HPPD or related disorders is often overwhelming; these are often detailed e-mails regarding an individual's HPPD history and treatment, and it is a very delicate balance between providing medical advice and answering questions. Dr. Abraham has a regular schedule with his clients, and it is generally poor medical practice for him to answer clinical questions about HPPD without a face-to-face meeting or having prior experience with you. I have stated that I have learned more from Dr. Abraham's silence than I have from many professor or clinician's babbling: Dr. Abraham routinely will not answer my e-mails, and usually when I review what I wrote I will see that it contains a question requesting a medical opinion on a case, contains a question that I can answer myself, or somehow violates privacy or patient/research ethics simply if he were to respond. The other side is quite frankly, Dr. Abraham is really busy, and he has a busy schedule and/or could be out of the country for three weeks for a conference/etc. Short Lesson: Do not e-mail Dr. Abraham with general HPPD questions or ask him to do something that you would feel a research might consider unethical. One example would be asking, "How can I experiment on myself and do you think it would be safe?" He can not answer this. If individuals are interested for us to have a special question and answer section on this message board that can first be fielded by another member and/or me if it does fall into our area of experience or particular expertise and if not then we could send the questions as a group to Dr. Abraham to give him time to consider them and have a response at once... sounds like a great idea to me. I try to imagine that for every e-mail received, which contains a detailed history of our lives, treatment history, and questions takes at minimum 2 hours to respond to effectively if you do not want to rush an answer. So, receiving two e-mails a day can be 3-4 hours time. Add this to the e-mails from other sources, colleagues, regular patients, consults... I finally understood Dr. Abraham was not being short or curt with me in the past, but simply being effective in responding. Sincerely, David

I can sympathize. I do not qualify. I can only speculate: but it is to reduce risk and is generally poor practice to conduct research without direct contact for the investigator. If you want to e-mail me to discuss this further I will do so. If individuals feel it is unfair, please know that the methods are created to help the community as a whole until it can be taken to the next step. I am hoping to help make that process happen much more quickly. I hope my publishing this information was not a mistake, and I will ask it to be reviewed to ensure it does not cause more harm than the good of bringing candidates to the trial. Sincerely. David

Dear Community, I want to first say that I am not connected with the current medication trial for HPPD or related disorders. However, I am aware that Dr. Abraham is open to talk to anyone willing to come to Boston for a proper evaluation and possible medication trial. In the interest of protecting the most vulnerable of our population, we should be careful when discussing the medication(s) used because this is something that should not be done alone or without proper consultation. It could harm a member of the community and also the future of research. If you are interested in receiving information on traveling to Boston and would like to meet with Dr. Abraham for consultation and discuss participation in a possible medication trial you can contact me at Either by Phone: (617) 858-0279 10AM - 10 PM EST. The phone will also ring my house phone and cell. You can leave a message with family with username and phone number. I can receive texts, but please include your username and name to help aid me. Or by e-mail: hppd@me.com I am not a screener for the research, but I can be helpful in discussing travel and contacting Dr. Abraham. I do not believe a flood of requests to Dr. Abraham would be helpful, and we should have individuals with HPPD who are serious and able to be part of this first stage to contact Dr. Abraham and I can send along any information at your request and provide you with the best method to contact Dr. Abraham at the time. Sincerely, David

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No, I have not participated in any new medications for HPPD. I am writing up my post about this for everyone right now! - David