J Psychopharmacol
June 15, 2020
Anna Borissova, Bart Ferguson, Matthew B. Wall et al.
37 citations
BACKGROUND: 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is being actively researched as an adjunct to psychotherapy. It may be beneficial to trust, empathy and cooperative behaviour due to its acute prosocial effects. AIM: To test (a) the acute effects of MDMA on measures of empathy, trust and cooperative behaviour, and (b) subacute changes in mood three days after MDMA administration. METHODS: =7...
UNC Libraries
April 22, 2020
Peter J. Hellyer, Luke T. J. Williams, Ben Sessa et al.
1 citation
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), the prototypical “psychedelic,” may be unique among psychoactive substances. In the decades that followed its discovery, the magnitude of its effect on science, the arts, and society was unprecedented. LSD produces profound, sometimes life-changing experiences in microgram doses, making it a particularly powerful scientific tool. Here we sought to examine its...
Psychopharmacology (Berl)
November 8, 2017
R. L. Carhart-Harris, Mark Bolstridge, C. M. J. Day et al.
978 citations
RATIONALE: Recent clinical trials are reporting marked improvements in mental health outcomes with psychedelic drug-assisted psychotherapy. OBJECTIVES: Here, we report on safety and efficacy outcomes for up to 6 months in an open-label trial of psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression. METHODS: Twenty patients (six females) with (mostly) severe, unipolar, treatment-resistant major...
Sci Rep
October 13, 2017
Robin Carhart-Harris, Leor Roseman, Mark Bolstridge et al.
590 citations
Psilocybin with psychological support is showing promise as a treatment model in psychiatry but its therapeutic mechanisms are poorly understood. Here, cerebral blood flow (CBF) and blood oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) were measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) before and after treatment with psilocybin (serotonin agonist) for...
Language Cognition and Neuroscience
August 11, 2016
Neiloufar Family, David Vinson, Gabriella Vigliocco et al.
53 citations
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is a classic psychedelic drug that alters cognition in a characteristic way. It has been suggested that psychedelics expand the breadth of cognition via actions on the central nervous system. Previous work has shown changes in semantic processing under psilocybin (a related psychedelic to LSD) that are consistent with an increased spread of semantic activation....
Lancet Psychiatry
May 17, 2016
Robin Carhart-Harris, Mark Bolstridge, James Rucker et al.
1,546 citations
BACKGROUND: Psilocybin is a serotonin receptor agonist that occurs naturally in some mushroom species. Recent studies have assessed the therapeutic potential of psilocybin for various conditions, including end-of-life anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and smoking and alcohol dependence, with promising preliminary results. Here, we aimed to investigate the feasibility, safety, and efficacy...
Curr Biol
April 13, 2016
Enzo Tagliazucchi, Leor Roseman, Mendel Kaelen et al.
531 citations
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is a non-selective serotonin-receptor agonist that was first synthesized in 1938 and identified as (potently) psychoactive in 1943. Psychedelics have been used by indigenous cultures for millennia [1]; however, because of LSD's unique potency and the timing of its discovery (coinciding with a period of major discovery in psychopharmacology), it is generally...
Eur Neuropsychopharmacol
April 12, 2016
Mendel Kaelen, Leor Roseman, Joshua Kahan et al.
143 citations
Psychedelic drugs such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) were used extensively in psychiatry in the past and their therapeutic potential is beginning to be re-examined today. Psychedelic psychotherapy typically involves a patient lying with their eyes-closed during peak drug effects, while listening to music and being supervised by trained psychotherapists. In this context, music is...
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
April 11, 2016
Robin Carhart-Harris, Suresh Muthukumaraswamy, Leor Roseman et al.
887 citations
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is the prototypical psychedelic drug, but its effects on the human brain have never been studied before with modern neuroimaging. Here, three complementary neuroimaging techniques: arterial spin labeling (ASL), blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) measures, and magnetoencephalography (MEG), implemented during resting state conditions, revealed marked changes in...
Neuropsychologia
April 5, 2016
Devin B. Terhune, David Luke, Mendel Kaelen et al.
45 citations
The induction of synaesthesia in non-synaesthetes has the potential to illuminate the mechanisms that contribute to the development of this condition and the shaping of its phenomenology. Previous research suggests that lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) reliably induces synaesthesia-like experiences in non-synaesthetes. However, these studies suffer from a number of methodological limitations...
Psychological Medicine
February 5, 2016
Robin Carhart-Harris, Mendel Kaelen, Mark Bolstridge et al.
301 citations
Background Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is a potent serotonergic hallucinogen or psychedelic that modulates consciousness in a marked and novel way. This study sought to examine the acute and mid-term psychological effects of LSD in a controlled study. Method A total of 20 healthy volunteers participated in this within-subjects study. Participants received LSD (75 µ g, intravenously) on one...
Biological Psychiatry
January 10, 2014
Robin Carhart-Harris, Kevin Murphy, Robert Leech et al.
182 citations
The MTLs appear to be specifically implicated in the mechanism of action of MDMA, but further work is required to elucidate how the drug's characteristic subjective effects arise from its modulation of spontaneous brain activity.
The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
December 17, 2013
Robin Carhart-Harris, Matthew B. Wall, David Erritzøe et al.
110 citations
3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is a potent monoamine-releaser that is widely used as a recreational drug. Preliminary work has supported the potential of MDMA in psychotherapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The neurobiological mechanisms underlying its putative efficacy are, however, poorly understood. Psychotherapy for PTSD usually requires that patients revisit traumatic...
Journal of Neuroscience
September 18, 2013
Matthew J. Brookes, David Errtizoe, Ben Sessa et al.
501 citations
Psychedelic drugs produce profound changes in consciousness, but the underlying neurobiological mechanisms for this remain unclear. Spontaneous and induced oscillatory activity was recorded in healthy human participants with magnetoencephalography after intravenous infusion of psilocybin—prodrug of the nonselective serotonin 2A receptor agonist and classic psychedelic psilocin. Psilocybin...