Psychedelic research has been associated with the Czech Republic since the early 19th century and, after a long period of involuntary dormancy, it has recently gained new opportunities to follow up on its roots and evolve. This article briefly describes the history of psychedelic research in the Czech Republic, summarizes the role of the UN Drug Conventions, and discusses the Czech and...
Pain is the most prevalent symptom of a health condition, and it is inappropriately treated in many cases. Here, we present a case report in which we observe a long-lasting analgesic effect produced by changa, a psychedelic drug that contains the psychoactive N,N-dimethyltryptamine and ground seeds of Peganum harmala, which are rich in β-carbolines. We describe the case and offer a brief review...
In a recent article in this journal, Dos Santos et al. (2018) report a case of ayahuasca use by a man with aphantasia. This account is the first such report of the use of a psychedelic agent by someone with aphantasia. Surprisingly, the case, SE, reported an improvement in their visual imagery following one particular instance of ayahuasca use. In support of Dos Santos et al.’s (2018) favored...
With all the recent excitement about the resurgence of clinical research on the classic serotonergic psychedelics, in what has been labeled the psychedelic renaissance, it is easy to overlook a concurrent revolution taking place in the field of ketamine research. More than 50 years have passed since the synthesis of ketamine, and it remains today the most widely available compound with...
Doce’s book (translated title Drugs in Prehistory: Archaeological Evidence of the Use of Psychoactive Substances in Europe) has broader considerations going wellbeyond Europe. Doce notes that the contemporary societal debates about the use of psychoactive substances can be informed by the wide variety of botanical substances used as psychoactives across human history and prehistory. Doce notes...
The international distribution and commodification of ayahuasca has created virtual communicative realms in the Internet in which members intensively exchange personal narratives, advertisements, and beliefs about ayahuasca and its reputed native background. Common consumption standards and beliefs about ayahuasca have developed among western ayahuasca drinkers who are often only loosely...
Clinical research on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is rapidly advancing in the USA, with two drugs, psilocybin and MDMA, progressing through a structure of FDA-approved trials on a trajectory toward Drug Enforcement Agency rescheduling for therapeutic use. Researcher’s and clinician’s personal use of psychedelics was cited as a potential confound in psychedelic research studies conducted...
Background and aims: This paper aims to shed light on the prevailing public narrative regarding psychedelics and the media's role in cultivating it. The study focuses on the four states of the Visegrad Alliance, whose members gained independence from the Soviet Union and later joined the European Union simultaneously. Thus, ominous substances were introduced to their drug markets and wider...
Aphantasia ("blind imagination") is a poorly described condition with an uncertain etiology, characterized by reduced or lack of voluntary visual imagery. Preliminary evidence in humans suggests that hallucinogenic or psychedelic drugs that act as agonists of cortical 5-HT2A receptors [lysergic acid diethylamide, psilocybin, and dimethyltryptamine (DMT)] enhance visual imagery. Interview and...
A substantial number of people worldwide suffer from mental health problems during their lifetime. First-line treatments are not effective for everybody. Recent studies suggest that psychedelic drugs have high therapeutic potential for a variety of mental disorders. This survey study aimed to assess the tendency of psychedelic users to self-medicate with psychedelics and to compare the...
This study examined the lived experience of individuals who underwent ibogaine treatment for an opioid use disorder. Semi-structured interview questions probed for potential changes in predetermined categories derived from a literature review. Participants' experiences with ibogaine were analyzed for commonalities and emergent themes. Categories that emerged revealed themes about subjective...
Background: Traditional treatment interventions for alcohol use disorders (AUD) have produced mixed outcomes and the global increase in AUDs demands novel and innovative approaches to addiction treatment.Psychedelic substances have been reintroduced into the Western medical community as a potential intervention to complement the treatment of AUDs.Objectives: This paper will discuss the...
With an extreme range of terms for psychedelic drugsfrom "schizotoxic" to "entheogenic" -"psychedelic," nonetheless remains the most salient one.These substances manifest or disclose aspects of the mind of those who take them as well as the mind of those who study them.Proponents for the innumerable terms for these drugs are all able to adduce supportive evidence.Necessarily, this evidence is a...
Psychedelic entity experiences are examined from perspectives of evolutionary psychology and neurophenomenology. Their similarities with other entity experiences illustrate the need for a general biological explanation of entity experiences. Mechanisms are proposed to involve innate modules, operators, and intelligences that underlie ordinary cognitive inferences and provide the basis for...
This study aimed to clarify the influence of extra-pharmacological factors in the etiology of bad trips, a common adverse reaction related to the consumption of psychedelic drugs. A descriptive approach was adopted. The information was collected using a web-based survey. The survey respondents volunteered to participate based on the condition that they had suffered a bad trip in the past. This...
Very few studies have reported the effectiveness of ibogaine as a treatment for chronic opioid use. Therefore, this study evaluated the acute subjective effects of ibogaine, outcomes on problematic opioid consumption, and the long-term associations with psychological functioning. Using online data collection, 88 patients who received ibogaine treatment in Mexico between 2012 and 2015 completed...
This survey examined perceptions among college students about the potential medicinal benefits of hallucinogenic drugs. Current research and potential benefits include an ability to help anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and addiction with hallucinogen-assisted psychotherapy. We devised and administered a survey on 124 students at two college campuses, one small private college in the...
Objective This report documents the phenomenology of the subjective experiences of 22 patients with substance-related disorders who were involved in a treatment combining cognitive–behavioral therapy and hospital sessions with ibogaine in Brazil. Methods Participants underwent a one-to-one semi-structured interview exploring the subjective effects of ibogaine. We employed interpretative...
PurposeIn contemporary phenomenology, Dieter Lohmar has suggested that the new task of phenomenological research is to analyze the “alternative representational systems” of fantasy. In line with this program, we propose that psychedelic experience could also be suitable subject to this project subsumed under the wider category of fantasy activity. The aim of this paper is to show that...
Ibogaine is a naturally occurring hallucinogenic alkaloid with a therapeutic potential for reducing drug craving and withdrawal. To the best of our knowledge, no systematic review was previously performed assessing these effects. Thus, we conducted a systematic literature review of human studies assessing the antiaddictive effects of ibogaine. Papers published up to July 2, 2016 were included...
Substance use disorders are important contributors to the global burden of disease, but current treatments are not associated with high rates of recovery. The lack of approved and effective treatments is acutely problematic for psychostimulants like cocaine and crack cocaine. One promising alternative in the treatment of drug dependence in general and psychostimulants in particular is the use...
Ibogaine is a natural alkaloid that has been used in the last decades as an adjuvant for the treatment of opiate withdrawal. Despite the beneficial results suggested by animal studies and case series, there is a lack of clinical trials to assess the safety and efficacy of ibogaine. Moreover, the majority of reports described cases of heroin-dependent individuals, with and without concomitant...
Ayahuasca is a dimethyltryptamine- and β-carboline-rich hallucinogenic beverage traditionally used by indigenous groups of Northwest Amazonian for ritual and therapeutic purposes. Animal and human studies suggest that ayahuasca has antidepressant and anxiolytic potentials and has a good safety profile. However, anxiety-like reactions may also occur after ayahuasca intake, although they are...
Treating people with alcohol use disorder has been an important target area for psychedelic research – both in the first studies of the 1950s and during the Psychedelic Renaissance of the last 10 years. To date, most studies have looked at the classical psychedelic drugs as adjuncts to psychotherapy; with attention paid to the psychospiritual aspect of the experience as a central therapeutic...