Meeting Sessions Discuss the Mechanisms and Necessity of Psychedelic ‘Tripping’
Psychiatric News June 28, 2022 DOI: 10.1176/appi.pn.2022.07.7.33 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | News report Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Paranormal Empathy Cognitive science Psychoanalysis |
| Key points | The text describes an APA Annual Meeting talk by Robin Carhart-Harris on psychedelic neurobiology, noting that psychedelics activate serotonin 2A receptors and can produce increased empathy and out-of-body experiences, while the intermediate brain mechanisms and whether out-of-body experiences are necessary for therapeutic effects remain open questions. |
Abstract
Researchers at two APA Annual Meeting sessions engaged in a wide-ranging talk on psychedelic neurobiology and whether an out-of-body experience resulting from psychedelic use is necessary for the medications to be therapeutic. One of the key questions in psychedelic medicine is quantifying how this class of drugs operates at the higher-order brain level. It is known that they activate serotonin 2A receptors, which eventually leads to states like increased empathy and out-of-body experiences. What happens in between? As part of a wide-ranging talk on psychedelic neurobiology at this year’s Annual Meeting, Robin Carhart-Harris, Ph. D.