This paper seeks to integrate the perspectives of analytical psychology and neurobiology in order to understand the phenomenon of addiction in contemporary society, taking into account the COVID-19 pandemic. Jung emphasizes the role of the psyche's self-regulation and the development of consciousness in the individuation process. The search for experiences of transcendence is archetypal and can...
Ketamine plus mindfulness psychotherapy was more effective for sustained abstinence from alcohol than placebo plus alcohol psychoeducation. Other combinations of these therapies were not significantly different from one another in this small pilot trial (N=20-25 in each group). Adverse effects were minimal, suggesting that current alcohol use is not a contraindication for consideration of...
EncyclopediaMarch 24, 2022Vanessa Wang, Bryant M. Stone
Buddhism was established by Guatama Buddha as a practice to liberate sentient beings from suffering. Mindfulness-Based interventions (MBIs) are Western psychologists’ adaptation of mindfulness/Vipassana to treat mental illnesses. In addition to mindfulness, Buddhist recovery peer-support programs also adopt the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, and the Five Precepts, which are the...
Psychedelic compounds hold the promise of changing the face of neuroscience and psychiatry as we know it. There have been numerous proposals to use them to treat a range of neuropsychiatric conditions such as depression, anxiety, addiction and PTSD; and trials to date have delivered positive results in favor of the novel therapeutics. Further to the medical use, the wider healthy population is...
In 1965, I was training in clinical toxicology in the pharmacology department of the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and living in the Haight Ashbury. I studied various psychedelics, including LSD, mescaline, and ibogaine, in human and animal models. The psychedelics were then being used as a therapeutic drug in clinical settings and researched as a potential antipersonnel agent...
Abstract Despite growing availability of several evidence-based approaches in the treatment of substance use disorders, existing pharmacotherapy and psychosocial interventions continue to have significant limitations, such as low treatment retention rates and high rates of relapse. There is a need to develop new strategies and models to address these limitations and target underlying...
Mushrooms have been used as traditional medicine for millennia, fungi are the main natural source of psychedelic compounds. There is now increasing interest in using fungal active compounds such as psychedelics for alleviating symptoms of mental health disorders including major depressive disorder, anxiety, and addiction. The anxiolytic, antidepressant and anti-addictive effect of these...
Abstract Rationale ±3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is a recreational drug that shows substantial promise as a psychotherapeutic agent. Still, there is some concern regarding its behavioral toxicity, and its dose-effect relationship is poorly understood. We previously explored the role of dose in the cognitive effects of MDMA in a systematic review of existing literature and found no...
In recent years, alcohol abuse and dependence have become topics of increasing concern in Uganda, but the chronic relapsing brain disease model of addiction remains only one of many ways of understanding and addressing alcohol-related problems there. For many Ugandan Pentecostals and spirit mediums to be addicted is to be under the control of a being that comes from outside the self. Where...
Alcohol dependence has been showing a rising trend all over the world including India. Alcohol consumption has health and social consequences via intoxication, alcohol dependence and other biochemical effects of alcohol. Exposure and desensitization, thought-monitoring, relaxation, and acceptance, have all been suggested as potential active ingredients of mindfulness training which could help...
Abstract Cocaine Use Disorder (CUD) is a significant public health problem associated with elevated morbidity and mortality within the United States. Current behavioral treatments have limited efficacy and there are currently no FDA approved pharmacological treatments for CUD. Classic psychedelics might be associated with lowered odds of substance misuse and may effectively treat various forms...
Introduction and objective: Assessing the abuse potential of new substances with central nervous system activity is essential for preventing possible risks of misuse and addiction. The same methodology is recommended for the evaluation of the abuse potential of recreational drugs. This systematic review aims to assess the pharmacological effects related to the abuse potential and...
Objective: This study assessed the preintervention predictors of participant initial satisfaction and uptake of mindfulness practices during an MBI (Moment-by-Moment in Women's Recovery). Methods: Data from 100 women (Mage = 32.38 years, 60% Latina) in residential SUD treatment randomly assigned to the MBI were used to assess baseline participant demographics and clinical characteristics and...
Intravenous (IV) ketamine is increasingly used off-label at subanesthetic doses for its rapid antidepressant effect, and intranasal (IN) esketamine has been recently approved in several countries for treating depression. The clinical utility of these treatments is limited by a paucity of publicly funded IV ketamine and IN esketamine programs and cost barriers to private treatment programs, as...
Substance use disorders in humans have significant social influences, both positive and negative. While prosocial behaviors promote group cooperation and are naturally rewarding, distressing social encounters, such as aggression exhibited by a conspecific, are aversive and can enhance the sensitivity to rewarding substances, promote the acquisition of drug-taking, and reinstate drug-seeking. On...
Psychedelics extracted from plants have been used in religious, spiritual, and mystic practices for millennia. In 1957, Dr. Hofmann identified and synthesized the prodrug psilocybin, a substance present in more than 200 species of psychedelic mushrooms. Although there were limitations related to the scientific design of many studies, clinical observations performed during the 1950s and 1960s...
AIMS This study examined the relationships between self-transcendence and depressive symptoms, self-esteem, and locus of control in persons with substance abuse disorder (SUDs). METHODS This descriptive-relational study examined 115 participants who had been diagnosed with SUD. RESULTS High self-transcendence scores were positively associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms, higher...
Psilocybin-containing mushrooms have been consumed by various cultures in many different parts of the world for thousands of years. Psilocybin, a classic psychedelic, contains unique psychoactive properties and has been incorporated into religious ceremonies and investigated for its medicinal value. In the mid-20th century, psilocybin, along with most other classic psychedelics (5HT-2A...
Helping professionals who treat addiction will encounter clients from myriad religious and spiritual backgrounds. This chapter addresses the grief and related shame and guilt associated with loss due to addiction from a Buddhist perspective. Buddhist principles such as mindfulness have been integrated into many Western psychotherapeutic programs focused on the treatment of substance use...
ObjectivesBoth substance use, on the one hand, and the first signs of psychosis, on the other, commonly begin in adolescence. Adolescents with substance use disorder (SUD) frequently show recreational use of cannabis and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). When attenuated psychotic symptoms (APS) occur during the course of SUD, they are commonly attributed to the cannabis use, neglecting...