Abstract The Western world is experiencing a resurgence of interest in the therapeutic potential of psychedelics, most of which are derived from plants or fungi with a history of Indigenous ceremonial use. Recent research has revealed that psychedelic compounds have the potential to address treatment‐resistant depression and anxiety, as well as post‐traumatic stress disorder and addictions....
OBJECTIVE: Mindfulness-based interventions are widely used to target pain, yet their neural mechanisms of action are insufficiently understood. The authors studied neural and subjective pain response in a randomized active-control trial of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) alongside long-term meditation practitioners. METHODS: Healthy participants (N=115) underwent functional...
OBJECTIVE This study explored the differences in white matter (WM) microstructural integrity and gray matter (GM) volume between cannabis-induced psychosis (CIP) and schizophrenia with cannabis use (SZC). METHODS This cross-sectional study with convenience sampling involved three groups of 20 participants each (CIP, SZC, and a control group without substance use), matched on age, handedness,...
There is widespread support of cannabis for therapeutic purposes (CTP) despite lack of federal oversight and inconsistencies in screening, consenting, and authorizing use. Young people may have increased vulnerability to adverse effects including psychosis, substance use disorder, reduced academic achievement or other symptoms. We describe a case of a 20 year old who was prescribed CTP in the...
Abstract Feinberg and Mallatt, in their presentation of neurobiological naturalism, have suggested that visual consciousness was acquired by early vertebrates and inherited by a wide range of descendants, and that its neural basis has shifted to nonhomologous nervous structures during evolution. However, their evolutionary scenario of visual consciousness relies on the assumption that visual...
The word ‘misuse’ as used in many Anglophone countries signifies the non-authorised use of medicines that can, in appropriate circumstances, be legally used. By contrast, The World Health Organization prefers the term ‘abuse’. Depending on the jurisdiction, the substances in question are referred to as either scheduled or controlled drugs. Overall drug use by adults in England and Wales has...
Concurrent with the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (MDAct), several further pieces of legislation were introduced, principally the Drugs Act 2005, Temporary Class Drug Orders 2011 (TCDOs) and the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016 (PSA). Before 2005, the cultivation of ‘magic mushrooms’ was not an offence. Whether a person was in possession of such mushrooms depended on whether they were in possession...
Abstract: The idea that “consciousness causes the collapse of the wave function” has never been popular among physicists. The main reason being that the alleged interaction makes the resulting theory mysterious and in tension with physicalism. The Subjective-Objective Collapse (SOC) model attends these worries. SOC is an objective collapse model where the collapse operator depends upon a...
In recent years the role of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in conscious perception has acquired great interest since it became a pivotal issue distinguishing among prevailing neuronal theories of human consciousness. One can identify three major, and conflicting, views of this role. The globalist view proposes that the PFC is a major hub in a global workspace whose activation is a critical...
Although several studies and reports have shown the potential analgesic use of serotonergic psychedelics in cancer pain, phantom limb pain and cluster headache, evidence supporting their use for chronic pain is still limited. The past years have seen a considerable renewal of interest toward the therapeutic use of these compounds for mood disorders, resulting in a marked increase in the number...