The use certain writers make of “substances”, like coffee, tobacco, or alcohol, to inspire themselves is an intriguing subject. Does dependence on such stimulants necessarily harm a writer´s judgment and ruin him in the end? Is it valid to condemn it as “addiction” when it is he or she who writes the book, not the bourbon or marijuana and what counts is its quality, not the writer´s character?...
Iboga alkaloids are a group of monoterpenoid indole alkaloids with promising and intriguing biological activities. Ibogaine is the representative member of the series and has become widely known as a potent atypical psychedelic with promising effects to treat substance use disorder. Nowadays, an efficient and scalable enantioselective total synthesis of ibogaine and related iboga alkaloids is...
ABSTRACT Despite all fundamental divergences, the similarities formed between some interpretations of the later-Wittgenstein’s philosophy of religion and the tradition of Islamic Mysticism (Sufism), can yet be philosophically recognized. These basic analogies are as follows: 1) The inextricability of belief and practice and the priority of practice over knowledge 2) The characterization of the...
A “pipeline of new psychedelic medicines” to be used in treating addiction is underway, with the most recent announcement from Canada‐based Awakn Life Sciences, which on June 24 named David Nutt its chief research officer. Many of Awakn's candidate medications were acquired in March from Nutt's Equasy Enterprises. Also included in Awakn's list of promising drugs: the only ketamine‐assisted...
Objective: We tested the efficacy of Moment-by-Moment in Women's Recovery (MMWR), a mindfulness training program adapted for ethnoculturally diverse women with complex social and clinical histories in residential treatment for substance use disorder, on substance use and relapse outcomes. Methods: Participants were randomized to MMWR (n = 100; 60% Hispanic/Latina, 18% non-Hispanic Black) or the...
Abstract: Novel psychoactive substances remain the popular recreational drugs of use over the years. They continue to bypass government restrictions due to their synthesis and modifications. Recent additions to the lists are the 4‐F‐PCP and 4‐Keto‐PCP, analogs of the drug phencyclidine (PCP) known to induce adverse effects and abuse potential. However, studies on the abuse potential of 4‐F‐PCP...
Continuous development and rapid turnover of drug market of new psychoactive substances (NPS) make it difficult to obtain up-to-date analytical methods for efficient detection of intoxication cases with new substances: no analytical data and no previously published concentration values in biological samples are indeed available. In this context, we aim to report the first fatal case involving...
Psychedelics are a hallucinogenic class of psychoactive drugs with the primary effect of activating non-ordinary states of consciousness. Due to the positive preliminary findings of these drugs in the treatment of psychiatric disorders, the number of registered clinical studies has risen significantly. In this paper, clinical studies registered on clinicaltrials.gov that evaluate the treatment...
Significance A consistent finding from functional MRI (fMRI) of externally focused cognitive control is negative signal change in the brain’s default mode network (DMN), but it is unknown whether this reflects an increase of synaptic activity during rest periods or active suppression during task. Using hybrid PET-MRI, we show that task-positive fMRI responses align with increasing glucose...
Ketamine is an antidepressant drug that interacts with the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, but whether this interaction is important for its behavioral effect is unknown. The goal of this experiment was to determine whether the behavioral response to ketamine depends on intact HPA axis function. Male and female C57BL/6J mice underwent chronic unpredictable stress prior to ketamine...