Addiction BiologyMarch 2013Alain Dervaux, Marie-Chantal Bourdel, Xavier Laqueille et al.
Psychomotor performance has consistently been found to be altered in chronic cannabis users. Neurological soft signs (NSS) reflect neurological dysfunction involving integrative networks, especially those involving the cerebellum, where cannabinoid receptors are particularly concentrated. Our objective was to study, for the first time, NSS in a group of patients with cannabis dependence...
Ibogaine is a psychoactive alkaloid derived from Tabernanthe iboga, a plant used in initiatory rituals in West Central Africa. Largely because of ibogaine's status as a Schedule I substance in the U.S., the development of ibogaine's use in the treatment of drug addiction took place outside conventional clinical and medical settings. This article reviews the history of ibogaine's use in the...
Mindfulness is one of the fastest growing areas of psychological research and over 70% of general practitioners in the United Kingdom now believe that mindfulness/meditation can be beneficial for patients with mental health issues [1]. In a previous issue of the Journal of Addiction Research and Therapy, Penberthy focused on an intervention known as mindfulness-based relapse prevention [MBRP]...
Objective Iptakalim is a putative ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) channel opener. It is also a novel nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) blocker and can antagonize nicotine-induced increase in dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens. Our recent work also shows that iptakalim exhibits a clozapine-like atypical antipsychotic profile, indicating that iptakalim may possess a dual action...
Luckenbaugh DA, Ibrahim L, Brutsche N, Franco‐Chaves J, Mathews D, Marquardt CA, Cassarly C, Zarate CA Jr. Family history of alcohol dependence and antidepressant response to an N ‐methyl‐ d ‐aspartate antagonist in bipolar depression. Bipolar Disord 2012: 14: 880–887. Published 2012. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. Objectives: Both ketamine and...
The plant alkaloid ibogaine has shown promising anti-addictive properties in animals and humans. Although not licensed as a therapeutic drug, and despite evidence that ibogaine may disturb the rhythm of the heart, this alkaloid is used as an anti-addiction drug in alternative medicine. We have recently reported that therapeutic concentrations of ibogaine inhibit human ERG (hERG) potassium...
Mindfulness-based interventions may decrease addictive behaviors while promoting non-reactivity to stressors. This study employed qualitative methods to enhance understanding of mindfulness-related treatment effects. Study participants were eighteen alcohol dependent adults residing in a therapeutic community who had participated in a Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE)...
Ayahuasca is a medicinal plant mixture utilized by indigenous peoples throughout the Amazon River basin for healing purposes. The "vine of the soul" or "vine of death," as it is known in South America, contains a combination of monoamine oxidase inhibitors and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT). When ingested together, these medicines produce profound alterations in consciousness. Increasingly,...
Ayahuasca is a hallucinogenic botanical mixture originating in the Amazon area where it is used ritually, but is now being taken globally. The 2 main constituents of ayahuasca are N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a hallucinogen, and harmine, a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI) which attenuates the breakdown of DMT, which would otherwise be broken down very quickly after oral consumption. Recent...
Only time will tell if serotonergic hallucinogen-assisted psychotherapy treatment paradigms for SUDs will prove to be safe and effective in double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials. If they are, they would truly constitute a novel psychopharmacologic-psychosocial treatment paradigm to treat addictive disorders, although the risk of adverse psychological events would have to be...