Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly
July 2, 2021
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...
Forensic Science International
July 1, 2021
Thomas Gicquel, Camille Richeval, Vadim Mesli et al.
45 citations
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...
Journal of Psychiatric Research
July 1, 2021
Ashley N. Siegel, Shakila Meshkat, Katie Benitah et al.
101 citations
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...
June 27, 2021
Annie M. Mccartney, Hugh McGovern, Alexander de Foe
preprint
Psychedelic substances such as psilocybin and ketamine may represent the future of antidepressant treatment, due to their rapid and prolonged effects on mood and cognition. The current body of psychedelic research has focused on administration and treatment within a psychiatric context. Here, instead, we put to the test the contention that it is necessary to evaluate the current state of this...
Canadian Journal of Health Technologies
June 24, 2021
Yi‐sheng Chao, Jennifer Horton
5 citations
Two systematic reviews, 3 randomized controlled trials, and 2 single-arm safety trials were identified that evaluated several combinations of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Psilocybin was the psychedelic most tested. Other psychedelics identified in the systematic reviews and primary studies were 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (or MDMA), lysergic acid diethylamide (or LSD), ayahuasca...
World Journal of Psychiatry
June 19, 2021
Hewa Artin, S. Zisook, Dhakshin Ramanathan
Depression is a common mental disorder and one of the leading causes of disability around the world. Monoaminergic antidepressants often take weeks to months to work and are not effective for all patients. This has led to a search for a better understanding of the pathogenesis of depression as well as to the development of novel antidepressants. One such novel antidepressant is ketamine, which...
BJPsych Open
June 1, 2021
Jessica Lochtenberg, Ari P. Kirshenbaum, Matthew Johnson
Aims: A variety of pharmacotherapies have been used to assist the psychotherapy process as “adjunctive therapies.” These drugs are used in an acute, targeted fashion, such that they are explicitly delivered in the context of psychotherapy for anxiety, mood and substance-dependence disorders (SUDs). Our narrative review highlights the potential of medically-assisted psychotherapy by outlining...
Mental Health Weekly
May 28, 2021
The use of psychedelics is evolving for the treatment of a variety of mental illnesses, including anxiety, depression, post‐traumatic stress disorder and other related uses, Financial News Media reported May 25. Some psychedelic drugs are extracted from plants or mushrooms, and some are synthetic (human‐made). These drugs are now considered effective for patients with treatment‐resistant...
Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology
May 26, 2021
Suresh Muthukumaraswamy, Anna Forsyth, Thomas Lumley
312 citations
Introduction: There is increasing interest in the potential for psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin, LSD and ketamine to treat several mental health disorders, with a growing number of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) being conducted to investigate the therapeutic effectiveness of psychedelics.Areas covered: We review previous literature on expectancy effects and blinding in the context of...
Pharmacopsychiatry
May 12, 2021
Gerhard Gründer, Henrik Jungaberle
32 citations
Abstract Serotonergic psychedelics such as psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), or dimethyltryptamine (DMT), as well as psychoactive drugs that trigger phenomenologically- related experiences like 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and ketamine, belong to the most promising treatment approaches in contemporary psychiatry. Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is not only a new...