Despite a renewed scientific interest in lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), its local neural effects remain underexplored. This functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study explored and compared LSD-induced changes in local activity (amplitude of low-frequency fluctuations: ALFF) and local connectivity (regional homogeneity: ReHo), assessing their relationship to regional receptor density....
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) are widely used psychoactive drugs and their potential use in psychiatric medicine is currently generating interest. The mechanism by which these drugs may assist recovery in various disorders such as addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is still not well understood. Most investigations of the effects...
Psychedelic treatments are considered to involve unique treatment challenges relative to other psychiatric interventions, though these are typically not explored in detail within clinical trial reports. To determine the types of challenges that providers encounter while administering psychedelic drugs in research settings and to assess provider opinions on safeguards that may be pursued to...
Effective and well-tolerated pharmacotherapies for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), which is one of the most common psychiatric disorders, are needed. To determine the dose-response relationship of MM120 (lysergide D-tartrate) in adults with moderate to severe GAD. This phase 2b, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study enrolled 198 adults aged 18 to 74 years with a...
In a suburb of Vancouver, Canada, a nondescript three-story building sits alongside a strip of parking lots. From the outside, it looks like an ordinary commercial office space. But inside is something more extraordinary: rows of shelves stacked with plastic tubs full of magic mushrooms—mushrooms that contain the hallucinogenic chemical psilocybin. In a year, enough psychedelic mushrooms can be...
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the most prevalent psychiatric conditions worldwide, affecting over 350 million people. Standard treatments, primarily antidepressants targeting serotonin, noradrenaline, and/or dopamine, are based on the monoamine hypothesis, which links depression to imbalances in these neurotransmitters. A sizable fraction of patients, however, does not get enough...
Abstract Background Psychedelic and dissociative drugs, including psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), and ketamine, have garnered significant interest for their therapeutic potential in treating various mental health disorders. However, their psychoactive properties pose substantial risks when used in contexts requiring unimpaired cognitive...
Brazilian Journal of ScienceSeptember 29, 2025Pinelopi Vlotinou, Konstantinos Christodoulou, Anna Tsiakiri et al.
Classical psychedelics encompass psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), N, N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), and mescaline and are psychoactive substances that primarily function as agonists at the serotonin 5-hydroxytryptamine receptors (5-HT). In the immediate term, they modify perception, cognition, emotional state, social processing, and introspection, leading to a subjective mystical...
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and analogs are psychedelic drugs commonly submitted to forensic chemistry laboratories. These drugs are often present on items of evidence at low concentrations, requiring sensitive analyses to positively identify their presence. The injection port of a gas chromatograph (GC) plays an important role in vaporizing and transferring substances to the column for...
Schizophrenia is a highly polygenic disease, and several genetic variants associated with the disease converge on altered synaptic homeostasis. In particular, the gene encoding complement component 4 (C4) showed the strongest association with schizophrenia, and this protein is involved in complement-dependent and microglia-mediated synaptic pruning. As a matter of fact, microglia are overactive...
Background: Preliminary research indicates that psychedelics may hold promise as analgesic agents. This study investigated the potential analgesic effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) microdosing on pain tolerance and subjective pain perception in healthy participants. Methods: Utilizing a randomised, placebo-controlled design, participants received 15 μg of LSD or placebo over four...
High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide Microdosing, the prolonged ingestion of psychedelics at subhallucinogenic doses, has gained popularity for its perceived cognitive and emotional benefits. Psychedelics have high affinity for 5-HT 2B receptors, a receptor known to cause human heart disease with strong chronic activation. We investigated the effects of microdosed psychedelics on...
Abstract Background Alcohol use disorder (AUD) presents significant health and societal issues. The disorder is characterized by locomotor impairments and disruption of the dopaminergic neurotransmission in the ventral tegmental area (VTA). Current AUD treatments are limited, necessitating the exploration of novel drugs. The potential therapeutic use of psychedelics, particularly lysergic acid...
Psychedelics are often queried as a potential therapeutic option in a multitude of conditions, including pain and mental health disorders, with a growing body of patient reports and scientific publications describing potential benefit. This article reviews recent research on psychedelic compounds for treatment of headache disorders. Observational data, case reports, and a few recent small,...
Abstract Background Recent clinical trials show that serotonergic psychedelics, including the prototypical hallucinogen lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), present a great promise for treating affective disorders. While the hallucinogenic activities of LSD are commonly attributed to stimulation of 5-HT2A receptors, their role in LSD’s antidepressant response is still in debate. Interestingly, LSD...
Abstract Background The REBUS (RElaxed Beliefs Under pSychedelics) and the anarchic brain model of psychedelic drug action proposes that confidence in beliefs – and thus expectations (priors) – are relaxed under these drugs. The brain makes inferences to minimize surprise, or discrepant expectations and outcomes (prediction error [PE]), and better model the world. We recently showed that the...
Despite growing evidence supporting the efficacy of LSD-assisted psychotherapy in treating major depressive disorder (MDD), identifying reliable psychopharmacological biomarkers remains necessary. Oxytocin, a neuropeptide implicated in social bonding and flexibility, is a promising candidate due to its release following serotonergic psychedelic administration in healthy individuals; however,...
Abstract Background Depressive disorders affect about 280 million people worldwide, with many struggling to find effective relief. Conventional antidepressants are widely prescribed but often lack efficacy and have side effects, leaving many patients dissatisfied or untreated. Concurrently, psychedelic therapies have gained momentum in both research and ‘in the wild’, with emerging evidence...
A new lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) analog has recently been identified, 1-[3-(Trimethylsilyl)propanoyl] LSD (1S-LSD), characterized by a silicon-containing acyl moiety. In the proof of LSD analog consumption, direct detection of the parent compound in urine or blood can be challenging; therefore, characteristic metabolites as consumption markers should be detected. However, the metabolic...
The resurgence of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy marks a pivotal evolution in mental health treatment, challenging traditional paradigms by integrating compounds such as psilocybin, LSD, MDMA, and ketamine into clinical practice. Historically marginalized due to regulatory and societal concerns, these agents are now gaining recognition for their unique neurobiological mechanisms and...