Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by persistent social-communication deficits, cognitive rigidity, and atypical sensory processing. Current pharmacological treatments, including risperidone and aripiprazole, provide only limited symptomatic relief and do not address the underlying neurobiological mechanisms. Converging evidence implicates dysregulated serotonergic signaling,...
= 26.38, ~50% past-month cannabis use by design) completed an online survey. Multivariable regression assessed sociodemographics, mental health, and adverse childhood events (ACEs) in relation to: (1) past-year psychedelic use; and (2) among those reporting lifetime use: (a) lifetime microdosing and (b) use motives. Lifetime and past-year psychedelic use were 27.7% and 11.9% (commonly...
This essay focuses on the writings and trip reports of several key figures of the first psychedelic revolution from an eco-critical perspective. Although the Earth Movement can be said to have emerged from the countercultural ethos of activists heavily influenced by the psychedelic revolution, the relationship of these earliest psychedelic advocates – such as Ken Kesey and Timothy Leary – to...
AbstractThe “entropic brain” hypothesis holds that psychedelic and other ego-dissolving states correspondto an increase in the entropy or signal diversity of spontaneous brain activity. Motivated by afirst-person report of a combined serotonergic–dissociative state (LSD/DMT together with nitrousoxide, N2O), we asked a sharper question: when a 5-HT2A agonist and an NMDA antagonist acttogether,...
This dissertation explored the factors underlying the “waves” of cluster headache and investigated strategies to reduce disease burden and improve quality of life. The first part focused on disease mechanisms, prognosis, and patient experiences. Long-term remission was associated with episodic disease, later onset age, more painful attacks, and smoking cessation, suggesting a multifactorial...
Psychedelics have re-emerged as promising therapeutics for neuropsychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and substance use disorders. While their beneficial effects are largely attributed to serotonin 2A (5-HT2A) receptor activation, psychedelics exhibit substantial diversity in chemical structure, receptor binding kinetics, metabolism, and duration...
Psychedelic drugs are poised to become mainstream treatments, yet we lack a circuit-level account of how they reshape brain activity. Emerging evidence suggests that multiple psychedelic compounds modulate activity in the brain's default mode network (DMN), often interpreted as either increased or decreased bottom-up hierarchical processing. Most imaging studies, however, quantify activity as...
Analyses of neuroimaging data increasingly leverage the distribution of neurotransmitter receptors derived from Positron Emission Tomography (PET) to bridge the gap between micro- and macro-scale brain function. However, these receptor maps are highly spatially overlapping which can give rise to interpretive and analytical challenges. Here, we systematically investigate the impact of spatial...
Classic serotonergic psychedelics-such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin, and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT)-hold remarkable promise for treating neuropsychiatric disorders, yet their clinical translation is severely constrained by first-pass metabolism, erratic pharmacokinetics, unsuitable action profiles, and off-target peripheral serotonin effects. To overcome these barriers,...
Interest in psychedelics has expanded beyond clinical treatment contexts, yet little empirical work has examined how users describe psychedelic use in relation to sport and physical activity. This study conducted a qualitative content analysis of Reddit discussions involving psychedelics and physical performance. A Reddit search for “sports psychedelics” returned 253 threads. After screening,...