Frontiers in Psychiatry
September 10, 2021
Cato M. H. de Vos, Natasha L. Mason, Kim P. C. Kuypers
259 citations
Clinical studies suggest the therapeutic potential of psychedelics, including ayahuasca, DMT, psilocybin, and LSD, in stress-related disorders. These substances induce cognitive, antidepressant, anxiolytic, and antiaddictive effects suggested to arise from biological changes similar to conventional antidepressants or the rapid-acting substance ketamine. The proposed route is by inducing brain...
Addiction
August 12, 2021
Wayne Hall, Michael Farrell
8 citations
The history of research on the use of psychedelic drugs to treat alcohol dependence in the 1950s and 1960s suggests the need for caution in their proposed clinical use. Since 2006 there has been a revival of interest in using psychedelics to treat depression and post-traumatic stress disorders [1] and the addictions [2]. What lessons may we glean from research in the 1950s and 1960s on the use...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
August 6, 2021
Juliana Mendes Rocha, Giordano Novak Rossi, Flávia de Lima Osório et al.
37 citations
Rationale: Previous studies with the serotonergic hallucinogens LSD and psilocybin showed that these drugs induced changes in personality traits, such as increases in Openness. However, results are inconsistent, and the effects of ayahuasca on personality were never investigated in a controlled trial. Objectives: To assess the effects of ayahuasca on personality in two randomized,...
Psychopharmacology
August 4, 2021
Hiba Z. Vohra, J. Saunders, Alaina M Jaster et al.
Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of startle is a sensorimotor gating phenomenon perturbed in a variety of neuropsychiatric conditions. Psychedelics disrupt PPI in rats and humans, but their effects and involvement of the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor (5-HT2AR) in mice remain unexplored. We tested the effect of the psychedelic 1-(2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenyl)-2-aminopropane (DOI) (0.5 mg/kg, i.p.) on startle...
Pharmacopsychiatry
August 4, 2021
Sandeep M. Nayak, Natalie Gukasyan, Frederick S. Barrett et al.
67 citations
Abstract Introduction Psychedelics show promise in treating unipolar depression, though patients with bipolar disorder have been excluded from recent psychedelic trials. There is limited information on the use of classic psychedelics (e. g., LSD or psilocybin) in individuals using mood stabilizers to treat bipolar disorder. This is important to know, as individuals with bipolar depression may...
Oxford University Press eBooks
August 1, 2021
Chris Letheby
Philosophy of Psychedelics is the first scholarly monograph in English devoted to the philosophical analysis of psychedelic drugs. Its central focus is the apparent conflict between the growing use of psychedelics in psychiatry and the philosophical worldview of naturalism, which holds that the natural world is all that exists. The book reviews scientific evidence that psychedelics such as...
Life
July 29, 2021
Dominika Psiuk, Emilia Nowak, Krystian Cholewa et al.
13 citations
Due to an increasing number of depression diagnoses and limited effective treatments, researchers continue to explore novel therapeutic strategies for this disorder. Recently, interest has revolved around the use of serotonergic psychedelics to reduce the symptoms of depression. In this systematic review, we summarize the currently available knowledge on the safety and efficacy of psychedelic...
Praktyka Teoretyczna
July 15, 2021
Michał Herer
Artykuł zawiera analizę spotkania, do jakiego doszło w połowie lat sześćdziesiątych w Kalifornii między grupą Merry Pranksters a członkami Hell’s Angels. Chodziło zrozumienie złożonej i niejednoznacznej logiki i dynamiki tego spotkania – począwszy od nawiązania kontaktu, przez tymczasowy alians, w którym dużą rolę odegrały wspólne imprezy i zażywanie LSD, aż do konfliktu, który znalazł także...
PsyArXiv
July 8, 2021
Chris Letheby
preprint
In this précis I summarise the main ideas of my book Philosophy of Psychedelics . The book discusses philosophical issues arising from the therapeutic use of classic psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin and LSD. The book is organised around what I call the Comforting Delusion Objection to psychedelic therapy: the concern that this novel and promising treatment relies essentially on the...
Expert Review of Clinical Pharmacology
July 6, 2021
E. Schenberg
Dear Editors, Unblinding is an important confounding in pharmacological research potentially affecting rigor and objectivity of the scientific data underlying evidence-based medicine. Therefore, I want to commend the work by Muthukumaraswamy et al. [1] reporting on this problem in clinical trials with psychedelics (Ketamine, LSD, psilocybin and ayahuasca), which are rapidly becoming a focus of...