Unipolar mood disorders, including major depressive disorder and persistent depressive disorder (dysthymia), confer high rates of disability and mortality and a very high socioeconomic burden. Current treatment is suboptimal in most cases and there is little of note in the pharmaceutical development pipeline. The psychedelic drugs, including lysergic acid diethylamide and psilocybin, were used...
In the popular imagination lsd (lysergic acid diethylamide) was introduced to the American public by radical figures such as Timothy Leary or Ken Kesey as part of the countercultural rebellion of the 1960s. Scholars have also written about the part played by mental health professionals and various government agencies in spreading knowledge about the psychedelic experience to certain sectors of...
Scientific interest in serotonergic psychedelics (e.g., psilocybin and LSD; 5‐HT 2A receptor agonists) has dramatically increased within the last decade. Clinical studies administering psychedelics with psychotherapy have shown preliminary evidence of robust efficacy in treating anxiety and depression, as well as addiction to tobacco and alcohol. Moreover, recent research has suggested that...
Novel psychoactive substances (NPSs) continue to emerge in the United States and worldwide. Few epidemiological studies have examined the prevalence and correlates of use. We examined the extent of NPS use in a high-risk population-attendees of electronic dance music (EDM) parties at nightclubs and festivals. We surveyed 682 adults (age 18-25) entering EDM events at nightclubs and festivals in...
The final quote is from Timothy Leary (1964), the psychologist turned guru who, during the 1960s, first exhorted youth to &s;tum on, tune in and drop out&s;. He and other members of the League of Spiritual Discovery (LSD) described how &s;a psychedelic journey is a journey to new realms of consciousness. The scope and content of the experience is limitless, but its characteristic features are...
Psylocybina jest substancją psychodysleptyczną pochodzenia naturalnego, występuje w grzybach rodzaju Psilocybe. Psychodysleptyki są środkami psychoaktywnymi, które silnie wpływają na percepcję, nastrój i procesy poznawcze człowieka. Psychodeliczne działanie psylocybiny opiera się na pobudzaniu receptorów serotoninergicznych, co prowadzi do wzrostu stężenia serotoniny w mózgu oraz przyczynia się...
Presented at a conference titled “Psychedelic Science 2013,” highlighting the resumption of investigations with psychedelic substances (i.e., psilocybin, DMT, LSD, MMDA, etc.) in the United States and Europe after a dormant period of more than two decades, the author presents insights and perspectives gleaned from his 25 years of clinical research experience. After acknowledging the vastness...
Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 50(11) A recent review in Pharmacological Reviews highlights that over the last decade, a renaissance has occurred in psychedelic drug research in North America and Europe as investigators at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), New York University and Imperial College London have embarked on studies that...
Psychosis can be associated with acute recreational drug and novel psychoactive substance (NPS) toxicity. However, there is limited data available on how common this is and which drugs are most frequently implicated. We describe a European case series of psychosis associated with acute recreational drug toxicity, and estimate the frequency of psychosis for different recreational drugs. The...
A 30-year-old male patient developed a hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD) after smoking cannabis laced with phencyclidine (PCP) or lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) 10 years prior to hospital admission. Clinically, he reported seeing vivid, saturated colors and caricature-like objects. The patient described perceiving objects or people in motion as moving faster than normal. He...