Hallucinogens, also referred to as psychedelics, are a broad range of agents that alter perception in different ways. An estimated 1.3 million Americans are current (past month) users of hallucinogens. Hallucinogen use is highest among young adults; 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is the most commonly used agent, followed by lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and phencyclidine (PCP)....
In the area of psychotropic drugs, tryptamines are known to be a broad class of classical or serotonergic hallucinogens. These drugs are capable of producing profound changes in sensory perception, mood and thought in humans and act primarily as agonists of the 5-HT2A receptor. Well-known tryptamines such as psilocybin contained in Aztec sacred mushrooms and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT),...
Classical psychedelics are psychoactive substances, which, besides their psychopharmacological activity, have also been shown to exert significant modulatory effects on immune responses by altering signaling pathways involved in inflammation, cellular proliferation, and cell survival via activating NF-κB and mitogen-activated protein kinases. Recently, several neurotransmitter receptors...
ArgumentumJune 29, 2015Sandro Rodrigues, Fernando Rocha Beserra
The article examines the harms caused by the way how the prohibitionism has been approaching the human relationship with psychedelic substances, which has led to the necessity of promoting a clinical and political debate, carried out through the First Seminar about Psychedelic Drugs in Rio de Janeiro. Based on such debate, the text introduces a terminology about psychedelia and presents some...
Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Association NewsFull Access‘All You Need is Love,’ Says 1960s Guru Ram DassAaron LevinAaron LevinSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:12 Jun 2015https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2015.6b15AbstractA search for deeper truths along the life course occupied the psychologist who became Ram Dass.At APA’s 2015 annual meeting in...
The psychological state elicited by the classic psychedelics drugs, such as LSD and psilocybin, is one of the most fascinating and yet least understood states of consciousness. However, with the advent of modern functional neuroimaging techniques, the effect of these drugs on neural activity is now being revealed, although many of the varied phenomenological features of the psychedelic state...
Trials of physiologically safe and non-addictive drugs such as LSD are almost impossible, writes James J H Rucker, calling on the authorities to downgrade their unnecessarily restrictive class A, schedule 1 classification
Now synonymous with Sixties counterculture, LSD actually entered the American consciousness via the mainstream. Time and Life, messengers of American respectability, trumpeted its grand arrival in a postwar landscape scoured of alluring descriptions of drug use while lesser outlets piggybacked on their coverage with stories by turns sensationalized and glowing. This book offers the untold tale...
We compared characteristics of schizophrenia patients with prior LSD use who developed hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (SCH+HPPD) with those who did not (SCH-HPPD). Data were collected for 37 subjects in the SCH+HPPD group and 43 subjects in the SCH-HPPD group. Socio-demographics and positive symptom scores were similar between groups. Individuals in the SCHIZO+HPPD group scored...
Serotonin hallucinogens produce a range of cognitive, sensory, and emotional effects in man. Recently, a resurgence of clinical interest in these compounds has developed because they can produce pronounced and long‐lasting psychological changes. While the structural backbones and receptor pharmacology of hallucinogens vary, their primary effects arise from agonism of the 5‐HT 2A receptor....