This study describes the case of a 57 year old gentleman with a previous severe brain injury who developed a severe psychotic disorder 19 years after the injury. This appears to have been precipitated by heavy psychedelic substance use, including cannabis, salvia divinorum, ketamine, LSD, cocaine and DMT amongst others. The psychosis remained in the absence of drug intoxication and was...
The serotonin (5-Hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) 2A receptor represents one of the most striking examples where functional selectivity (or ligand-biased signaling) is transduced in distinct behaviours. This receptor is the primary target of psychedelic hallucinogens such as lysergic acid diethylamine, mescaline and psilocybin, which reproduce some of the core symptoms of schizophrenia and are often...
It's all Kind of Magic: The Young Ken Kesey, by Rick Dodgson, Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 2013. 256 pp. $26.95 US (cloth). There are some useful biographies of Sixties counter-cultural icons like Hunter Thompson or Timothy Leary, but an insightful account of life and times of Ken Kesey was lacking. Rick Dodgson had filled gap by offering first academic biography of best-selling...
Entheogens or psychedelic drugs such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and psilocybin are associated with mystical states of experience. Drug laws currently limit research, but important new work is under way at major biomedical research facilities showing that entheogens reliably occasion mystical experiences and thereby allow research into brain states during these experiences. Are...
Richard Yensen was a research fellow at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center from 1972 to 1976. He studied psychedelic psychotherapy with Stanislav Grof, M.D. and other senior staff. During this time he treated patients with substance abuse disorders, cancer, neurosis, and other health professionals seeking a training experience. Dr. Yensen did his Ph.D. dissertation on the use of MDA in...
The hallucinogens are a class of psychoactive drugs, either synthetic or plant products, that produce auditory and/or visual hallucinations as well as thought, mood, and perceptual changes. Depending on dosage, expectation (set), and environment (setting), they also can induce euphoria and a state similar to a transcendental experience. These hallucinations can be present as part of a delirium...
We describe a 38-year-old woman who developed symptoms of hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD) after using lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) once and continued to have symptoms of HPPD for nearly 17 years, although she did not use LSD after her first use. The symptoms of HPPD were temporally related to her first LSD use and she responded well to risperidone within a few weeks of...
The research compound 25I-NBOMe, also known as CIMBI-5 or INBMeO, was created in academic laboratories as a potent serotonin 2A receptor agonist. Because of its high affinity and ambiguous legal status, recreational drug enthusiasts have used this compound as a powerful alternative to other hallucinogenic drugs such as lysergic acid diethylamide. We report 2 deaths after 25I-NBOMe ingestion by...
Psychoactive-substituted phenethylamines 2,5-dimethoxy-4-chlorophenethylamine (2C-C); 2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylphenethylamine (2C-D); 2,5-dimethoxy-4-ethylphenethylamine (2C-E); 2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenethylamine (2C-I); 2,5-dimethoxy-4-ethylthiophenethylamine (2C-T-2); and 2,5-dimethoxy-4-chloroamphetamine (DOC) are used recreationally and may have deleterious side effects. This study compares...
Medicine TodayFebruary 10, 2014Mohammad Shafiqur Rahman Patwary, Kazi Abdullah Al Mamun4 citations
Drug abuse has reached epidemic proportions in many countries including Bangladesh and threatens to overwhelm economic, social, and health care systems. In addition to their effects on the central nervous system, many of these agents induce profound changes in the heart and circulation that are responsible for a significant proportion of drug-related morbidity. Drugs that can affect the...