Abstract Substance use disorder (SUD) is a chronic condition, with maintained abuse of a substance leading to physiological and psychological alterations and often changes in cognitive and social behaviours. Current therapies include psychotherapy coupled with medication; however, high relapse rates reveal the shortcomings of these therapies. The signalling, expression profile, and neurological...
Substance abuse is on the rise, and while many people may use illicit drugs mainly due to their rewarding effects, their societal impact can range from severe, as is the case for opioids, to promising, as is the case for psychedelics. Common with all these drugs' mechanisms of action are G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), which lie at the center of how these drugs mediate inebriation,...
Journal of Applied ToxicologyAugust 30, 2023Natália Bernardi Videira, Vijayalekshmi Nair, Valérie Paquet et al.2 citations
Abstract Serotonergic psychedelics, such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), and 5‐methoxy‐ N , N ‐dimethyltryptamine (5‐MeO‐DMT), are currently being investigated for the treatment of psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety. Clinical trials with psilocybin and LSD have shown improvement in emotional and psychological scores. Although these...
Psilocybin, a psychoactive alkaloid with hallucinogenic properties, exists in a variety of hallucinogenic mushrooms. As a study tool to imitate psychosis, psilocybin has aroused a lot of interest in the biological community due to its various possible therapeutic benefits. It is also a very popular and widely misused natural hallucinogens with distinct metabolism pathways and toxicity. In this...
Psychedelic microdosing is the practice of taking very low doses of psychedelic substances, typically over a longer period of time. The long-term safety of chronic microdosing is relatively uncharacterized, but valvular heart disease (VHD) has been proposed as a potential risk due to activation of the serotonin 5-HT 2B receptor. However, this risk has not yet been comprehensively assessed. This...
Background Psychedelic drug experiences are shaped by current-moment contextual factors, commonly categorized as internal (set) and external (setting). Potential influences of past environments, however, have received little attention. Aims To investigate how previous environmental stimuli shaped the experiences of patients receiving ketamine for treatment-resistant depression (TRD), and...
Introduction Psilocybin is one of the most extensively studied psychedelic drugs with a broad therapeutic potential. Despite the fact that its psychoactivity is mainly attributed to the agonism at 5-HT 2A receptors, it has high binding affinity also to 5-HT 2C and 5-HT 1A receptors and indirectly modulates the dopaminergic system. Psilocybin and its active metabolite psilocin, as well as other...
Background: Psilocybin is being studied for depression, but little is known about how it interacts with common antidepressants. Limited data suggest that psilocybin’s effects may be diminished by serotonergic antidepressants acutely and even after a medication washout period. Aims: To learn the extent to which antidepressants may diminish the effects of psilocybin-containing mushrooms both...
Background: 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is a widely used recreational substance inducing acute release of serotonin. Previous studies in chronic MDMA users demonstrated selective adaptations in the serotonin system, which were assumed to be associated with cognitive deficits. However, serotonin functions are strongly entangled with glutamate as well as γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)...
Fungi produce diverse metabolites that can have antimicrobial, antifungal, antifeedant, or psychoactive properties. Among these metabolites are the tryptamine-derived compounds psilocybin, its precursors, and natural derivatives (collectively referred to as psiloids), which have played significant roles in human society and culture. The high allocation of nitrogen to psiloids in mushrooms,...