In the past decade, an increasing number of clinical trials are reporting evidence that psychedelics or serotonergic hallucinogens (such as lysergic acid diethylamide, psilocybin, and ayahuasca/dimethyltryptamine) could be effective in the treatment of mood, anxiety, and substance use disorders. The mechanisms responsible for these effects are not fully understood but seem to involve changes in...
Therapeutic medications for the treatment of depression have serious limitations, particularly delayed onset and low rates of efficacy. However, the discovery that a single subanesthetic dose of ketamine, a glutamate NMDA receptor channel blocker, can produce a rapid (within hours) antidepressant response that is sustained (about 1 week), even in patients considered treatment-resistant, has...
The rapid assessment of in vitro pharmacological profiles of new psychoactive substances can help to predict psychoactive doses and effects in humans and facilitate the appropriate scheduling of new psychoactive substances.
ACS Chemical NeuroscienceMay 11, 2018Steven J Simmons, Jonna M Leyrer-Jackson, Chicora F Oliver et al.
Cathinone is a plant alkaloid found in khat leaves of perennial shrubs grown in East Africa. Similar to cocaine, cathinone elicits psychostimulant effects which are in part attributed to its amphetamine-like structure. Around 2010, home laboratories began altering the parent structure of cathinone to synthesize derivatives with mechanisms of action, potencies, and pharmacokinetics permitting...
The availability of new psychoactive substances (NPS) on the recreational drug market continues to create challenges for scientists in the forensic, clinical and toxicology fields. Phenmetrazine (3-methyl-2-phenylmorpholine) and an array of its analogs form a class of psychostimulants that are well documented in the patent and scientific literature. The present study reports on two...
After a hiatus of several decades, there has been a resurgence of studies into the therapeutic potential of serotonergic psychedelics. When administered in controlled settings, they have been reported to induce a wide variety of long-lasting positive psychological changes. However, the mechanisms by which psychedelics impart these long-lasting benefits remain poorly understood. Here, we...
MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine) is a psychostimulant popular as a recreational drug because of its effect on mood and social interactions. MDMA acts at dopamine (DA) transporter (DAT) and serotonin (5-HT) transporter (SERT) and is known to induce damage of dopamine and serotonin neurons. MDMA is often ingested with caffeine. Caffeine as a non-selective adenosine A1/A2A receptor...
Objective Novel psychoactive substances (NPS) or “bath salts” are increasingly sold over the Internet and used as substitutes for classic recreational substances. Previous studies showed that classic amphetamine‐type stimulants most potently act on the norepinephrine (NE) compared to the dopamine (DA) and serotonin (5‐HT) system and NE activation correlated with the subjective effects across...
Depression is one of the major causes of disability worldwide. A proportion of adults with major depression fail to achieve remission with first-line treatment. Magnesium influences the neurotransmission involved in emotional processes, such as the serotonergic, noradrenergic, dopaminergic, GABAergic and glutamatergic systems. It has been reported that the mechanism of antidepressants' action...
Short-term moderate doses of serotonergic and dissociative hallucinogens can be useful in the treatment of anxiety. Recently, a trend has developed for long-term intermittent 'microdosing' (usually one-tenth of a 'full' active dose), with reports of long-lasting relief from anxiety and related disorders; however, there is no scientific evidence for the efficacy of therapeutic microdosing nor to...