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2 May 2007
Last Updated: 21 December 2010 |
The Promise of Psychedelics
Psychedelic Psychotherapy |
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Reports on studies testing the efficacy of psychedelics — including psilocybin, LSD, peyote, MDMA (ecstacy), and more — in
the treatment of a range of psychological disorders and in providing help for patients with terminal illness.
The Neurobiology of Psychedelic Drugs
After a pause of nearly 40 years in research into the effects of psychedelic drugs, recent advances in our understanding of the neurobiology of psychedelics, such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin
and ketamine have led to renewed interest in the clinical potential of psychedelics in the treatment of various psychiatric disorders. Recent behavioural and neuroimaging data show that psychedelics modulate neural
circuits that have been implicated in mood and affective disorders, and can reduce the clinical symptoms of these disorders. These findings raise the possibility that research into psychedelics might identify novel
therapeutic mechanisms and approaches that are based on glutamate-driven neuroplasticity. → PDF |
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Scientists are exploring the use of psychedelic drugs such as LSD to treat a range of ailments from depression to cluster
headaches and obsessive compulsive disorder.
The first clinical trial using LSD since the 1970s began in Switzerland in June. It aims to use "psychedelic psychotherapy" to
help patients with terminal illnesses come to terms with their imminent mortality and so improve their quality of life.
Another psychedelic substance, psilocybin - the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, has shown promising results in trials for
treating symptoms of terminal cancer patients. And researchers are using MDMA (ecstasy) as an experimental treatment for
post-traumatic stress disorder.
In the Swiss trial eight subjects will receive a dose of 200 microgrammes of LSD. This is enough to induce a powerful psychedelic
experience and is comparable to what would be found in an "acid tab" bought from a street drug dealer. A further four subjects
will receive a dose of 20 microgrammes. Every participant will know they have received some LSD, but neither the subjects nor
the researchers observing them will know for certain who received the full dose. During the course of therapy researchers will
assess the patients' anxiety levels, quality of life and pain levels.
Before hallucinogenic drugs became popular with the counter culture, they were at the forefront of brain science. They were
used to help scientists understand the nature of consciousness and how the brain works and as treatments for a range of conditions
including alcohol dependence.
Charles Grob, a professor of psychiatry at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Centre, is in the vanguard of the resurgence of scientific
interest in psychedelics, having recently completed a trial that used psilocybin to help patients with terminal cancer come
to terms with their illness. "I think there's a perception these compounds hold untapped potential to help us understand the
human mind," he said.
The way hallucinogens such as LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide), psilocybin and mescaline (the active ingredient in the peyote
cactus) act on the brain is reasonably well understood by scientists. The drugs stick to chemical receptors on nerve cells that
normally bind the neurotransmitter serotonin, which affects a broad range of brain activities. But how this leads to the
profoundly altered states of consciousness, perception and mood that typically accompany a "trip" is not known... [Read More] | |
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In a 2006 paper entitled Psilocybin can occasion
mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and
spiritual significance, authors R.R. Griffiths et al. find that
volunteers administered psilocybin under supportive conditions subjectively identify
personal meaning and spiritual significance in psilocybin-occasioned mystical
experiences similar in nature to those that occur spontaneously.
John Cloud describes recent efforts to evaluate the efficacy of psychedelics
with respect to specific conditions in Was Timothy Leary Right?
TIME —
...The study of psychedelics in the '50s and '60s eventually devolved into the
drug free-for-all of the '70s. But the new research is careful and promising.
Last year two top journals, the Archives of General Psychiatry and the Journal
of Clinical Psychiatry, published papers showing clear benefits from the use of
psychedelics to treat mental illness. Both were small studies, just 27 subjects
total. But the Archives paper–whose lead author, Dr. Carlos Zarate Jr., is chief
of the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Research Unit at NIMH–found "robust and rapid
antidepressant effects" that remained for a week after depressed subjects were
given ketamine (colloquial name: Special K or usually just k). In the other study, a team
led by Dr. Francisco Moreno of the University of Arizona gave psilocybin (the merrymaking chemical in psychedelic mushrooms) to obsessive-compulsive-disorder
patients, most of whom later showed "acute reductions in core OCD symptoms." Now researchers at Harvard are studying how Ecstasy might help alleviate anxiety
disorders, and the Beckley Foundation, a British trust, has received approval to begin what will be the first human studies with LSD since the 1970s.
Psychedelics chemically alter the way your brain takes in information and may cause you to lose control of typical thought patterns.
The theory motivating the recent research is that if your thoughts are depressed or obsessive, the drugs may reveal a path through
them. For Leary and his circle--which influenced millions of Americans to experiment with drugs--psychedelics' seemingly boundless
possibilities led to terrible recklessness. There's a jaw-dropping passage in last year's authoritative Leary biography by Robert
Greenfield in which Leary and two friends ingest an astonishing 31 psilocybin pills in Leary's kitchen while his 13-year-old
daughter has a pajama party upstairs. Stupefied, one of the friends climbs into the girl's bed and has to be pulled from the room...
[Read more] |
WHAT DOES RESPONSIBLE USE LOOK LIKE?
"Know your body. Know your mind. Know your substance. Know your source." One of Erowid’s earliest slogans, this directive encourages
people to pay close attention to multiple aspects of their psychoactive substance use. These include understanding the individuality
of response; avoiding drugs contraindicated because of health issues; learning enough about each substance to avoid unexpected
effects and overdoses; and choosing both substance and information sources carefully in order to reduce risks. While these
principles may seem obvious, they are seldom taught in contemporary drug education.
[...] There are many practical lessons about how to safely and responsibly use psychoactives, whether learned from personal subjective
experience, research, or the hard-won wisdom of others.
Fundamentals of Responsible Psychoactive Use
- Investigate the health risks and dangers of the specific psychoactive and of the class of drugs to which it belongs.
- Learn about interactions with other recreational drugs, medications, supplements, and activities.
- Review individual health concerns, predispositions, and family health history.
- Choose a source or product carefully to help ensure correct identification and purity
(avoid materials with an unknown source or of unknown quality).
- Know whether the drug is likely to reduce the ability to drive, operate equipment, or pay attention to necessary tasks.
- Take oneself "off duty" from responsibilities that might be interfered with (job, child care, etc.), and arrange for
someone else to be "on duty" for such responsibilities.
- Anticipate reasonably foreseeable risks to oneself and others and employ safeguards to minimize those risks.
- Choose an appropriate occasion and location for use.
- Select and measure dosages carefully.
- Begin with a low dose until individual reactions are known and thereafter use the minimum dose necessary to
achieve the desired effects: lower doses are safer doses.
- Reflect on and adjust use to minimize physical and mental health problems.
- Note changes in health over time that may be related to use.
- Modify use if it interferes with work or personal goals.
- Check in with peers and family and accept feedback about one’s use.
- Track reactions to specific drugs and dosages in order to avoid repeating mistakes.
- Seek treatment if needed.
- Decide not to use when the time isn’t right, the material is suspect, or the situation is otherwise problematic.
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Additional Reading:
- Shroomery - Psychedelic Mushrooms: Just another Drug or a Powerful Medicine?
- John Horgan. Psychedelic medicine: Mind bending, health giving
New Scientist, Issue 2488:36 (26 February 2005)
- The Vaults of Erowid. Erowid Psilocybin Mushroom Vault : Psilocybe Mushroom History
(2005)
- Grinspoon, Lester and Rick Doblin.
Psychedelics as Catalysts of Insight-Oriented Psychotherapy.
Social Research 2001;68.3:667-695
- Grinspoon L, Bakalar JB. Can drugs be used to enhance the psychotherapeutic process?
Am J Psychother. 1996 Jul;40:393-404
- Walter N. Pahnke. The Psychedelic Mystical Experience in the Human Encounter With
Death. Psychedelic Review, Number 11, 1971. The Harvard Theological Review, 1969 Jan;62.1:1-21
- Hanes, Karl R. Serotonin, psilocybin, and body dysmorphic disorder: A case report.
J Clin Psychopharmacol. 1996 Apr;16(2):188-9.
- MAPS.org, Psychedelic Research Around the World.
PSILOCYBIN STUDIES: IN PROGRESS
- Moreno, Francisco A.; Wiegand, Christopher B.; Taitano, E. Keolani; Delgado, Pedro L.
Safety, Tolerability, and Efficacy of Psilocybin in 9 Patients With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. J Clin Psychiatry 2006;67:1735-1740
• Psychedelic mushrooms ease OCD symptoms (Dec 2006)
• Study: Psilocybin Relieves OCD Symptoms (21 Dec 2006)
• Psychedelic drug ‘hope for OCD
• Medicine hope for psychedelic drugs
- Kylea Taylor, M.S. Ethical caring in psychedelic work.
From the Newsletter of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, MAPS - Volume 7 Number 3 Summer 1997:pp. 26-30
- Podcast
088 - "Status of Psilocybin Study at Harbor-UCLA", Dr. Preet Chopra
Effects of Psilocybin in Advanced-Stage Cancer Patients With Anxiety
[MP3: ] | |
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