Psychedelic microdosing benefits and challenges : an empirical codebook Thomas Anderson, Rotem Petranker2, Adam Christopher, Daniel Rosenbaum, Cory Weissman, Le-Anh Dinh-Williams, Katrina Hui and Emma Hapke Harm Reduction Journal, 2019, 16, 43, 1-10 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12954-019-0308-4 Abstract Background : Microdosing psychedelics is the practice of consuming very low, sub-hallucinogenic doses of a psychedelic substance, such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) or psilocybin-containing mushrooms. According to media reports, microdosing has grown in popularity, yet the scientific literature contains minimal research on this practice. There has been limited reporting on adverse events associated with microdosing, and the experiences of microdosers in community samples have not been categorized. Methods : In the [...]
Lire la suitePotential Psychiatric Uses for MDMA B.B. Yazar-Klosinski and M.C. Mithoefer CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY & THERAPEUTICS, 2017, 101, 2 www.wileyonlinelibrary/cpt doi:10.1002/cpt.565 Phase II trials of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)- assisted psychotherapy have demonstrated initial safety and efficacy for treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with potential for expansion to depression and anxiety disorders. In these trials, single doses of MDMA are administered in a model of medication-assisted psychotherapy, differing from trials involving daily drug administration without psychotherapy. This model presents an opportunity to utilize accelerated regulatory pathways, such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Breakthrough Therapy Designation, to most effectively and expeditiously test such novel approaches. BACKGROUND MDMA-assisted [...]
Lire la suiteCan 3,4,-methylenedioxymethamphetamine therapy be used to treat alcohol use disorder ? Ben SESSA Journal of Psychedelic Studies, 2017, 1, (1), pp. 1–9 DOI: 10.1556/2054.01.2016.003 Treating people with alcohol use disorder has been an important target area for psychedelic research – both in the first studies of the 1950s and during the Psychedelic Renaissance of the last 10 years. To date, most studies have looked at the classical psychedelic drugs as adjuncts to psychotherapy; with attention paid to the psychospiritual aspect of the experience as a central therapeutic process in effecting abstinence from drinking. Psychotherapy assisted with 3,4,-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) has never been explored for treating [...]
Lire la suiteEffects of Schedule I drug laws on neuroscience research and treatment innovation. Nutt D.J., King L.A., Nichols D.E. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2013, 14, 577-585 DOI : 10.1038/nrn3530 Abstract Many psychoactive drugs are used recreationally, particularly by young people. This use and its perceived dangers have led to many different classes of drugs being banned under national laws and international conventions. Indeed, the possession of cannabis, 3,4‑methylenedioxy- N‑methyl-amphetamine (MDMA; also known as ecstasy) and psychedelics is stringently regulated. An important and unfortunate outcome of the controls placed on these and other psychoactive drugs is that they make research into their mechanisms of action and potential therapeutic [...]
Lire la suiteThe influence of therapists’ first-hand experience with psychedelics on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy research and therapist training ELIZABETH M. NIELSON and JEFFREY GUSS Journal of Psychedelic Studies, 2018 DOI: 10.1556/2054.2018.009 Abstract Clinical research on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is rapidly advancing in the USA, with two drugs, psilocybin and MDMA, progressing through a structure of FDA-approved trials on a trajectory toward Drug Enforcement Agency rescheduling for therapeutic use. Researcher’s and clinician’s personal use of psychedelics was cited as a potential confound in psychedelic research studies conducted in the 1950s and 1960s, a concern which contributed to the cessation of this research for some 20 years. Currently, there is no [...]
Lire la suiteEDITORIAL Should addiction researchers be interested in psychedelic science ? Stephen Bright, Martin Williams & David Caldicott Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs, Drug and Alcohol Review, 2017 DOI: 10.1111/dar.12544 As recently noted by Strauss, Bright and Williams [1], while much of the Western world has been experiencing a renaissance in research into ‘psychedelic science’ over the past decade [2], there has been no such research conducted in Australia. In Europe and the USA, studies have been conducted into lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) that have improved our understanding of brain function [3] and reduced existential anxiety associated with dying [4], while psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy has [...]
Lire la suiteDeconstructing Ecstasy : The Politics Of MDMA Research Charles S. Grob Addiction Research, 2000, 8, 6, 549-588 http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/16066350008998989 What is Ecstasy? Defined by the New Webster’s Dictionary as a state of intense overpowering emotion, a condition of exultation or mental rapture induced by beauty, music, artistic creation or the contemplation of the divine, ecstasy derives etymologically from the ancient Greek ekstasis, which means flight of the soul from the body. The anthropologist, Mircea Eliade, who explored the roots of religious experience in his book Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, has described the function of this intense state of mind among aboriginal peoples. Select individuals are [...]
Lire la suiteDisruptive Psychopharmacology Boris D. Heifets, MD, PhD1; Robert C. Malenka, MD, PhD2 JAMA Psychiatry. Published online June 26, 2019. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.1145 The paucity of medications with novel mechanisms for the treatment of mental illnesses combined with the delayed response to currently available medications has led to great excitement about the potential therapeutic utility of previously demonized drugs, which offer the hope of generating rapid symptom reductions in some of the sickest patients. Within the past 2 years, the US Food and Drug Administration approved esketamine for treatment-resistant depression and 2 compounds that are still on the US Drug Enforcement Administration’s most restrictive schedule, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and psilocybin, [...]
Lire la suiteDiscriminative Stimulus Effects of Psychostimulants and Hallucinogens in S()-3,4-Methylene-dioxy-meth amphetamine (MDMA) and R()-MDMA Trained Mice K. S. Murnane, N. Murai, L. L. Howell, and W. E. Fantegrossi THE JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY AND EXPERIMENTAL THERAPEUTICS, 2009, Vol. 331, No. 2 Copyright © 2009 by The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 156174/3525473 JPET 331:717–723, 2009 Preliminary findings from these experiments were previously presented as follows : Murnane K.S., 2008 Expérimentalement Biology Meeting; San Diego, CA. doi:10.1124/jpet.109.156174. ABSTRACT 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is a substituted phenethylamine more commonly known as the drug of abuse “ecstasy.” The acute and persistent neurochemical effects of MDMA in the mice are distinct from those in [...]
Lire la suiteDeconstructing Ecstasy : The Politics Of MDMA Research Charles S. Grob Addiction Research, 2000, 8, 6, 549-588 http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/16066350008998989 What is Ecstasy? Defined by the New Webster’s Dictionary as a state of intense overpowering emotion, a condition of exultation or mental rapture induced by beauty, music, artistic creation or the contemplation of the divine, ecstasy derives etymologically from the ancient Greek ekstasis, which means flight of the soul from the body. The anthropologist, Mircea Eliade, who explored the roots of religious experience in his book Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, has described the function of this intense state of mind among aboriginal peoples. Select individuals [...]
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