LSD before Leary - Sidney Cohen' s Critique of 1950s Psychedelic Drug Research Steven J. Novak Isis, 1997, Vol. 88, No. 1, pp. 87-110. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-1753%28199703%2988%3A1%3C87%3ALBLSCC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W ABSTRACT In 1962 Sidney Cohen presented the medical community with its first warning about the dangers of the drug LSD. LSD had arrived in the United States in 1949 and was originally perceived as a psychoto-mimetic capable of producing a model psychosis. But in the mid 1950s intellectuals in Southern California redefined LSD as a psychedelic capable of producing mystical enlightenment. Though LSD was an investigational drug, authorized only for experimental use, by the late 1950s psychiatrists and psychologists were [...]
Lire la suiteLe microdosage de substances psychédéliques : bref historique et nouveaux axes de recherche Vittorio Biancardi Revue CIRCE, 2019, 11, 25pp Résumé Le micro-dosage est un phénomène social de plus en plus répandu parmi la communauté des consommateurs et consommatrices des substances dites psychédéliques. Il consiste une consommation d’un dixième de la dose typique de substance (principalement LSD ou Psilocybine) de façon fréquente, deux ou trois fois par semaine, pour améliorer les capacités cognitives ou comme auto-thérapie. L’analyse de ce phénomène est actuellement très fragmentaire et inconsistante, tant du point de vue des sciences humaines que du point de vue des sciences dites «dures». L’objectif [...]
Lire la suitePsychedelic Induced Transpersonal Experiences, Therapies, and Their Implications for Transpersonal Psychology Thomas B. Roberts and Michael J. Winkelman Chapter 25 - The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Transpersonal Psychology, First Edition. Edited by Harris L. Friedman and Glenn Hartelius. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Psychedelics and other natural and synthetic substances have an ability to induce a range of transpersonal experiences. The predominance of spiritually-related experiences from these substances has led to the development of the concept of entheogen— reflecting their potential to produce an internal experience of communing with god. The similarity of the drug-induced transpersonal [...]
Lire la suiteThe Pharmacology of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide : a Review Torsten PASSIE, John H. HALPERN, Dirk O. STICHTENOTH, Hinderk M. EMRICH, Annelie HINTZEN CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics, 2008, 14, 295-314. Doi: 10.1111/j.1755-5949.2008.00059.x Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) was synthesized in 1938 and its psychoactive effects discovered in 1943. It was used during the 1950s and 1960s as an experimental drug in psychiatric research for producing so-called “experimental psychosis” by altering neurotransmitter system and in psychotherapeutic procedures (“psycholytic” and “psychedelic” therapy). From the mid 1960s, it became an illegal drug of abuse with widespread use that continues today. With the entry of new methods of research and [...]
Lire la suitePsychiatry might need some psychedelic therapy Matthew W. Johnson International Review of Psychiatry, 2018, 30, 4, 285-290, DOI: 10.1080/09540261.2018.1509544 EDITORIAL Psychiatry might need some psychedelic therapy In historical and modern-day studies, psychedelic drugs have shown promise in managing a variety of psychiatric disorders, but their medical use has often raised controversies. The controversies have related to social, political, and legal challenges. History Although anthropological evidence suggests that classic psychedelic drugs (hereafter, ‘psychedelics’) have been used by various indigenous peoples as sacraments and healing agents before recorded history, in the mid-twentieth century they came to occupy a place at the cutting edge of psychiatric research (Johnson, Richards, & Griffiths, [...]
Lire la suiteLong-term follow-up of psilocybin-facilitated smoking cessation Johnson M.W., Garcia-Romeu A., Griffiths R.R. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 2017, 43, (1), 55–60 http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/00952990.2016.1170135 Abstract Background : A recent open-label pilot study (N = 15) found that two to three moderate to high doses (20 and 30 mg/70 kg) of the serotonin 2A receptor agonist, psilocybin, in combination with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for smoking cessation, resulted in substantially higher 6-month smoking abstinence rates than are typically observed with other medications or CBT alone. Objectives : To assess long-term effects of a psilocybin-facilitated smoking cessation program at ≥12 months after psilocybin administration. Methods : The present [...]
Lire la suiteUnifying Theories of Psychedelic Drug Effects Link R. Swanson Frontiers in Pharmacology, 2018, Volume 9, Article 172, 1-23 www.frontiersin.org (2 March 2018) doi: 10.3389/fphar.2018.00172 Abstract How do psychedelic drugs produce their characteristic range of acute effects in perception, emotion, cognition, and sense of self? How do these effects relate to the clinical efficacy of psychedelic-assisted therapies? Efforts to understand psychedelic phenomena date back more than a century in Western science. In this article I review theories of psychedelic drug effects and highlight key concepts which have endured over the last 125 years of psychedelic science. First, I describe the subjective phenomenology of acute psychedelic effects using [...]
Lire la suiteUse of new and uncommon synthetic psychoactive drugs among a nationally representative sample in the United States, 2005–2017 Joseph J. Palamar & Austin Le Human Psychopharmacology Clinical and Experimental, 2019, e2690 DOI: 10.1002/hup.2690 Abstract Objectives : This study aims to examine patterns and first mentions of reported use of new or uncommon drugs across 13 years, among nationally representative samples in the United States. Methods : Participants (ages ≥12) in the National Surveys on Drug Use and Health (2005–2017, N = 730,418) were provided opportunities to type in names of new or uncommon drugs they had ever used that were not specifically queried. We examined self‐reported [...]
Lire la suiteHallucinatory altered states of consciousness Levente Móró Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 2010, 9, 2, 241-252. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11097-010-9162-2 DOI: 10.1007/s11097-010-9162-2 Abstract Altered states of consciousness (ASC), especially hallucinatory ones, are philosophically and scientifically interesting modes of operation of the mind–brain complex. However, classical definitions of ASC seem to capture only a few common characteristics of traditionally regarded phenomena, thus lacking exact classification criteria for assessing altered and baseline states. The current situation leads to a priority problem between phenomena-based definitions and definition-based selection. In order to solve the problem, this paper introduces a self-mapping procedure that is based on a three-part analysis on certain aspects of consciousness. [...]
Lire la suitePsychedelics Promote Structural and Functional Neural Plasticity Astral X Neural Plasticity, Alexandra C. Greb, Lindsay P. Cameron, Jonathan M. Wong, Eden V. Barragan, Paige C. Wilson, Kyle F. Burbach, Sina Soltanzadeh Zarandi, Alexander Sood, Michael R. Padd, Whitney C. Duim, Megan Y. Dennis, A. Kimberley McAllister, Kassandra M. Ori-McKenney, John A. Gray and David E. Olson Experiment Findings, February 2018 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331396378 SUMMARY Atrophy of neurons in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a key role in the pathophysiology of depression and related disorders. The ability to promote both structural and functional plasticity in the PFC has been hypothesized to underlie the fast-acting antidepressant properties of the [...]
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