Unifying 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 suitePsychedelics in the treatment of unipolar mood disorders : a systematic review James J.H. Rucker, Luke A. Jelen, Sarah Flynn, Kyle D. Frowde and Allan H. Young Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2016, 1-10 DOI: 10.1177/0269881116679368 Abstract Unipolar mood disorders, including major depressive disorder and persistent depressive disorder (dysthymia), confer high rates of disability and mortality and a very high socioeconomic burden. Current treatment is suboptimal in most cases and there is little of note in the pharmaceutical development pipeline. The psychedelic drugs, including lysergic acid diethylamide and psilocybin, were used extensively in the treatment of mood disorders, and other psychiatric conditions, before their prohibition in the [...]
Lire la suiteThe paradoxical psychological effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) R. L. Carhart-Harris, M. Kaelen, M. Bolstridge, T. M. Williams, L. T. Williams, R. Underwood, A. Feilding and D. J. Nutt Psychological Medicine, 2016, 46, 1379–1390. doi:10.1017/S0033291715002901 Background : Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is a potent serotonergic hallucinogen or psychedelic that modulates consciousness in a marked and novel way. This study sought to examine the acute and mid-term psychological effects of LSD in a controlled study. Method : A total of 20 healthy volunteers participated in this within-subjects study. Participants received LSD (75 μg, intravenously) on one occasion and placebo (saline, intravenously) on another, in a [...]
Lire la suiteHow effective and safe is medical cannabis as a treatment of mental disorder ? A systematic review HOCH E., NIEMANN D., von KELLER R., SCHNEIDER M., FRIEMEL C.M., PREUSS U.W., HASAN A., POGARELL O. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 2019 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-019-00984-4 Abstract We conducted a review of systematic reviews (SRs) and randomized-controlled trials (RCTs) to analyze efficacy and safety of cannabis-based medication in patients with mental disorders. Five data bases were systematically searched (2006—August 2018); 4 SRs (of 11 RCTs) and 14 RCTs (1629 participants) were included. Diagnoses were: dementia, cannabis and opioid dependence, psychoses/schizophrenia, general social anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, anorexia nervosa, [...]
Lire la suiteCannabidiol (CBD) as an Adjunctive Therapy in Schizophrenia : A Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial Philip McGuire, F.R.C.Psych., F.Med.Sci., Philip Robson, M.R.C.P., F.R.C.Psych., Wieslaw Jerzy Cubala, M.D., Ph.D., Daniel Vasile, M.D., Ph.D., Paul Dugald Morrison, Ph.D., M.R.C.Psych., Rachel Barron, B.Vet.Med., M.R.C.V.S., Adam Taylor, Ph.D., Stephen Wright, F.R.C.P.(Edin), F.F.P.M. American Journal of Psychiatry, 2018, 175, 225–231. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2017.17030325 Objective : Research in both animals and humans indicates that cannabidiol (CBD) has antipsychotic properties. The authors assessed the safety and effectiveness of CBD in patients with schizophrenia. Method : In an exploratory double-blind parallel-group trial, patients with schizophrenia were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive CBD (1000 [...]
Lire la suiteCannabidiol as a Potential New Type of an Antipsychotic. A Critical Review of the Evidence Cathrin Rohleder, Juliane K. Müller, Bettina Lange and F. M. Leweke Frontiers in Pharmacology, 2016, Volume 7, Article 422. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2016.00422 There is urgent need for the development of mechanistically different and less side-effect prone antipsychotic compounds. The endocannabinoid system has been suggested to represent a potential new target in this indication. While the chronic use of cannabis itself has been considered a risk factor contributing to the development of schizophrenia, triggered by the phytocannabinoid delta-9-tetra-hydro-cannabinol (19-THC), cannabidiol, the second most important phytocannabinoid, appears to have no psychotomimetic potential. [...]
Lire la suiteFamilial abnormalities of endocannabinoid signaling in schizophrenia Dagmar Koethe, Franziska Pahlisch, Martin Hellmich , Cathrin Rohleder , Juliane K. Mueller, Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg , E. Fuller Torrey, Daniele Piomelli and F. Markus Leweke, THE WORLD JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY, 2018 https://doi.org/10.1080/15622975.2018.1449966 ABSTRACT Objectives : Epidemiological and experimental evidence suggests that the endocannabinoid system plays a pathophysiological role in schizophrenia. This is reflected by elevated cerebrospinal levels of the endocannabinoid anandamide in schizophrenia and its initial prodromal states. Methods : We analyzed plasma concentrations of anandamide, 2-arachidonoyl-sn-glycerol, palmitoylethanolamide and oleoylethanolamide from 25 twin pairs discordant for schizophrenia, six discordant for bipolar disorder and eight healthy twin pairs to [...]
Lire la suiteBrain Imaging Studies on the Cognitive, Pharmacological and Neurobiological Effects of Cannabis in Humans : Evidence from Studies of Adult Users. Aviv Weinstein, Abigail Livny, Abraham Weizman. Current Pharmaceutical Design, 2016, 22, 42, 6366-6379. doi: 10.2174/1381612822666160822151323. PMID : 27549374 Abstract Cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug worldwide. Regular cannabis use has been associated with a range of acute and chronic mental health problems, such as anxiety, depression, psychotic symptoms and neurocognitive impairments and their neural mechanisms need to be examined. This review summarizes and critically evaluates brain-imaging studies of cannabis in recreational and regular cannabis users between January 2000 and January 2016. The [...]
Lire la suiteCannabinoid Modulation of Functional Connectivity within Regions Processing Attentional Salience Sagnik Bhattacharyya, Irina Falkenberg, Rocio Martin-Santos, Zerrin Atakan1, Jose A Crippa, Vincent Giampietro, Mick Brammer and Philip McGuire Neuropsychopharmacology, 2015, 40, 1343–1352 2015 American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. All rights reserved 0893-133X/15 www.neuropsychopharmacology.org doi:10.1038/npp.2014.258 Abstract There is now considerable evidence to support the hypothesis that psychotic symptoms are the result of abnormal salience attribution, and that the attribution of salience is largely mediated through the prefrontal cortex, the striatum, and the hippocampus. Although these areas show differential activation under the influence of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (delta-9-THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), the two major derivatives of cannabis sativa, little is known about [...]
Lire la suiteThe Cannabis Conundrum : Thinking Outside the THC Box Sarah L. Hagerty, Sophie L. York Williams, Vijay A. Mittal, and Kent E. Hutchison The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 2015, 55, 8, 839–841 DOI: 10.1002/jcph.511 Keywords : cannabis, cannabinoids, D9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabidiol (CBD), psychosis Despite nationwide movements to legalize and regulate cannabis, our understanding of its effects on human health is tenuous at best. Developing a solid evidence base regarding the health effects of cannabis is imperative given the momentum for legalization and the demand for sound regulatory practices. This present commentary will identify limitations with respect to previous research on cannabis, discuss the genesis and implications [...]
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