Ketamine Promising in Cocaine Addiction Batya Swift Yasgur, MA, LSW American Journal of Psychiatry, July 05, 2019 https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2019.18101123 A single ketamine infusion combined with mindfulness-based relapse prevention therapy (MBRP) improves abstinence and cuts cravings in cocaine-dependent adults, new research suggests. Results of a randomized control trial show that rates of abstinence were significiantly higher in patients who received ketamine plus MBRP compared to control patients. Moreover, those in the group that received ketamine were significantly less likely to experience relapse compared to control persons, and cravings were also significantly lower in the ketamine group throughout the trial. "In individuals receiving MBRP, a single ketamine infusion led to significantly greater [...]
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 suiteCan psychedelics be the treatment for the crisis in psychopharmacology ? Genís Ona, José Carlos Bouso ICEERS Foundation, Preprint · January 2019 DOI: 10.20944/preprints201901.0249.v1 Keywords : Mental health, psychedelics, psychopharmacology, psychiatry, innovative 1. Introduction For the past few years, we have been witnessing a crisis in the field of psychopharmacology. Generally, it takes a decade and up to a billion dollars in investment to get a drug on the market. Furthermore, the majority of new drugs are ruled out during the pre-clinical phase. Less than 20% of the selected drugs make it to Phase-III evaluation involving humans. Drug development has never been an easy task. However, [...]
Lire la suiteInclusion of people of color in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy : a review of the literature Timothy I. Michaels, Jennifer Purdon, Alexis Collins and Monnica T. Williams BMC Psychiatry, 2018, 18, 245 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-018-1824-6 Abstract Background : Despite renewed interest in studying the safety and efficacy of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of psychological disorders, the enrollment of racially diverse participants and the unique presentation of psychopathology in this population has not been a focus of this potentially ground-breaking area of research. In 1993, the United States National Institutes of Health issued a mandate that funded research must include participants of color and proposals must include methods for [...]
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 suiteThe psychedelic renaissance and the limitations of a White-dominant medical framework: A call for indigenous and ethnic minority inclusion JAMILAH R. GEORGE, TIMOTHY I. MICHAELS, JAE SEVELIUS and MONNICA T. WILLIAMS Journal of Psychedelic Studies, 2019 DOI: 10.1556/2054.2019.015 In recent years, the study of psychedelic science has resurfaced as scientists and therapists are again exploring its potential to treat an array of psychiatric conditions, such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and addiction. The scientific progress and clinical promise of this movement owes much of its success to the history of indigenous healing practices; yet the work of indigenous people, ethnic and racial minorities, women, [...]
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 suiteREBUS and the Anarchic Brain: Toward a Unified Model of the Brain Action of Psychedelics R. L. Carhart-Harris and K. J. Friston Pharmacological Reviews, 2019, 71, 316–344 https://doi.org/10.1124/pr.118.017160 Significance Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317 I. Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . [...]
Lire la suitePrevalence and epidemiological associates of novel psychedelic use in the United States adult population James D. Sexton, Michael S. Crawford, Noah W. Sweat, Allyson Varley , Emma E. Green and Peter S. Hendricks Journal of Psychopharmacology, 1-10 DOI : 10.1177/0269881119827796 journals.sagepub.com/home/jopract Abstract Background : Novel psychedelics approximate classic psychedelics, but unlike classic psychedelics, novel psychedelics have been used by humans for a shorter period of time, with fewer data available on these substances. Aims : The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of novel psychedelic use and the associations of novel psychedelic use with mental health outcomes. Methods : We estimated the prevalence of self-reported, [...]
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, [...]
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