Misc. news stories

Alexander Beiner was dosed intravenously with the powerful hallucinogenic DMT as part of a clinical trial at Imperial College London. In the months afterwards, he found himself changing in some interesting ways.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released first-of-its-kind draft guidance on the “unique” considerations that researchers should take into account when studying psychedelics, which the agency says show “initial promise” as potential therapies.

Starting July 1, 2023, Australia will allow psychiatrists to prescribe certain hallucinogens in medical settings to treat PTSD and treatment-resistant depression.

A new book, I Feel Love, explores the rollicking history of the 90s club drug turned 21st-century therapeutic treatment…“MDMA deserves its own story,” Nuwer said. “I wanted to bring together the history, culture, politics and science of the drug all in one place.

Several studies have found psilocybin to be safe and effective in treating substance use disorders—but a first-of-its-kind analysis offers novel insights into exactly how psychedelic-assisted therapy works for people addicted to alcohol.

Brendan was once a leader in the US white nationalist movement. But when he took the drug MDMA in a scientific study, it would radically change his extremist beliefs – to the surprise of everyone involved.

Incorporating the psychedelic drug psilocybin into psychotherapy shows promise in the treatment of depression, according to new research published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology. But the study also highlights the difficulty of implementing effective blinding procedures to prevent expectancy effects when researching psychedelic substances.

A new study suggests that the use of certain antidepressants, specifically SSRIs and SNRIs, may weaken the acute subjective effects of psilocybin in some individuals. The findings, which appear in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, indicate that this dampening effect on psilocybin can last for a significant period of time even after stopping the antidepressant medication.

A new randomized trial from researchers in the United States has shown that injections of ketamine are at least as effective as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) when treating non-psychotic forms of major depression. The study was published in NEJM.

Administering a single 25mg dose of psilocybin paired with psychological support has resulted in 57% of patients sustaining remission of depression, with 64% experiencing a robust clinical response 18 months later.

The psychedelic substances 5-MeO-DMT causes a long-lasting increase in the number of tiny protrusions called dendritic spines in the brain, according to new research published in Neuropsychopharmacology.

What we lose when psychedelics are medicalized.

Scientists have identified specific patterns of brain network reconfigurations that occur when people take both classical and non-classical psychedelic drugs. Their findings, published in NeuroImage, shed new light on how psychedelics affect the brain and consciousness.

The psychedelic drug lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) makes people learn faster when receiving feedback and enhances exploratory behavior, according to new research published in Psychological Medicine.

A recent case study describes a young 35-year-old male researcher in the United States, who claims to distinguish red and green colors better after taking psychedelics.

According to new research, published Monday (May 1) in the journal PNAS(opens in new tab), this surge can sometimes occur after a person’s breathing stops but before the brain stops functioning. The activity pattern is somewhat similar to what is seen when people are awake or in dreamlike states…