Misc. news stories

The drug MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine) might not produce depressive “comedowns” when used in a controlled clinical setting, according to new research published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

Psychedelic use has been proposed as a treatment for various substance use disorders, leading people to question if it would be an effective treatment for opioid abuse. A study published in Nature: Scientific Reports suggests that psilocybin use, but no other psychedelics, was linked to lower odds of opioid abuse.

It’s high time we had a sensible conversation about cannabis reform. From Canada to Georgia, Mexico to Malta, countries around the world are changing their laws. But in the UK the substance continues to be banned. We are failing to keep up with global trends and new thinking.

A tranche of documents released to Motherboard through FOIA show the research priorities of the secretive Advanced Aerospace Weapons Systems Application Program.

In a country with conflicting legal and social attitudes to marijuana, this idyllic cafe wants to break the stigma around the persecuted plant.

After a shock injury on a reef in Indonesia in 2018, he pushed into frontiers that athletes, let alone modern science, are only just beginning to explore.

Image from: Shalom Jacobovitz (Wiki Commons)

Psilocybin, a drug found in magic mushrooms, appears to free up the brains of people with severe depression in a way that other antidepressants do not, a study has found.

For the past several decades, psychedelics have been widely stigmatized as dangerous illegal drugs. But a recent surge of academic research into their use to treat psychiatric conditions is spurring a recent shift in public opinion.

The psychedelic substance psilocybin causes transient changes to the sleep-wake architecture of laboratory mice, according to new preliminary research published in Translational Psychiatry. The findings provide new details about how the drug impacts sleep-related brain activity.

The findings, published March 28 in Frontiers in Psychology, reveal that higher ratings of mystical-type experiences, which often include a sense that everything is alive, were associated with greater increases in the attribution of consciousness.

Image from: Air article (Wiki Commons)

Applying machine learning to a database of testimonials uncovers how drug-induced changes in subjective awareness are mechanistically rooted in the human brain.

Our ability to elaborately communicate is one of humanity’s greatest superpowers. It allows us to retain and build knowledge across generations, cooperating at a global scale unlike anything else seen on Earth. But much about how this ability evolved is still a mystery, including its origins.

New research provides evidence that MDMA-assisted psychotherapy can improve and extend lives of patients with chronic and severe posttraumatic stress disorder while also reducing healthcare costs. The findings have been published in the journal PLOS One.

People suffering debilitating cluster headaches say the active ingredient in magic mushrooms is a help.

What happens inside your brain during these experiences and after death are questions that have puzzled neuroscientists for centuries. However, a new study published to Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience suggests that your brain may remain active and coordinated during and even after the transition to death, and be programmed to orchestrate the whole ordeal.