OPEN Foundation

Day: 23 February 2015

Second part of special issue compiled by OPEN published

December 6, 2021 / Articles, OPEN Lectures, Public Lectures, Publications, Research / By

cdarcoverAt the end of last month we published the first part of a special issue on the beneficial effects of psychedelics in the treatment of addiction of the scientific journal CDAR. Now, the second part has been published with three more articles on this subject.

In the first article, Robin Mackenzie argues that too little attention is paid to how psychedelics might positively influence both one’s life and one’s death. It is her contention that too often, neuroscientific research focuses on remedying diseases or disorders. Instead, she argues for cognitive liberty and posits that neuroscience should illuminate the role psychedelics might play in improving well-being and ‘human flourishing’.

A review by Mitch Liester traces the turbulent history of LSD, from its initial use as a ‘psychotomimetic’ (a substance that mimics psychosis-like states of consciousness) to its employment as a pharmacological aid in helping ‘addicted’ patients and its widespread association with counterculture movements in the 1960s. Liester provides an overview of its pharmacology, neurobiology and a detailed phenomenology of its subjective effects. The author argues that it is time for an unbiased reexamination of LSD’s potential as a pharmacological adjunct in addiction treatment.

Recently, studies at Johns Hopkins University have drawn attention to the significance of transcendental or mystical aspects of the psychedelic experience. These studies suggest a pivotal role for mystical-type experiences in promoting wellbeing, leading to measurable positive changes in the behaviour, attitudes, and values of healthy participants. The rigorous research study conducted by Albert Garcia-Romeu and colleagues at the same university provides further insight in how psilocybin-occasioned mystical experiences translate to the context of heavy tobacco dependence. Their clinical pilot study shows abstinence rates after psilocybin treatment that are significantly higher than that of conventional treatments for tobacco dependence, which motivates an important discussion on the future of addiction treatment.

The articles are open access and can be found here.

We are very proud to be in the position to share these articles with you and would like to extend our gratitude to all the writers and peer reviewers that have helped us in putting this special issue together.

Article Overview
Editorial (Thematic Issue: Introduction to ‘Beneficial Effects of Psychedelics with a Special Focus on Addictions’)
What Can Neuroscience Tell Us About the Potential of Psychedelics in Healthcare? How the Neurophenomenology of Psychedelics Research Could Help us to Flourish Throughout Our Lives, as Well as to Enhance Our Dying
A Review of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) in the Treatment of Addictions: Historical Perspectives and Future Prospects
Psilocybin-Occasioned Mystical Experiences in the Treatment of Tobacco Addiction

Tweede deel van door OPEN samengesteld special issue gepubliceerd

December 2, 2021 / Artikelen, Dutch, Onderzoek / By

cdarcover

Eind vorige maand publiceerden we het eerste deel van een special issue van het wetenschappelijk tijdschrift CDAR, waarin de heilzame effecten van psychedelica bij de behandeling van verslaving werden besproken. Ondertussen is het tweede deel gepubliceerd met drie extra artikelen over dit onderwerp.

In het eerste artikel stelt Robin Mackenzie dat er te weinig aandacht wordt besteed aan de mogelijkheid om psychedelica te gebruiken om iemands leven zowel als dood positief te beïnvloeden. Ze beweert dat neurowetenschappelijk onderzoek te vaak de focus legt op het genezen van ziektes en aandoeningen. Mackenzie pleit daarentegen voor cognitieve vrijheid en stelt dat de neurowetenschappen de potentiële rol van psychedelica binnen ‘menselijke groei’ en welzijn zou moeten belichten.

Mitch Liester overloopt de turbulente geschiedenis van LSD, van haar oorspronkelijke functie als ‘psychotomimeticum’ (een middel dat psychose-achtige bewustzijnstoestanden nabootst) en als farmacologisch hulpmiddel voor ‘verslaafde’ patiënten tot haar wijdverbreide associatie met de massale counterculture van de jaren ’60. Liester biedt een overzicht van de farmacologische en neurobiologische eigenschappen van LSD en een gedetailleerde fenomenologie van haar subjectieve effecten. De auteur stelt dat het tijd is voor een onpartijdige herevaluering van het potentieel van LSD als farmacologisch hulpmiddel in de verslavingszorg.

Verschillende onderzoeken aan de Johns Hopkins University hebben onlangs de aandacht gevestigd op het belang van de transcendentale en spirituele aspecten van de psychedelische ervaring. Deze studies schrijven een belangrijke rol toe aan mystieke ervaringen ter bevordering van algeheel welzijn, met meetbare positieve veranderingen in zowel het gedrag, de opvattingen en de waarden van gezonde deelnemers. Het grondig onderzoek dat Albert Garcia-Romeu en zijn collega’s uitvoerden aan dezelfde universiteit verstrekt een dieper inzicht in hoe door psilocybine geïnduceerde mystieke ervaringen zich laten toepassen binnen de context van een zware tabaksverslaving. Hun klinische pilotstudie toont aan dat het aantal gestopte gebruikers na een psilocybinebehandeling significant hoger ligt dan bij gebruikelijke behandelingen voor tabaksverslaving, wat stof biedt voor een belangrijke discussie over de toekomst van de verslavingszorg.

De artikelen zijn vrij toegankelijk en kunnen hier worden gevonden.

We zijn erg trots op het feit dat we deze artikelen met iedereen kunnen delen en willen graag alle auteurs en peer-reviewers bedanken die ons hebben geholpen om dit special issue samen te stellen.

Overzicht van de artikelen

Editorial (Thematic Issue: Introduction to ‘Beneficial Effects of Psychedelics with a Special Focus on Addictions’)
What Can Neuroscience Tell Us About the Potential of Psychedelics in Healthcare? How the Neurophenomenology of Psychedelics Research Could Help us to Flourish Throughout Our Lives, as Well as to Enhance Our Dying
A Review of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) in the Treatment of Addictions: Historical Perspectives and Future Prospects
Psilocybin-Occasioned Mystical Experiences in the Treatment of Tobacco Addiction

Psilocybin-Occasioned Mystical Experiences in the Treatment of Tobacco Addiction

February 23, 2015 / Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Mystical experiences, Papers, Psychiatry, Psychology, Psychopharmacology, Publications, Safety, Spirituality / By / , ,

Abstract

Psilocybin-occasioned mystical experiences have been linked to persisting effects in healthy volunteers including positive changes in behavior, attitudes, and values, and increases in the personality domain of openness. In an open-label pilot-study of psilocybin-facilitated smoking addiction treatment, 15 smokers received 2 or 3 doses of psilocybin in the context of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for smoking cessation. Twelve of 15 participants (80%) demonstrated biologically verified smoking abstinence at 6-month follow-up. Participants who were abstinent at 6 months (n=12) were compared to participants still smoking at 6 months (n=3) on measures of subjective effects of psilocybin. Abstainers scored significantly higher on a measure of psilocybin-occasioned mystical experience. No significant differences in general intensity of drug effects were found between groups, suggesting that mystical-type subjective effects, rather than overall intensity of drug effects, were responsible for smoking cessation. Nine of 15 participants (60%) met criteria for “complete” mystical experience. Smoking cessation outcomes were significantly correlated with measures of mystical experience on session days, as well as retrospective ratings of personal meaning and spiritual significance of psilocybin sessions. These results suggest a mediating role of mystical experience in psychedelic-facilitated addiction treatment.

Garcia-Romeu, A., Griffiths, R. R., & Johnson, M. W. (2015). Psilocybin-occasioned Mystical Experiences in the Treatment of Tobacco Addiction. Current Drug Abuse Reviews, 7(3), 157-164. http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1874473708666150107121331
Link to full text

A Review of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) in the Treatment of Addictions: Historical Perspectives and Future Prospects

February 23, 2015 / Addiction, LSD, Neuroscience, Papers, Psychiatry, Psychology, Psychopharmacology, Publications / By /

Abstract

Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is a semisynthetic compound with strong psychoactive properties. Chemically related to serotonin, LSD was initially hypothesized to produce a psychosislike state. Later, LSD was reported to have benefits in the treatment of addictions. However, widespread indiscriminate use and reports of adverse affects resulted in the classification of LSD as an illicit drug with no accepted medical use. This article reviews LSD’s storied history from its discovery, to its use as a research tool, followed by its widespread association with the counterculture movement of the 1960s, and finally to its rebirth as a medicine with potential benefits in the treatment of addictions. LSD’s pharmacology, phenomenology, effects at neurotransmitter receptors, and effects on patterns of gene expression are reviewed. Based upon a review of the literature, it is concluded that further research into LSD’s potential as a treatment for addictions is warranted.

Liester, M. B. (2015). A Review of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) in the Treatment of Addictions: Historical Perspectives and Future Prospects. Current Drug Abuse Reviews, 7(3), 146-156. http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1874473708666150107120522
Link to full text

What Can Neuroscience Tell Us About the Potential of Psychedelics in Healthcare?

February 23, 2015 / Ayahuasca, Cacti / Mescaline, Consciousness, DMT, Iboga / Ibogaine, Ketamine, LSD, MDMA, Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Neuroscience, Papers, Personal development, Psychiatry, Psychology, Psychopharmacology, Publications, Spirituality / By /

Abstract

Health-related psychedelic research should focus on helping us flourish, not just remedying ill-health or addiction. We don’t know enough about how psychedelics could enhance human flourishing. Factors promoting health-through-flourishing include finding meaning in life, spiritual practices, comfortable levels of social bonds, emotionally/physically satisfying sex in a long-term monogamous relationship and control over one’s daily life. Psychedelic research could find more.Neuroscience anchors psychedelic research into disease and disorder, e.g. addiction, PSTD, migraine, anxiety, pain etc. Neurophenomenological psychedelics research could illuminate relationships between health, ASC/NOSCs and cognitive liberty to promote human flourishing. If we accept the self as an epiphenomenon of subsystems within the brain, we ‘know’ ‘unconsciously’, but are not aware of, many things which affect our lives profoundly. These include control over identifying, remembering and forgetting our states of mind and how to move between them. A prerequisite for integrated investigations into ASC/NOSCs is the establishment of a taxonomic knowledge base which lists, categorises and characterises ASC/NOSCs to enable us to choose specific states of mind and move securely among them. Or, in other words, to enable us to exercise our cognitive liberty safely.

I believe that human health and flourishing would be enhanced were we able to direct our states of being by consciously choosing them. Given the promise of mindfulness techniques to enhance our health, happiness and spiritual growth, constructing both personal and generic classifications of salient ASC/NOSCs makes sense. Laws need to change. The neuroscience of pleasure, love, spirituality, decision-making, pattern recognition and location of meaning should inform health-enhancing psychedelic research while promoting flourishing through cognitive liberty.

As part of cognitive liberty, our end-of-life choices should include how we die. In other words, our idea of the good death should include access to psychedelics. Dying high is increasingly likely to become a popular choice as baby boomers age and place their economic clout behind the reform of end-of-life laws as well as drug laws. Achieving such crucial legal changes depends partly on the ability to produce research to anchor evidence based law and policy. Research into psychedelics, ASC/NOSCs and the neurobiology of the dying process is essential.

Mackenzie, R. (2015). What can neuroscience tell us about the potential of psychedelics in healthcare? How the Neurophenomenology of Psychedelics Research Could Help us to Flourish Throughout Our Lives, as Well as to Enhance Our Dying. Current Drug Abuse Reviews, 7(3), 136-144. http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1874473708666150107114927
Link to full text

Editorial (Thematic Issue: Introduction to ‘Beneficial Effects of Psychedelics with a Special Focus on Addictions’)

February 23, 2015 / Addiction, LSD, Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Neuroscience, Papers, Personal development, Psychiatry, Psychology, Psychopharmacology, Psychotherapy, Publications / By / ,

Editorial

Introduction to ‘Beneficial Effects of Psychedelics with a Special Focus on Addictions’

The articles dedicated to psychedelic research in this issue of Current Drug Abuse Reviews are part of a special issue dedicated to the beneficial uses of psychedelics, with a special focus on addiction. The beneficial uses of psychedelics are currently being studied at some of the world’s major academic institutions. Research teams are investigating their potential in addressingvarious hard to treat psychiatric disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, end-of-life anxiety, drug dependence and depression. After a decades long hiatus, psychedelic research is once again establishing a firm foothold in academia.

The idea of this special issue originated at the Interdisciplinary Conference on Psychedelic Research, organised by the OPEN Foundation in 2012. OPEN was founded in 2007 in the Netherlands, in order to stimulate and advance scientific research into psychedelics. In this second part of the special interdisciplinary issue of CDAR, specific attention is paid to the role psychedelics may play in mental health, in particular with regard to addiction and drug dependence.

Breeksema, J. J., & Kortekaas, R. (2015). Introduction to ‘Beneficial Effects of Psychedelics with a Special Focus on Addictions’. Current Drug Abuse Reviews, 7(3), 135. http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/187447370703150220182741

Link to full text

Link to the introduction of the first part of this special issue

Articles in this special issue:

What Can Neuroscience Tell Us About the Potential of Psychedelics in Healthcare? How the Neurophenomenology of Psychedelics Research Could Help us to Flourish Throughout Our Lives, as Well as to Enhance Our Dying

A Review of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) in the Treatment of Addictions: Historical Perspectives and Future Prospects

Psilocybin-Occasioned Mystical Experiences in the Treatment of Tobacco Addiction

Editorial (Thematic Issue: Introduction to 'Beneficial Effects of Psychedelics with a Special Focus on Addictions')

February 23, 2015 / Addiction, LSD, Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Neuroscience, Papers, Personal development, Psychiatry, Psychology, Psychopharmacology, Psychotherapy, Publications / By / ,

Editorial

Introduction to ‘Beneficial Effects of Psychedelics with a Special Focus on Addictions’

The articles dedicated to psychedelic research in this issue of Current Drug Abuse Reviews are part of a special issue dedicated to the beneficial uses of psychedelics, with a special focus on addiction. The beneficial uses of psychedelics are currently being studied at some of the world’s major academic institutions. Research teams are investigating their potential in addressingvarious hard to treat psychiatric disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, end-of-life anxiety, drug dependence and depression. After a decades long hiatus, psychedelic research is once again establishing a firm foothold in academia.

The idea of this special issue originated at the Interdisciplinary Conference on Psychedelic Research, organised by the OPEN Foundation in 2012. OPEN was founded in 2007 in the Netherlands, in order to stimulate and advance scientific research into psychedelics. In this second part of the special interdisciplinary issue of CDAR, specific attention is paid to the role psychedelics may play in mental health, in particular with regard to addiction and drug dependence.

Breeksema, J. J., & Kortekaas, R. (2015). Introduction to ‘Beneficial Effects of Psychedelics with a Special Focus on Addictions’. Current Drug Abuse Reviews, 7(3), 135. http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/187447370703150220182741

Link to full text

Link to the introduction of the first part of this special issue

Articles in this special issue:

What Can Neuroscience Tell Us About the Potential of Psychedelics in Healthcare? How the Neurophenomenology of Psychedelics Research Could Help us to Flourish Throughout Our Lives, as Well as to Enhance Our Dying

A Review of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) in the Treatment of Addictions: Historical Perspectives and Future Prospects

Psilocybin-Occasioned Mystical Experiences in the Treatment of Tobacco Addiction

14 May - Psychedelics & Psychosis with Phoebe Friesen and Dirk Corstens

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