LSD, My Problem Child. Albert Hofmann. Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978-0198840206
In a highly candid and personal account, the father of LSD details the history of his “problem child” and his long and fruitful career as a research chemist. An essential read for anyone wanting to learn about how LSD originated and Hofmann’s view on its transition to recreational use.
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The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge. Carlos Castaneda. Simon & Schuster. ISBN: 978-0671600419
A mixture of narrative experiences and scholarly analysis, this book describes the effects of three hallucinogenic drugs taken by a graduate student under the supervision of a Yaqui Indian shaman.
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A Really Good Day : How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage and My Life. Ayelet Waldman. Little, Brown Book Group. ISBN: 978-1472152893
A first-hand account of microdosing and its positive effects. Waldman charts her experience over the course of a month and looks into the newest research and policies governing LSD. This book will be interesting for anyone curious about how microdosing LSD can affect daily living.
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How to Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics. Michael Pollan. The Penguin Press. ISBN: 9781594204227
A highly accessible and enjoyable read through the history of psychedelic research and use starting in the 1960s up to the present day. Pollan applies his quintessential experiential journalism approach to various psychedelic substances – starting off hesitantly, as he weaves through the research and has several personal experiences, Pollan becomes a measured advocate for the power psychedelics have to change our minds and more.
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The Way of the Psychonaut Vol. 1: Encyclopedia for Inner Journeys. Stanislav Grof. MAPS. ISBN: 9780998276595
Written in an easy, understandable tone, this comprehensive work is a tour de force works its way through the worlds of psychology and psychotherapy, Holotropic Breathwork, maps of the psyche, birth, sex, and death, psychospiritual rebirth, the roots of trauma, spiritual emergency and transpersonal experiences, karma and reincarnation, higher creativity, great art, and archetypes.
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TIHKAL: The Continuation. Alexander Shulgin, Ann Shulgin. Transform Press. ISBN: 978-0963009692
In a sequel to PiHKAL, the first part continues the story of the Shulgins’ relationship and the second part provided synthesis information about tryptamines. Shulgin has made the second part freely available on Erowid.org.
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PiHKAL: A Chemical Love Story. Alexander Shulgin, Ann Shulgin. Transform Press. ISBN: 978-0963009609
One part fictionalized autobiography of the Shulgin’s relationship and one part chemistry cookbook for a variety of phenethylamines. This book is not easy to get your hands on and while it is considered a classic text, the second part of the part will not be easily accessible to those without knowledge of chemistry. The Shulgin’s were motivated to make the synthesis information of these compounds readily available to protect public access to this information.
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PSYCHEDELIC MEDICINE: THE HEALING POWERS OF LSD, MDMA, PSILOCYBIN, AND AYAHUASCA. Dr. Richard Louis Miller. Park Street Press. ISBN: 978-1620556979
Clinical psychologist Dr. Richard Louis Miller discusses what is happening today in psychedelic medicine. Dr. Miller and his contributors explore the ongoing efforts to restore psychedelic therapies to the health field. They also discuss the newly shifting political climate and the push for new research, offering hope for an end to the War on Drugs and a potential renaissance of research into psychedelic medicines around the world.
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Several clinical studies into psychedelics-assisted psychotherapy for treatment-resistant depression are currently going on at Dutch universities, and are still recruiting research subjects.
Three Dutch university medical centers – Groningen, Leiden and Utrecht – are participating in the largest research to date using psilocybin-assisted therapy for treatment-resistant depression. This study, a phase IIb dose-ranging study with 216 patients financed by Compass Pathways, is carried out in a number of sites across North America and Europe, including the Netherlands. If successful, it will be followed by phase III studies, paving the way for the use of psilocybin-assisted therapy as a standard treatment against depression.
These three research sites are still recruiting subjects over 18 years of age who will receive either 1mg, 10 mg or 25 mg of psilocybin in a single session following extensive preparation. Full details regarding study design and admission criteria can be found on the web pages of these research sites (Groningen, Leiden, Utrecht).
For this multisite study, Compass was granted Breakthrough Therapy designation by the FDA. The FDA designates a drug as a Breakthrough Therapy if preliminary clinical evidence shows that it may demonstrate substantial improvement over available therapy. This designation is intended to expedite the development and review of drugs for serious or life-threatening conditions, and it entails more intensive FDA guidance on an efficient drug development program.
More recently, the non-profit medical research organisation Usona Institute also obtained Breakthrough Therapy designation, this time for its psilocybin programme for major depressive disorder, an indication that is broader in scope than treatment-resistant depression. Adding the designation of MDMA as Breakthrough Therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder in 2017, this is the third time in as many years that the FDA gives a psychedelic treatment protocol this kind of organisational and administrative booster, feeding the hope of many that regular prescription of psychedelic treatments may be only a few years away.
In another study in the Netherlands, the department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Maastricht University is testing the effect of a single administration of ‘a naturally occurring psychedelic substance’ on treatment-resistant depression. Previously, the same research team has tested the same compound on healthy volunteers, and the trial is now going into its clinical phase with subjects between 18 and 64 years of age presenting treatment-resistant depression. Full details are available on the Psychopharmacology in Maastricht website.
Elsewhere in Europe, other trials investigating the effects of therapy with psychedelics – mostly psilocybin – on depression, are still recruiting research subjects. In Zurich (Switzerland), dr. Franz Vollenweider’s team is conducting a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled study investigating the effects of psilocybin on major depressive disorder in 60 research subjects. In London, a team at Imperial College’s Centre for Psychedelic Research, led by David Nutt, is testing psilocybin against escitalopram, an SSRI antidepressant, on 50 research subjects with major depression. And also in London, the Centre for Affective Disorders was awarded a large grant from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) in 2017 to investigate the safety, feasibility and efficacy of psilocybin as a treatment for treatment-resistant depression. The Centre is starting recruitment of 60 participants for this randomised, placebo-controlled study, which will be led by Dr James Rucker.