OPEN Foundation

Menu
Search
Close this search box.

LSD

The potential utility of some legal highs in CNS disorders

July 29, 2015 / Anxiety Disorders / PTSD, Depressive Disorders, Ketamine, LSD, MDMA, Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Papers, Psychiatry & Medicine, Psychology, Publications, Substance Use Disorder / By / ,

Abstract

Over the last decade there has been an explosion of new drugs of abuse, so called legal highs or novel psychoactive substances (NPS). Many of these abused drugs have unknown pharmacology, but their biological effects can be anticipated from their molecular structure and possibly also from online user reports. When considered with the findings that some prescription medications are increasingly abused and that some abused drugs have been tested clinically one could argue that there has been a blurring of the line between drugs of abuse and clinically used drugs. In this review we examine these legal highs/NPS and consider whether, based on their known or predicted pharmacology, some might have the potential to be clinically useful in CNS disorders.

Davidson, C., & Schifano, F. (2015). The potential utility of some legal highs in CNS disorders. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pnpbp.2015.07.010
Link to full text

Psychedelics and Immunomodulation: Novel Approaches and Therapeutic Opportunities

July 14, 2015 / DMT, LSD, MDMA, Neuroscience, Papers, Psychiatry & Medicine, Psychology, Publications / By /

Abstract

Classical psychedelics are psychoactive substances, which, besides their psychopharmacological activity, have also been shown to exert significant modulatory effects on immune responses by altering signaling pathways involved in inflammation, cellular proliferation, and cell survival via activating NF-κB and mitogen-activated protein kinases. Recently, several neurotransmitter receptors involved in the pharmacology of psychedelics, such as serotonin and sigma-1 receptors, have also been shown to play crucial roles in numerous immunological processes. This emerging field also offers promising treatment modalities in the therapy of various diseases including autoimmune and chronic inflammatory conditions, infections, and cancer. However, the scarcity of available review literature renders the topic unclear and obscure, mostly posing psychedelics as illicit drugs of abuse and not as physiologically relevant molecules or as possible agents of future pharmacotherapies. In this paper, the immunomodulatory potential of classical serotonergic psychedelics, including N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT), lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), 2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodoamphetamine, and 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine will be discussed from a perspective of molecular immunology and pharmacology. Special attention will be given to the functional interaction of serotonin and sigma-1 receptors and their cross-talk with toll-like and RIG-I-like pattern-recognition receptor-mediated signaling. Furthermore, novel approaches will be suggested feasible for the treatment of diseases with chronic inflammatory etiology and pathology, such as atherosclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, schizophrenia, depression, and Alzheimer’s disease.

Szabo, A. Psychedelics and immunomodulation: Novel approaches and therapeutic opportunities. Frontiers in Immunology, 0. https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2015.00358
Link to full text

Psychedelics and creativity: a review of the quantitative literature

June 30, 2015 / LSD, Mescaline / Cacti, Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Papers, Psychology, Publications / By /

Abstract

After a 40-year hiatus, the question of whether psychedelics can increase creativity is being asked with renewed vigor. This article critically reviews the conceptual issues of studying psychedelic-induced creativity by summarizing the limited evidence on the question and suggesting two broader frameworks. There are two important challenges to researchers on this topic. One is to separate creativity from other effects of the drug that may be mistaken for creativity. The second is to develop operational measures to quantify it. This article reviews the major studies assessing creativity (or related constructs) induced by psychedelics, including a reanalysis of raw data from one study. Results are modest and inconclusive but are consistent with reports that psychedelics give rise to unusual or novel thoughts. Given the lack of robust changes in creativity measures, I suggest creativity may be too specific of a construct to accurately and fully characterize the putatively beneficial cognitive changes that psychedelic users report. Feelings of creativity may be an inconsistent result of a more general effect of these drugs, such as alterations in availability of mental representations or changes in Bayesian inference. Ultimately, creativity may not be a sufficiently creative construct to capture the beneficial effects of psychedelics.

Baggott, M. J. (2015). Psychedelics and creativity: a review of the quantitative literature. PeerJ PrePrints, 3, e1468. https://dx.doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.1202v1
Link to full text

Pharmacokinetics and concentration-effect relationship of oral LSD in humans

June 24, 2015 / LSD, Neuroscience, Papers, Psychiatry & Medicine, Publications / By / , , , ,

Abstract

Background: The pharmacokinetics of oral lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) are unknown, despite its common recreational use and renewed interest in its use in psychiatric research and practice.

Methods: We characterized the pharmacokinetic profile, pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic relationship, and urine recovery of LSD and its main metabolite after administration of a single oral dose of LSD (200 μg) in eight male and eight female healthy subjects.

Results: Plasma LSD concentrations were quantifiable (> 0.1 ng/ml) in all of the subjects up to 12 h after administration. Maximal concentrations of LSD (mean ± SD: 4.5 ± 1.4 ng/ml) were reached (median, range) 1.57 (0.5-4) h after administration. Concentrations then decreased following first-order kinetics with a half-life of 3.6 ± 0.9 h up to 12 h and slower elimination thereafter with a terminal half-life of 8.9 ± 5.9 h. One percent of the orally administered LSD was eliminated in urine as LSD, and 14% was eliminated as 2-oxo-3-hydroxy-LSD within 24 h. No sex differences were observed in the pharmacokinetic profiles of LSD. The acute subjective and sympathomimetic responses to LSD lasted up to 12 h and were closely associated with the concentrations in plasma over time and exhibited no acute tolerance.

Conclusions: These first data on the pharmacokinetics and concentration-effect relationship of oral LSD are relevant for further clinical studies and serve as a reference for the assessment of intoxication with LSD.

Dolder, P. C., Schmid, Y., Haschke, M., Rentsch, K. M., & Liechti, M. E. (2015). Pharmacokinetics and concentration-effect relationship of oral LSD in humans. International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, pyv072.

Link to full text

Restructuring consciousness -the psychedelic state in light of integrated information theory

June 12, 2015 / LSD, Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Neuroscience, Papers, Publications / By /

Abstract

The psychological state elicited by the classic psychedelics drugs, such as LSD and psilocybin, is one of the most fascinating and yet least understood states of consciousness. However, with the advent of modern functional neuroimaging techniques, the effect of these drugs on neural activity is now being revealed, although many of the varied phenomenological features of the psychedelic state remain challenging to explain. Integrated information theory (IIT) is one of the foremost contemporary theories of consciousness, providing a mathematical formalization of both the quantity and quality of conscious experience. This theory can be applied to all known states of consciousness, including the psychedelic state. Using the results of functional neuroimaging data on the psychedelic state, the effects of psychedelic drugs on both the level and structure of consciousness can be explained in terms of the conceptual framework of IIT. This new IIT-based model of the psychedelic state provides an explanation for many of its phenomenological features, including unconstrained cognition, alterations in the structure and meaning of concepts and a sense of expanded awareness. This model also suggests that whilst cognitive flexibility, creativity, and imagination are enhanced during the psychedelic state, this occurs at the expense of cause-effect information, as well as degrading the brain’s ability to organize, categorize, and differentiate the constituents of conscious experience. Furthermore, the model generates specific predictions that can be tested using a combination of functional imaging techniques, as has been applied to the study of levels of consciousness during anesthesia and following brain injury.

Gallimore, A. R. (2015). Restructuring Consciousness–the Psychedelic State in Light of Integrated Information Theory. Name: Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 9, 346. https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2015.00346
Link to full text

Psychedelic drugs should be legally reclassified so that researchers can investigate their therapeutic potential

May 26, 2015 / Humanities & Art, LSD, Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Papers, Publications / By /

Abstract

Trials of physiologically safe and non-addictive drugs such as LSD are almost impossible, writes James J H Rucker, calling on the authorities to downgrade their unnecessarily restrictive class A, schedule 1 classification.

Rucker, J. J. (2015). Psychedelic drugs should be legally reclassified so that researchers can investigate their therapeutic potential. BMJ, 350, h2902. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.h2902
Link to full text

Acid Hype: American News Media and the Psychedelic Experience

December 24, 2021 / LSD / By

Now synonymous with Sixties counterculture, LSD actually entered the American consciousness via the mainstream. Time and Life, messengers of lumpen-American respectability, trumpeted its grand arrival in a postwar landscape scoured of alluring descriptions of drug use while lesser outlets piggybacked on their coverage with stories by turns sensationalised and glowing.

Acid Hype offers the untold tale of LSD’s wild journey from Brylcreem and Ivory soap to incense and peppermints. As Stephen Siff shows, the early attention lavished on the drug by the news media glorified its use in treatments for mental illness but also its status as a mystical–yet legitimate–gateway to exploring the unconscious mind. Siff’s history takes readers to the center of how popular media hyped psychedelic drugs in a constantly shifting legal and social environment, producing an intricate relationship between drugs and media experience that came to define contemporary pop culture. It also traces how the breathless coverage of LSD gave way to a textbook moral panic, transforming yesterday’s refined seeker of truths into an acid casualty splayed out beyond the fringe of polite society.

Stephen Siff is an assistant professor of journalism at Miami University, Ohio.

Acid Hype: American News Media and the Psychedelic Experience, door Stephen Siff, History of Communication reeks, University of Illinois Press, 264 pagina’s.

Koop dit boek via bookdepository.com en steun daarmee Stichting OPEN.

The use of illicit drugs as self-medication in the treatment of cluster headache: Results from an Italian online survey

April 22, 2015 / Headache Pain and Neurological Disorders, LSD, Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Papers, Psychiatry & Medicine, Publications / By / , , , , ,

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Cluster headache (CH) patients often receive unsatisfactory treatment and may explore illicit substances as alternatives. We aimed to explore this use of illicit drugs for CH treatment.

METHODS:

We invited CH patients from an Internet-based self-help group to complete a questionnaire regarding their therapeutic use of illicit substances.

RESULTS:

Of the 54 respondents, 29 were classified as chronic and 39 were drug-resistant cases. Fifty patients had previously tried subcutaneous sumatriptan, 40 had tried O2, and 48 had tried at least one prophylactic treatment. All 54 patients specified that they were dissatisfied with conventional treatments. Thirty-four patients had used cannabinoids, 13 cocaine, 8 heroin, 18 psilocybin, 12 lysergic acid amide (LSA), and 4 lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).

DISCUSSION:

Some patients with intractable CH decided to try illicit drugs concomitantly with cessation of medical care. Most of these patients found suggestions for illicit drug use on the Internet. Many patients seemed to underestimate the judicial consequences of, and had an overestimated confidence in the safety of, such illicit treatments. Physicians are often not informed by patients of their choice to use illicit drugs. This leads to questions regarding the true nature of the physician-patient relationship among dissatisfied CH patients.

Di Lorenzo, C., Coppola, G., Di Lorenzo, G., Bracaglia, M., Rossi, P., & Pierelli, F. (2015). The use of illicit drugs as self-medication in the treatment of cluster headache: Results from an Italian online survey. Cephalalgia. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0333102415583145
Link to full text

The hallucinogenic world of tryptamines: an updated review

April 16, 2015 / DMT, LSD, Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Papers, Pharmacology & Chemistry, Psychology, Publications / By / , , , ,

Abstract

In the area of psychotropic drugs, tryptamines are known to be a broad class of classical or serotonergic hallucinogens. These drugs are capable of producing profound changes in sensory perception, mood and thought in humans and act primarily as agonists of the 5-HT2A receptor. Well-known tryptamines such as psilocybin contained in Aztec sacred mushrooms and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), present in South American psychoactive beverage ayahuasca, have been restrictedly used since ancient times in sociocultural and ritual contexts. However, with the discovery of hallucinogenic properties of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) in mid-1900s, tryptamines began to be used recreationally among young people. More recently, new synthetically produced tryptamine hallucinogens, such as alpha-methyltryptamine (AMT), 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT) and 5-methoxy-N,N-diisopropyltryptamine (5-MeO-DIPT), emerged in the recreational drug market, which have been claimed as the next-generation designer drugs to replace LSD (‘legal’ alternatives to LSD). Tryptamine derivatives are widely accessible over the Internet through companies selling them as ‘research chemicals’, but can also be sold in ‘headshops’ and street dealers. Reports of intoxication and deaths related to the use of new tryptamines have been described over the last years, raising international concern over tryptamines. However, the lack of literature pertaining to pharmacological and toxicological properties of new tryptamine hallucinogens hampers the assessment of their actual potential harm to general public health. This review provides a comprehensive update on tryptamine hallucinogens, concerning their historical background, prevalence, patterns of use and legal status, chemistry, toxicokinetics, toxicodynamics and their physiological and toxicological effects on animals and humans.

Araújo, A. M., Carvalho, F., de Lourdes Bastos, M., de Pinho, P. G., & Carvalho, M. (2015). The hallucinogenic world of tryptamines: an updated review. Archives of toxicology, 1-23. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00204-015-1513-x
Link to full text

Protecting the human rights of people who use psychedelics

April 1, 2015 / LSD, Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Papers, Psychology, Publications / By /

Summary

In a recent Comment Ben Sessa1 explained how the War on the Drugs worldwide has impeded development of psychiatric treatment with psychedelics such as LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) and psilocybin (found in magic mushrooms). Prohibition also had negative outcomes for the millions of individuals who find it worthwhile to use psychedelics in various cultural settings outside of those in the clinic.

Krebs, T. S. (2015). Protecting the human rights of people who use psychedelics. The Lancet, 2(4), 294.295. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(15)00084-X
Link to full text

interested in becoming a trained psychedelic-assisted therapist?

Management of Psychedelic-Related Complications - Online Event - Nov 20th

REGISTER NOW