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Mushrooms / Psilocybin

Biocatalytic production of psilocybin and derivatives in tryptophan synthase-enhanced reactions

May 11, 2018 / Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Neuroscience, Papers, Pharmacology & Chemistry, Publications / By / , , ,

Abstract

Psilocybin (4-phosphoryloxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine) is the main alkaloid of the fungal genus Psilocybe, the so-called “magic mushrooms.” The pharmaceutical interest in this psychotropic natural product as a future medication to treat depression and anxiety is strongly re-emerging. Here, we present an enhanced enzymatic route of psilocybin production by adding TrpB, the tryptophan synthase of the mushroom Psilocybe cubensis, to the reaction. We capitalized on its substrate flexibility and show psilocybin formation from 4-hydroxyindole and l-serine, which are less cost-intensive substrates, compared to the previous method. Furthermore, we show enzymatic production of 7-phosphoryloxytryptamine (isonorbaeocystin), a non-natural congener of the Psilocybe alkaloid norbaeocystin (4-phosphoryloxytryptamine), and of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine) by means of the same in vitro approach.

Blei, F., Baldeweg, F., Fricke, J., & Hoffmeister, D. (2018). Biocatalytic Production of Psilocybin and Derivatives in Tryptophan Synthase‐Enhanced Reactions. Chemistry–A European Journal, 24(40), 10028-10031., 10.1002/chem.201801047.
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Lysergic acid diethylamide and psilocybin for the management of patients with persistent pain: a potential role?

May 3, 2018 / LSD, Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Papers, Psychiatry & Medicine, Psychology, Publications / By / ,

Abstract

Recently, there has been interest in lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and psilocybin for depression, anxiety and fear of death in terminal illness. The aim of this review is to discuss the potential use of LSD and psilocybin for patients with persistent pain. LSD and psilocybin are 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor agonists and may interact with nociceptive and antinociceptive processing. Tentative evidence from a systematic review suggests that LSD (7 studies, 323 participants) and psilocybin (3 studies, 92 participants) may be beneficial for depression and anxiety associated with distress in life-threatening diseases. LSD and psilocybin are generally safe if administered by a healthcare professional, although further investigations are needed to assess their utility for patients with persistent pain, especially associated with terminal illness.
Whelan, A., & Johnson, M. I. (2018). Lysergic acid diethylamide and psilocybin for the management of patients with persistent pain: a potential role?. Pain management, 8(3), 217-229. 10.2217/pmt-2017-0068
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Integrating Psychedelic Medicines and Psychiatry: Theory and Methods of a Model Clinic

April 29, 2018 / Ayahuasca, Biology & Ethnobotany, Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Papers, Psychology, Publications / By /

Abstract

The past two decades has seen a significant increase in both popular and scientific interest in psychedelic substances and plants as therapeutics for mental illness, addictions, and psychospiritual suffering. Current psychiatric practice privileges a biological paradigm in which the brain is considered the locus of mental illness and symptom-focused treatments are delivered to patients as passive recipients. In contrast, a psychedelic healing paradigm, constructed through examination of different ontologic understandings of plant medicines, is based on a complex multidimensional perspective of human beings and their suffering. This paradigm actively engages the sufferer in addressing root causes of illness through healing on multiple levels of existence, including spiritual and energetic domains. Numerous theoretical, methodological, and ethical challenges complicate the integration of the psychedelic healing paradigm into psychiatric practice. These include developing coherent therapeutic narratives that account for the complex processes by which psychedelic healing occurs and overcoming reductionist tendencies in the medical sciences. Tasked with overcoming such challenges, a model clinic is proposed that seeks to implement and study the psychedelic healing paradigm in a critical, interdisciplinary, and reflexive manner. Such “critical paradigm integration” would employ multimodal patient formulation and treatments, as well as a range of knowledge generation and sharing practices. Outcomes-oriented research would seek to establish an evidence base for the model, while critical dialogues would advance understandings of psychedelic substances and plants and related practices more generally. The clinic would serve as proof of concept for a new model of studying, conceptualizing, and treating mental illness.

Sloshower, J. (2018). Integrating Psychedelic Medicines and Psychiatry: Theory and Methods of a Model Clinic. Plant Medicines, Healing and Psychedelic Science: Cultural Perspectives, 113-132. 10.1007/978-3-319-76720-8_7
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Psychedelic Naturalism and Interspecies Alliance: Views from the Emerging Do-It-Yourself Mycology Movement

April 29, 2018 / Biology & Ethnobotany, Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Papers, Publications / By /

Abstract

Do-it-yourself (DIY) mycology is a movement that has emerged in the last decade in North America. DIY mycologists specialize in easy and accessible methods of mushroom cultivation and mycological experimentation and mobilize a discourse of alliance with the fungal kingdom. They draw primarily on home cultivation methods innovated by Psilocybe cultivators in the 1970s and on creative applications popularized by commercial mycologist and psychedelic enthusiast Paul Stamets in the 2000s. As a counterpoint to the newfound visibility and legitimacy of lab-synthesized psilocybin in clinical psychiatry, DIY mycology exemplifies an alternate history of this multispecies engagement. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Pacific Northwest, this chapter begins with the tacit premise of the psychedelic/entheogenic movement that the use of psychedelics fosters ecological concern. Many DIY mycologists express biocentric ethics and eco-spiritual principles, but interviews revealed a diverse and nuanced relationship to psychedelics. I argue that DIY mycology is best understood as an interspecies (or cross-kingdom) engagement that is part of an emergent ecological ethics and deep ecology worldview, one that subsumes psychedelic experiences as one manifestation of that engagement. DIY mycology exemplifies how the spread of mycological know-how, fascination, and enthusiasm has fostered an engagement with fungi that extends far beyond psychedelics. To understand this engagement, I contextualize it within wider social and cultural shifts, particularly those that reformulated our practical, ethical, and conceptual relationship with the natural world. This movement attests to the existence of multiple means to enact these ethics and to foster meaningful relationality with nonhuman life in contemporary North American society and culture.

Steinhardt, J. (2018). Psychedelic Naturalism and Interspecies Alliance: Views from the Emerging Do-It-Yourself Mycology Movement. Plant Medicines, Healing and Psychedelic Science: Cultural Perspectives, 167-184. 10.1007/978-3-319-76720-8_10
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Placebo Problems: Boundary Work in the Psychedelic Science Renaissance

April 29, 2018 / LSD, Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Papers, Psychology, Publications / By /

Abstract

The revitalization of clinical trials with psychedelics has produced an array of studies investigating different combinations of therapeutic substances and diagnoses. In addition to the bureaucratic negotiations to gain approval for this research, this new wave of studies is also negotiating a new methodological landscape of clinical research. Mid-twentieth century research with drugs like LSD and psilocybin involved both case studies and double-blind studies. However, today, placebo-controlled randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are the institutional standard for research with psychopharmaceuticals. Because psychedelic therapy seeks to induce a radical change in consciousness—to make a subject feel different from her everyday self—blinding these studies using placebo controls has emerged as a methodological sticking point. However, this chapter argues, it is also a rich site for interrogating boundary work around science and psychedelics. While anthropologists have examined placebos as examples of the power of symbolic healing within Western medicine, or as ethically fraught territory of nontreatment, this chapter examines placebos as a research technique around which the scientific status of a study is negotiated. While psychedelic therapy challenges the model of pharmaceutical intervention used in psychiatry today, it must do so while also working within psychopharmacology’s evidentiary norms.

Hendy, K. (2018). Placebo Problems: Boundary Work in the Psychedelic Science Renaissance. Plant Medicines, Healing and Psychedelic Science: Cultural Perspectives, 151-166. 10.1007/978-3-319-76720-8_9
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Undiscovering the Pueblo Mágico: Lessons from Huautla for the Psychedelic Renaissance

April 29, 2018 / Anthropology & Sociology, Biology & Ethnobotany, Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Papers, Publications / By /

Abstract

The people of the Sierra Mazateca region of Mexico became internationally known in the 1950s for their ritual use of psilocybin mushrooms, and the Mazatec town of Huautla became a destination for mushroom seeking visitors. This chapter provides an overview of changing Mazatec and “outsider” discourses about mushrooms and the Sierra Mazateca over the last 60 years. It argues that “outsider” representations of the Sierra Mazateca and mushroom use—whether framed in terms of spiritual journeys or scientific research—tend to recapitulate some consistent patterns common to other forms of cultural tourism that owe more to the role of substances in marking distinctive cultural identities than to the effects of the substances themselves. It concludes by suggesting lessons from this history for the current moment, in which a discourse framing the use of psychedelic substances through universalizing narratives of science and individual health is becoming ascendant.

Feinberg, B. (2018). Undiscovering the Pueblo Mágico: Lessons from Huautla for the Psychedelic Renaissance. Plant Medicines, Healing and Psychedelic Science: Cultural Perspectives, 37-54. 10.1007/978-3-319-76720-8_3
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Who Is Keeping Tabs? LSD Lessons from the Past for the Future

April 29, 2018 / Ayahuasca, Humanities & Art, LSD, Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Papers, Psychology, Publications / By /

Abstract

Psychedelics fell from medical grace nearly half a century ago, but recent activity suggests that some researchers are optimistic about their return. Are they at risk, however, of facing the same historic challenges with a new generation of psychedelic enthusiasts, or have the circumstances changed sufficiently to allow for a new path forward? The twenty-first-century incarnation of psychedelic research resurrects some anticipated hypotheses and explores some of the same applications that clinicians experimented with 50 years ago. On the surface then, the psychedelic renaissance might be dismissed for retreading familiar ground. A deeper look at the context that gave rise to these questions, though, suggests that while some of the questions are common, the culture of neuroscience and the business of drug regulation have changed sufficiently to warrant a retrial. A close look at the history of psychedelics encourages us to think carefully about the roles of regulators, the enthusiasm of researchers, and our cultural fascination and/or repulsion with mind-altering molecules.

Dyck, E. (2018). Who Is Keeping Tabs? LSD Lessons from the Past for the Future. Plant Medicines, Healing and Psychedelic Science: Cultural Perspectives, 1-17. 10.1007/978-3-319-76720-8_1
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Whole Organisms or Pure Compounds? Entourage Effect Versus Drug Specificity

April 29, 2018 / Ayahuasca, Biology & Ethnobotany, Mescaline / Cacti, Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Papers, Publications / By /

Abstract

As the therapeutic use of sacred plants and fungi becomes increasingly accepted by Western medicine, a tug of war has been taking place between those who advocate the traditional consumption of whole organisms and those who defend exclusively the utilization of purified compounds. The attempt to reduce organisms to single active principles is challenged by the sheer complexity of traditional medicine. Ayahuasca, for example, is a concoction of at least two plant species containing multiple psychoactive substances with complex interactions. Similarly, cannabis contains dozens of psychoactive substances whose specific combinations in different strains correspond to different types of therapeutic and cognitive effects. The “entourage effect” refers to the synergistic effects of the multiple compounds present in whole organisms, which may potentiate clinical efficacy while attenuating side effects. In opposition to this view, mainstream pharmacology is adamant about the need to use purified substances, presumably more specific and safe. In this chapter, I will review the evidence on both sides to discuss the scientific, economic, and political implications of this controversy. The evidence indicates that it is time to embrace the therapeutic complexity of psychedelics.

Ribeiro, S. (2018). Whole organisms or pure compounds? entourage effect versus drug specificity. Plant Medicines, Healing and Psychedelic Science: Cultural Perspectives, 133-149. 10.1007/978-3-319-76720-8_8
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Psilocybin modulates functional connectivity of the amygdala during emotional face discrimination

April 25, 2018 / Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Neuroscience, Papers, Psychology, Publications / By / , , , ,

Abstract

Recent studies suggest that the antidepressant effects of the psychedelic 5-HT2A receptor agonist psilocybin are mediated through its modulatory properties on prefrontal and limbic brain regions including the amygdala. To further investigate the effects of psilocybin on emotion processing networks, we studied for the first-time psilocybin’s acute effects on amygdala seed-to-voxel connectivity in an event-related face discrimination task in 18 healthy volunteers who received psilocybin and placebo in a double-blind balanced cross-over design. The amygdala has been implicated as a salience detector especially involved in the immediate response to emotional face content. We used beta-series amygdala seed-to-voxel connectivity during an emotional face discrimination task to elucidate the connectivity pattern of the amygdala over the entire brain.

When we compared psilocybin to placebo, an increase in reaction time for all three categories of affective stimuli was found. Psilocybin decreased the connectivity between amygdala and the striatum during angry face discrimination. During happy face discrimination, the connectivity between the amygdala and the frontal pole was decreased. No effect was seen during discrimination of fearful faces. Thus, we show psilocybin’s effect as a modulator of major connectivity hubs of the amygdala. Psilocybin decreases the connectivity between important nodes linked to emotion processing like the frontal pole or the striatum. Future studies are needed to clarify whether connectivity changes predict therapeutic effects in psychiatric patients.

Grimm, O., Kraehenmann, R., Preller, K. H., Seifritz, E., & Vollenweider, F. X. (2018). Psilocybin modulates functional connectivity of the amygdala during emotional face discrimination. European Neuropsychopharmacology. 10.1016/j.euroneuro.2018.03.016
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Palliative Nursing and Sacred Medicine: A Holistic Stance on Entheogens, Healing, and Spiritual Care

April 18, 2018 / Ayahuasca, Mescaline / Cacti, Mushrooms / Psilocybin, Papers, Psychology, Publications / By / , ,

Abstract

The fields of palliative and holistic nursing both maintain a commitment to the care of the whole person, including a focus on spiritual care. Advanced serious illness may pose a plethora of challenges to patients seeking to create meaning and purpose in their lives. The purpose of this article is to introduce scholarly dialogue on the integration of entheogens, medicines that engender an experience of the sacred, into the spiritual and holistic care of patients experiencing advanced serious illness. A brief history of the global use of entheogens as well as a case study are provided. Clinical trials show impressive preliminary findings regarding the healing potential of these medicinal agents. While other professions, such as psychology, pharmacy, and medicine, are disseminating data related to patient outcomes secondary to entheogen administration, the nursing literature has not been involved in raising awareness of such advancements. Research is illustrating their effectiveness in achieving integrative experiences for patients confronting advanced serious illness and their ability to promote presence, introspection, decreased fear, and increased joy and acceptance. Evidence-based knowledge surrounding this potentially sensitive topic is necessary to invite understanding, promote scientific knowledge development, and create healing environments for patients, nurses, and researchers alike.
Rosa, W. E., Hope, S., & Matzo, M. (2018). Palliative Nursing and Sacred Medicine: A Holistic Stance on Entheogens, Healing, and Spiritual Care. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 0898010118770302.
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