Their research is timely. Thousands of people from around the world travel to the Amazon every year to drink ayahuasca for mental health conditions including alcoholism, depression, anxiety, PTSD, eating disorders, and drug addiction. Standish, a professor at the Bastyr University Research Institute in Seattle, is one of several scientists hoping more governments around the…
In the 1990s, scientists demonstrated in rodents and humans that MDMA was reasonably safe when taken a few times in a controlled setting. The FDA permitted researchers to move forward with clinical trials exploring the drug as a treatment for PTSD. About 8% of the US population will experience PTSD at some point in…
But it’s more than that—psychedelic substances really do cause the brain to enter this “higher” state, according to a new study by a team of UK scientists. By studying the changes in brain activity caused by these drugs, we are gaining a better understanding of what exactly is happening in a person’s brain as their…
*Values are reported in such a way that the lower the number is, the higher affinity the structure has for the receptor. This means that the LOW values on the graph are the relevant information NOT the taller bars. Researchers at the University Psychiatric Clinics (UPK) and the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the…
“This is an important step forward for Britain in a field of research that has, for too long, been held back by prejudice, fear and ignorance.” -Sir Patrick Stewart Prof Ahmed Ahmed of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology said existing studies were beginning to produce exciting findings which could result in new treatments.…
“Research has found that a single dose of psilocybin, accompanied by therapy, is almost like a “surgical intervention” for people with mental health issues. It has even been seen to treat conditions that have resisted standard treatments in the past.” LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) are potent psychedelic substances that can…
“What we do know is that psychedelics have a fundamentally different effect on the brain than highly addictive drugs like alcohol, nicotine, or cocaine.” Cocaine, for example, is thought to elicit a deep, euphoric sensation by temporarily flooding the brain’s reward and motivation centers, which in some people can trigger a cycle of reinforcement and…
“The machine can reveal the quality of the drug and if it’s laced with other substances. The new machines can provide results within minutes and tell users what they would be consuming… Just as important, the public health unit would be able to quickly send out warnings about bad drugs on the streets based on…
‘The Higgs boson of neuroscience’… Not all drugs are created equal, and I would never encourage anyone to soothe their existential discomfort with heroin or amphetamine, both of which I have taken. But psychedelics have a value I can’t help but admire. And now we understand more about how they do what they do. A…
“In a new paper published in the journal Trends in Neuroscience, a neurobiologist argues that using cannabis for opioid withdrawal and pain relief is a promising area of research that has been largely neglected in the scientific community. And in light of the current opioid epidemic and positive early trials of cannabis, this needs to…
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