Politics

FDA panel rejects MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD

An independent advisory panel of the Food and Drug Administration rejected the use of MDMA-assisted therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder on Tuesday [6/4/2024]. While the vote is not binding on the F.D.A., the agency often follows the recommendations of its advisory panels. Members of an independent scientific advisory committee voted 9 to 2 that human…

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Politics

DEA should improve…

…its religious exemptions petition process says the United States Government Accountability Office… The process and reported barriers that exist in the legal access and use of psilocybin for religious practices under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993… According to DEA officials, in 2019, DEA initiated the drafting of a notice of proposed rulemaking related…

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Spirituality

Psilocybin induces hyperconnectivity in the brain, which produces feelings of “oceanic boundlessness”

A new study shows that the use of psilocybin, a compound found in the widely known “magic mushrooms,” initiates a pattern of hyperconnectivity in the brain linked to the ego-modifying effects and feelings of oceanic boundlessness. The findings, appearing in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging… In one of the first brain imaging studies in…

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Science

National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health acknowledges psilocybin’s therapeutic potential…

An annual nationally representative survey on drug use and health reported that 9.68 percent of U.S. adults have used psilocybin at least once in their lifetime, based on data gathered between 2015 and 2018. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), which is part of the National Institutes of Health… posted page about psilocybin…

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Science

The double face of fentanyl: the neuronal basis of opioid addiction

…fentanyl… triggers the activation of the dopamine neurons in the mesolimbic system (also known as the reward system), which includes the ventral tegmental area and the nucleus accubens. The neurons then release a large quantity of dopamine. Normally, dopamine neurons are under the control of inhibitory GABA cells. However, opioids block GABA neurons, which makes…

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Science

…psychedelic returns on distress…

…the individual level where the psychedelic is consumed sits “atop of a more fundamental collective level, which frames and gives shape” to set-and-setting available… …the results did not find a direct interaction between Lifetime Classic Psychedelic Use (LCPU) and marital status alone…. marital status and family sizes effect on psychedelic returns; to understand how marital…

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Medicine/Healing

Psychedelics could treat some of the worst chronic pain in the world

Here’s another… under-studied prospect of psychedelics: a world without severe chronic pain. And… around the internet or psychedelic conferences, a whole subterranean trove of similar stories opens up. An estimated 51 million Americans suffer from chronic pain – excruciating conditions like migraines, phantom limb pains, or fibromyalgia – and often go without effective treatments. But psychedelics like psilocybin mushrooms and LSD seem to…

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Medicine/Healing

The VA’s high hopes for psychedelics

Why the VA matters: It’s the largest health system in the country and serves a population with disproportionately high rates of PTSD. The VA announced in January [2024 that it would fund research into psychedelics like MDMA, also known as ecstasy, and psilocybin as potential treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. While outside groups have…

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