Politics

FDA issues first draft guidance on clinical trials with psychedelic drugs

The purpose of the draft guidance is to advise researchers on study design and other considerations as they develop medications that contain psychedelics. Within the draft guidance, the term psychedelics refers to “classic psychedelics,” typically understood to be drugs such as psilocybin and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) that act on the brain’s serotonin system, as…

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Biography/Memoir

…psychedelic surge

“I am an advocate for psychedelics. I can’t help it,” explains 57-year-old Jacqueline Lopez, “I mean, it wasn’t that long ago that I thought to myself, ‘What are you thinking, Jackie? These are Schedule I drugs. You can’t just go around talking about them.’ But the science behind it is superb and I had seen…

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Science

Adults who microdose psychedelics report health related motivations and lower levels of anxiety and depression compared to non-microdosers

This examination of a large international sample of adults highlights the prominence of therapeutic and wellness motivations for microdosing psychedelic drugs and identified lower levels of anxiety and depression among microdosers relative to controls.  Comparisons of psilocybin to LSD microdosers indicated no differences on measures of Depression, Anxiety and Stress from the DASS-21 (all values for F (1, 827) < 1.0, p > 0.50). The inclusion of…

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Biography/Memoir

Patents for psychedelics…

…nearly every day, another psychedelics company announces its work in securing patents for the intellectual property represented by the product they developed… a quick search of the USPTO site shows that there are currently hundreds of patents related to LSD and Psilocybin products and formulations. Psilocybin (U.S. Patent No. 3,183,172, “Obtaining Psilocybin and Psilocin from…

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Psychology

LSD vs. psilocybin microdosing for mental health and workplace productivity

[Case reports]: LSD… was better for more puzzle-like creativity – for solo pondering over a question or engaging in a writing task…. …[psilocybin] reminded me of what psychologists call the fundamental attribution error, or the tendency to attribute someone else’s poor performance to inherent defects in their personality but blame our own slip-ups on someone else.…

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Biography/Memoir

What [happened on]… 550 doses of LSD?

The story of CB, a 49-year-old woman, and her roommate, who witnessed the event. CB had contracted Lyme disease in her early 20s, and by the LSD event, she experienced significant pain in her feet and ankles, routinely taking morphine for a decade… CB snorted… pure LSD – 550 times the normal recreational dosage of…

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Science

Shrooms and lsd linked to lower heart disease and diabetes risk

“The findings suggest that lifetime classic psychedelic use is associated with lower odds of having had heart disease or diabetes in the past year,” lead study author and Oxford sociologist Otto Simonsson, [said]. A team of scientists identified the unexpected trend after poring over ten years’ worth of data from the National Survey on Drug…

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Science

…psychedelics boost brain growth factor levels?

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) regulates neuronal development and survival and triggers adaptive neuroplasticity… animal studies have reported that acute and chronic administration of various psychedelic compounds, including LSD, psilocybin, DMT, and other ayahuasca-derived alkaloids, can increase BDNF production and neurogenesis (the formation of new neurons). Importantly, threats to our well-being such as stress, ageing and…

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Science

The psychedelic research hiatus and its relevance today

[In the 1950’s and 60’s] psychedelics were of little interest to pharmaceutical companies as the intervention seemed to treat illness, rather than alleviate symptoms. Consequently, the financial imperatives were lacking; fully recovered patients would not require continued medication… Sandoz was reluctant to share such proprietary and patented data (Bonson, 2018). When required by the FDA, the company…

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