Medicine/Healing

Psilocybin study enrolls clinicians with… blues

This is the first study of the therapy’s potential benefit with clinicians, and the University of Washington School of Medicine is the sole trial site. Dr. Anthony Back, the trial’s lead investigator. suggested that psilocybin uniquely enables psychological exploration. “It makes your brain more plastic and your beliefs and desires less rigid. It can allow…

READ MORE
Politics

…Compass Pathways’… patent…

Compass will now have three months to respond to each filing. Then, the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, a collection of administrative judges… will make a decision as to whether the petitioner demonstrates that at least one of the challenged claims is “more likely than not” unpatentable—and whether the case should proceed to a trial.…

READ MORE
Science

Magic mushrooms study suggest psilocybin may reverse alcohol-induced brain damage

The consumption of alcoholic beverages is responsible for 5.3 percent of deaths worldwide every year… in both groups of mice that received psilocybin, mGluR2 expression was restored following the treatment. This change was evident in the mice’s behavior, too: The psilocybin group relapsed roughly 45 percent less compared to the control mice. As hypothesized, mGluR2 expression was reduced in the brains…

READ MORE
Science

Psychedelic psilocybin cuts cravings and boosts key brain functions in rat models of alcohol use disorder

…set out to see whether psilocybin could restore the receptor’s expression and tamp down the desire to seek out alcohol while also restoring flexibility in cognition. The researchers gave the rats one of two different doses of psilocybin to see whether the magic mushroom ingredient was effective at reducing relapses. They found that both doses…

READ MORE
Science

New study suggests SSRI drugs can be used safely with psilocybin to treat depression

For the study, participants either received 10mg of escitalopram daily for seven days followed by 20mg daily for the next seven days, including the day of psilocybin administration, or 14 days of placebo pre-treatment before psilocybin administration.  The researchers found that pre-treatment with escitalopram did not alter the pharmacokinetics of psilocin — the active compound that the…

READ MORE
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…

READ MORE
Politics

Doctor takes bid to treat patient with MDMA to court…

Consultant psychiatrist Eli Kotler launched legal action after the Victorian Department of Health knocked back an application to treat the woman… with the drug more commonly known as ecstasy. Kylie Evans, the barrister representing Victoria’s Health Department, told the court that the outcome of the case would be significant… the move will be opposed by…

READ MORE