In many ways psychiatry – biologic psychiatry or pharmacologic psychiatry – started with psychedelics. There were 2 studies done (on psilocybin). They were both randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind studies where people were blindly given either an active psilocybin or different placebos, but each study had a placebo. They got one treatment, and then they were followed…
A recent open-label pilot study (N = 15) found that two to three moderate to high doses (20 and 30 mg/70 kg) of the serotonin 2A receptor agonist, psilocybin, in combination with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for smoking cessation, resulted in substantially higher 6-month smoking abstinence rates than are typically observed with other medications or…
“The clarity we have the next day means we can make plans to implement changes and solve issues.” “[We] always set an intention, and our intention for the first trip was to ‘trust’ the medicine and what it can show you,” she continues. “At first, I felt these warm flushes all around my body and…
stereotypical SSRI Dennis argues that today’s most common antidepressant medications—selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)—are a kind of “Band-Aid solution.” He describes how psychedelics (or, “ecodelics“) can be used as an alternative treatmentfor depression and discusses why the pharmaceutical industry may not want psychedelic medicines to become a viable option for people suffering from conditions…
*Gastón Guzmán Huerta (August 26, 1932 – January 12, 2016), a Mexican mycologist and anthropologist, was an authority on the genus Psilocybe. Unlike 4/20, 9/20 events aren’t intended as gatherings for people to get high together. Instead, they’re mostly lectures, salons, or meetups that prioritize the goals of research and policy rather than the joys…
Although psilocybin has long been regarded with suspicion by law enforcement [in some regions], it has been coming clean on the biosynthetic front. Details of psilocybin’s enzymatic synthesis have been uncovered by scientists based at the University of Jena and the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology. Starting with 4-hydroxy-L-tryptophan and using…
Saunders’ initiative seeks to exempt adults ages 21 and over from “criminal penalties and decriminalizes adult use of psilocybin,” as well as any penalties that would occur from the “possession, sale, transport and cultivation” of the drug. He believes that current changing attitudes towards legalization efforts warrant the consideration of his initiative. “What I want…
Kevin Saunders, running for Mayor of Marina, California, has proposed a ballot measure that would decriminalize psilocybin for adults over 21-years-old. Saunders claimed the mushrooms helped him kick his heroin addiction 15 years ago. At least 365,880 verified signatures in support of the measure would need to be collected before it could appear on California’s…
One of the most surprising findings is the simplicity of the process, says David Sherman, a medicinal chemist at the University of Michigan who wasn’t involved in the paper. In only five steps, the mushroom’s enzymes convert tryptophan, a widely occurring amino acid (a building block of protein) into psilocybin. In a study published in…
Janis Fricke, Felix Blei, and Dirk Hoffmeister of Friedrich Schiller University Jena have identified and characterized to the greatest extent so far the four enzymes that the mushrooms use to make psilocybin. The team then developed the first enzymatic synthesis of the compound, setting the stage for its possible commercial production (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.…
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