The purpose of this multi-site randomized controlled trial is to evaluate the efficacy and risks of psilocybin for the treatment of depression in U.S. military Veterans with and without (±) concurrent posttraumatic stress disorder. Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is a serious mental health problem in Veterans, frequently comorbid with post-traumatic str...
Psilocybin, a naturally occurring tryptamine alkaloid found in over 200 species of fungi, has emerged as a focal point in the modern revival of psychedelic science. Once relegated to the margins of psychopharmacology due to its association with counterculture and strict legal restrictions, psilocybin is now undergoing a scientific renaissance. This transform...
ObjectiveThis article provides an intercultural transdisciplinary perspective on the Indigenous roots of the resurging field of psychedelic science in the management of substance use disorders (SUDs). Ritual uses of entheogens (i.e., psychedelics of natural origin) are elaborate technologies for navigating, containing, and therapeutically directing non-ordin...
Introduction: Psilocybin, a tryptamine psychedelic, has been touted in the media both historically and recently as a potential game-changing mental health therapeutic. ClinicalTrials.gov has over one hundred and thirty psilocybin clinical trials listed covering the last twenty years. The single most important aspect of any therapeutic is to gain approval for...
This article assesses the right to privacy as a ground for challenging the constitutionality of the criminalisation of psilocybin mushrooms. In doing so, it discusses the right to privacy as found in section 14 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (Constitution). Drawing on Constitutional Court case law, the article argues that the right...
This article shows, from historical and ethnographic perspectives, how the city of Huautla de Jiménez in the Sierra Mazateca (Oaxaca, Mexico) became an emblematic place for the trade of psilocybin mushrooms. Sales to foreigners started to take place in the Sierra Mazateca during the 1950s, stimulated by botanical expeditions and by the collapse in coffee pri...
Cancer is not limited to the physical dimension, but it also affects the entire biopsychosocial context in which the patient is inserted, making him more susceptible to psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety. These often require pharmacological intervention, and the use of psilocybin, a substance found in mushroom species, is one of the alterna...
Psilocybin is being developed for treating major depressive disorder. Psilocybin is readily dephosphorylated to psilocin upon absorption. The potential for psilocin proarrhythmic effect was assessed using a concentration-QTc interval (C-QTc) analysis from an open-label single ascending dose study of psilocybin. Psilocybin doses ranged from 0.3 to 0.6 mg/kg. ...
The analytical proof of a toxic mushroom and/or plant ingestion at an early stage of a suspected intoxication can be crucial for fast therapeutic decision making. Therefore, comprehensive analytical procedures need to be available. This study aimed to develop a strategy for the qualitative analysis of α- and β-amanitin, psilocin, bufotenine, muscarine, musci...
Plant-based psychedelics, such as psilocybin, have an ancient history of medicinal use. After the first English language report on LSD in 1950, psychedelics enjoyed a short-lived relationship with psychology and psychiatry. Used most notably as aids to psychotherapy for the treatment of mood disorders and alcohol dependence, drugs such as LSD showed initial ...
Sixty years ago, the ethnomycologist R. G. Wasson discovered an ancient mushroom cult in Oaxaca, Mexico.1, 2 The famous mycologist R. Heim classified the psychoactive mushroom species in the genera Psilocybe and the eminent natural product chemist Albert Hofmann published the isolation, structural elucidation and synthesis of the new alkaloids psilocybin and...
It is usually believed that drugs of abuse are smuggled into the United States or are clandestinely produced for illicit distribution. Less well known is that many hallucinogens and dissociative agents can be obtained from plants and fungi growing wild or in gardens. Some of these botanical sources can be located throughout the United States; others have a m...
Substances capable of changing the functions of the central nervous system are widely distributed in plant kingdom, and many of them were discovered by ancient food-gatherers at the dawn of humanity. In the Old World only a few substances producing euphoria or altered states of consciousness and having habit-forming properties are still widely used. They are...
