The psychedelic mushroom Psilocybe cubensis is cultivated worldwide for recreational and medicinal use. Described initially from Cuba in 1906, there has been substantial debate about its origin and diversification. The prevailing view is that P. cubensis was inadvertently introduced to the Americas when cattle were introduced to the continent from Africa and...
ABSTRACT This paper examines the intimate relationship of affection, consumption, and ritual practice between humanity and mushrooms of the genus Psilocybe, focusing mainly on the Americas and Brazil. To this end, it uses reflections that present the American continent as a macroregion historically marked by transits, connections, and exchanges since pre-Col...
Psilocybin is a molecule with significant potential for the treatment of mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and substance abuse. In this study, it was explored the extraction of psilocybin from Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms using a factorial design approach, along with the physicochemical and phytochemical characteri...
Professor Gregor Hasler stands at the forefront of revolutionary psychedelic research and neuroplasticity studies, transforming our understanding of mental health treatment through groundbreaking scientific discoveries. As Chair of Psychiatry at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, where he directs the Molecular Psychiatry Lab, Hasler has pioneered resea...
Substances of misuse are becoming increasingly difficult to analyze as unique methods of smuggling are adopted and due to the rapid emergence of new psychoactive substances, increasing the pool of compounds to characterize and identify. Technologies such as gas chromatography and liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (MS) represent the gold stan...
Psychedelics have emerged as a promising approach to treating mental disorders, challenging traditional paradigms in psychiatry. This study conducted an integrative literature review to investigate the advances, challenges, and implications of the therapeutic use of these substances, addressing the guiding question: “What are the current scientific perspecti...
Motivation: Acute effects of psychedelic drugs are under-reported in neuroimaging studies, warranting further investigation of their immediate pharmacology to explore the potential to monitor treatment response with imaging. Goal(s): Our goal was to assess acute impacts of serotonergic (psychedelic and non-psychedelic) agonists on hemodynamics in non-human p...
Executive function deficits, common in psychiatric disorders, hinder daily activities and may be linked to diminished neural plasticity, affecting treatment and training responsiveness. In this pioneering study, we evaluated the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of psilocybin-assisted frontal-midline theta neurofeedback (NF), a neuromodulation technique l...
One of the main causes of misery and incapacity is chronic pain, which is frequently linked to psychological issues. Psychedelic substances are drugs that can exert a psychological effect on patients. Psychedelic drugs like lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and psilocybin, exert their action mainly via activation of the serotonin-2A (5-HT2A).1 In a trial to u...
With its catchy title, historian Benjamin Breen's Tripping on Utopia brings together controversial findings about the human mind, social engineering, and professional responsibility. He delineates the time frame and focus of an inquiry into psychoactive drug research by stating that “Timothy Leary and the Baby Boomers did not usher in the first psychedelic e...
This work utilized fMRI to assess the influence of the psychedelics, Psilocybin, a serotonergic agonist, and Salvinorin-A, a kappa-opioid receptor (KOR) agonist, on functional connectivity (FC) in non-human primates. We used a seed-based FC analysis, probing regions of interest associated with psychedelic hallucinogens. Our findings highlight the overlapping...
Psychedelics, substances known to alter perception, mood, and consciousness, have been used across various cultures for centuries, often in religious ceremonies to facilitate spiritual experiences. Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) was used clinically from the 1950s until its ban in 1967. Recently, there has been a resurgence of interest in psychedelics for t...
The purpose of the study is to understand the feasibility of a resilience focused community of practice program that includes psilocybin-assisted therapy for End-of-Life Distress. The community of practice refers to a research informed group therapy process that runs over a 10-week period of time and includes one group administered psilocybin-assisted therap...
Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Government & LegalFull AccessPsychedelics Legislation Gains MomentumTerri D'ArrigoTerri D'ArrigoSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:16 Feb 2023https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2023.03.3.4AbstractBills that would decriminalize the use of psychedelics are popping up faster than magic mush...
The potential benefits and deficits of the chemical compound psilocybin, particularly when paired with psychotherapeutic interventions, have been increasingly apparent topics of interest in social, academic, and scientific circles. The unusual nature of psilocybin poses many questions in Western culture. Three of them, which will be discussed in the followi...
Introduction: Magic (Psilocybin) mushrooms are used as hallucinogens, renal dysfunction as a rare side effect has been reported in literature. We chronicle a rare case of acute kidney injury and hypertensive emergency precipitated by psilocybin ingestion in a young female. Case Description: A31-year-old female with good overall health and medical history of ...
Proclaimed as the "new frontier" in psychiatry, the use of Psychedelics, including Psilocybin as a treatment for mental health and wellbeing has gained momentum over the last few years [1,2].The scientific progress and clinical promise of this movement owes much of its success to the history of indigenous healing practices.Though "discovered" in 1956 by Roge...
Abstract After decades of criminalization, psychedelic substances such as psilocybin and LSD are experiencing their comeback in science and Western culture more broadly. While psychedelic plants and fungi have a long history of use in Indigenous cultures, the Western prohibitionist reality instantiated around 1970 has stigmatized psychedelics as medically us...
Serotonergic psychedelics such as psilocybin, the psychoactive substance found in the magic mushroom, have hallucinatory effect through stimulation of the cortical serotonin 5-HT2A receptor (5-HT2A). Recently, FDA has called psilocybin a 'breakthrough therapy' for severe depression. We have already demonstrated that 5-HT2A in the lateral septum (LS) plays a ...
Recently, FDA approved psilocybin, the psychoactive substance found in the magic mushroom, as a "breakthrough therapy" for depression; however, its detailed mechanism remains unknown. Serotonergic psychedelics such as psilocybin and LSD have hallucinatory effect through stimulation of serotonin 5-HT2A receptor (5-HT2A), motivating us to investigate the role ...
