Research on psychedelic drugs, such as psilocybin, LSD or DMT, is a burgeoning field, with an increasing number of studies showing their promise in treatment of mental disorders as well as examining their mechanism of action. Determining their effect on the brain is crucial from clinical standpoint, but also offers highly promising avenues of advancement in ...
Introduction: Many Veterans who experienced blast-related traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) in Iraq and Afghanistan currently suffer from chronic cognitive and mental health problems that include depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Male rats exposed to repetitive low-level blast develop chronic cognitive and PTSD-related behavioral traits tha...
Depression and anxiety are disabling and high incidence mental disorders characterized by phenotypic heterogeneity. Currently available treatments show severe limitations. Thus, there is an urgent need for effective treatments in this population. In the search for novel rapid-acting antidepressants, the psychedelic psilocybin has emerged as a promising thera...
Psilocybin (PSIL) is a psychedelic drug and a promising experimental therapeutic for many psychiatric conditions. Precision functional mapping (PFM) combines densely repeated resting state fMRI sampling and individual-specific network mapping to improve signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and effect size in brain imaging research. We present a randomized cross-over ...
Psychedelics, such as LSD and psilocybin, disrupt entrenched cognitive patterns by facilitating novel insights and new associations. This paper considers how AI can potentially mimic these psychedelic-induced cognitive disruptions to augment and enhance human creativity. Psychedelics likely enhance creativity by altering brain function, notably the activity ...
Dr. Erin E. Mauney serves as Assistant Professor of Pediatrics (Gastroenterology) at Tufts University while maintaining a research appointment at Massachusetts General Hospital. With dual board certification, including obesity medicine, she integrates clinical expertise with innovative research at the intersection of gut-brain disorders and psychedelic medic...
Psilocybin (active compound of "magic mushrooms") is a prototypical psychedelic substance that acts via agonism on serotonin (5-HT) 2A receptors. Psilocybin is rapidly metabolized into its active metabolite psilocin. Psilocybin is currently under investigation as potential treatment for various neuropsychiatric disorders. Psilocybin is also widely used for r...
BACKGROUND: The psychedelic psilocybin has been posited as efficacious for the treatment of depression. However, the potential link between the intensity of acute psychedelic effects and long-term therapeutic outcomes remains undiscovered. Moreover, the impact of classical antidepressant drugs that modulate serotonergic activity on psilocybin's effects is a ...
RATIONALE: The head twitch response (HTR) is a spontaneously occurring behavior in mice that is increased in frequency by serotonergic psychedelics. The mouse HTR is often used as a proxy for psychedelic-like drug effects, but limited information is available about sex differences in HTRs evoked by various classes of psychedelics (i.e., phenethylamines, lyse...
Introduction The aesthetic qualities of psychedelic experiences have long been documented, but their specific contribution to therapeutic outcomes remains understudied. Aesthetic experiences may facilitate emotional breakthroughs and cognitive shifts, potentially playing a crucial role in the lasting psychological benefits observed following psychedelic use....
The interplay between psychedelics, such as psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and dimethyltryptamine (DMT), and sleep is an emerging area, but their impact on sleep remains relatively underexplored. This viewpoint provides a perspective on how psychedelics may alter sleep phases, dreaming, and their potential therapeutic applications for sleep dis...
This viewpoint explores the therapeutic potential of psychedelics in treating neuropsychiatric disorders, particularly through the modulation of brain entropy and the experience of ego dissolution. Psychedelics disrupt rigid neural patterns, facilitating enhanced connectivity and fostering profound emotional breakthroughs that may alleviate symptoms of disor...
In a thought-provoking Genomic Press interview, Dr. Michael Wheeler emerges as a brilliant scientific innovator at the intersection of neuroscience and immunology. As an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and an investigator at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Wheeler's groundbreaking research explores how brain-immune communication shapes our behavi...
Research into psychedelics' clinical potential has corresponded to a growth in public interest and adult use. One common pathway to accessing psychedelics is through psychedelic retreats. While individual retreats have been characterized in the anthropological literature, no systematic evaluation of the psychedelic retreat industry exists. Assessing the char...
Background Cluster headache is an excruciating condition for which standard treatments are usually insufficient. Evidence has accumulated that serotonergic psychedelic indoleamines including psilocybin and LSD can be effective in preventing attacks. Methods In this case series, nine patients with episodic and chronic cluster headache that didn’t respond to c...
Psychedelic-assisted therapies have demonstrated promising results in treating mental disorders, with results suggesting that the subjective intensity and quality of psychedelic experiences plays a significant role in mediating therapeutic effects. However, the strength of this association across diagnoses and treatment settings remains underexplored. We sea...
Psilocybin therapy (PT) is emerging as an effective intervention for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), offering comparable efficacy to conventional treatments like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Music, an emotionally evocative stimulus, provides a valuable tool to explore changes in hedonic and predictive processing mechanisms via expectancy...
