Psychedelic indolethylamines have emerged as potential medicines to treat several psychiatric pathologies. Natural sources of these compounds include ‘magic mushrooms' ( Psilocybe spp.), plants used to prepare ayahuasca, and toads. The skin and parotid glands of certain toads accumulate a variety of specialized metabolites including toxic guanidine alkaloids...
Background: Migraine is a common neurovascular disorder with a pathophysiology related to the serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) system. Pharmacologic modulation of 5-HT receptors has demonstrated efficacy in the acute treatment of migraines. Psilocybin, a classic psychedelic with 5-HT receptor activity, has demonstrated therapeutic potential in the manag...
The science of psychedelics is an intriguing, multi-disciplinary field that has recently been the subject of heightened public interest. This has mainly resulted from publicity associated with a number of high-profile investigations into psychedelic-assisted therapy for a range of difficult-to-treat mental health conditions. With many psychedelic substances ...
Mood disorders are recurrent/chronic diseases with variable clinical remission rates. Available antidepressants are not effective in all patients and often show a relevant response latency, with a range of adverse events, including weight gain and sexual dysfunction. Novel rapid agents were developed with the aim of overcoming at least in part these issues. ...
Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Annual MeetingFull AccessExperts Offer Tips on Talking With Patients About PsychedelicsTerri D’ArrigoTerri D’ArrigoSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:28 Jun 2023https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2023.07.7.51AbstractPsychedelics differ from one another in their mechanism of action and po...
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a chronic relapsing psychiatric disorder. Conventional antidepressants usually require several weeks of continuous administration to exert clinically significant therapeutic effects, while about two-thirds of the patients are prone to relapse of symptoms or are completely ineffective in antidepressant treatment. The recent ...
Introduction Psilocybin is one of the most extensively studied psychedelic drugs with a broad therapeutic potential. Despite the fact that its psychoactivity is mainly attributed to the agonism at 5-HT2A receptors, it has high binding affinity also to 5-HT2C and 5-HT1A receptors and indirectly modulates the dopaminergic system. Psilocybin and its active meta...
Abstract Psychedelics produce fast and persistent antidepressant effects and induce neuroplasticity resembling the effects of clinically approved antidepressants. We recently reported that pharmacologically diverse antidepressants, including fluoxetine and ketamine, act by binding to TrkB, the receptor for BDNF. Here we show that lysergic acid diethylamide (...
Major depressive disorder presents a substantial global health burden, and at least 30-40% of patients exhibit treatment resistance to antidepressants. Ketamine, an NMDA receptor antagonist, is used as an anesthetic agent. In 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved esketamine (the S-enantiomer of ketamine) as a therapeutic agent for treatm...
Alcohol abuse is a leading risk factor for the public health burden worldwide. Approved pharmacotherapies have demonstrated limited effectiveness over the last few decades in treating alcohol use disorders (AUD). New therapeutic approaches are therefore urgently needed. Historical and recent clinical trials using psychedelics in conjunction with psychotherap...
Psychedelic compounds have shown extraordinary potential in treating a wide range of neuropsychiatric disorders. Psilocybin, for example, has now been shown in several clinical trials to induce a rapid (within days) and persistent (3-12 months) improvement in human treatment-resistant depression and other neuropsychiatric conditions. Here we review the precl...
Analogues of 4-phosphoryloxy- N,N -dimethyltryptamine (psilocybin) are being sold on recreational drug markets and developed as potential medications for psychedelic-assisted therapies. Many of these tryptamine-based psilocybin analogues produce psychedelic-like effects in rodents and humans primarily by agonist activity at serotonin 2A receptors (5-HT2A ). ...
Depression is a major public health concern. Unfortunately, the present antidepressants often are insufficiently effective, whilst the discovery of more effective antidepressants has been extremely sluggish. The objective of this review was to combine the literature on depression with the pharmacology of antidepressant compounds, in order to formulate a conc...
Naturally occurring psychedelics have been used for a long time as remedies or in religious ceremonies and recreational activities. Recent studies have proven the therapeutic potential of some psychedelic compounds to safely treat a wide range of diseases such as anxiety, depression, migraine, and addiction. It is hypothesized that psychedelic compounds like...
Psilocybin and its active metabolite psilocin are hallucinogenic serotonergic agonists with high affinity for several serotonin receptors. In addition to underlying the hallucinogenic effects of these compounds, serotonin receptor activation also has important effects on decision-making and goal-directed behaviors. The impact of psilocybin and psilocin on th...
Major depressive disorder (MDD), also known as clinical depression, is a serious mental disorder and ranks first among psychiatric disorders that dominate the global disease burden. Recently, it was found that psilocybin, active compound derived from psychotropic mushrooms, can relieve depression symptoms rapidly and sustained benefits for several months. Be...
Psychedelic compounds have displayed antidepressant potential in both humans and rodents. Despite their promise, psychedelics can induce undesired effects that pose safety concerns and limit their clinical scalability. The rational development of optimized psychedelic-related medicines will require a full mechanistic understanding of how these molecules prod...
The need to identify effective therapies for the treatment of psychiatric disorders is a particularly important issue in modern societies. In addition, difficulties in finding new drugs have led pharmacologists to review and re-evaluate some past molecules, including psychedelics. For several years there has been growing interest among psychotherapists in ps...
