The use of psychoactive substances for ritual, spiritual and medicinal purposes stretches back into prehistory and has been a common feature of many diverse cultures and societies globally. Psychedelics, with their unique ability to amplify feelings of connectedness and openness, may have also served as tools for promoting tribal cohesion and trust in ancien...
Abstract Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the most disabling psychiatric disorders in the world. First-line treatments such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) still have many limitations, including a resistance to treatment in 30% of patients and a delayed clinical benefit that is observed only after several weeks of treatment. Incre...
Background: Psychedelic drugs have recently emerged as plausibly effective pharmacological agents for the management of depression, anxiety, and other neuropsychiatric conditions, including conditions that have not benefited from prior interventions. The latter half of the twentieth century marked a revolution in the treatment of depression, anxiety, and psy...
Background: Psychedelic drugs have recently emerged as plausibly effective pharmacological agents for the management of depression, anxiety, and other neuropsychiatric conditions, including conditions that have not benefited from prior interventions. The latter half of the twentieth century marked a revolution in the treatment of depression, anxiety, and psy...
Pathophysiology of depression is related with reduced volume of the hippocampus and amygdala and hypertrophy of the nucleus accumbens. The mechanism of these changes is not well under-stood, but clinical studies have shown that administration of the fast-acting antidepressant keta-mine reversed the decrease in hippocampus and amygdala volume in depressed pat...
Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common form of senile dementia, is poised to place an even greater societal and healthcare burden as the population ages. With few treatment options for the symptomatic relief of the disease and its unknown etiopathology, more research into AD is urgently needed. Psychedelic drugs target AD-related psychological pathology a...
BACKGROUND: The emergence of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS), including synthetic psilocybin, has raised concern among health experts due to the numerous health and socioeconomic consequences. The current trend is shifting to the hazardous use of synthetic psilocybin in vaping, and little is known about the prevalence of use, specifically among amphetamine...
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...
Psilocybin, a naturally occurring hallucinogenic component of magic mushrooms, has significant psychoactive effects in both humans and rodents. But the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. Blood-oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a useful tool in many preclinical and clinical trials to investigate ps...
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 ). ...
Major Depression Disease is a common mental illness that affects more than 322 million people worldwide and it is one of the leading causes of mental and physical disability. The etiology of depression is a complex interplay of psychological, social, and biological factors. Currently, psychopharmacotherapy is based mainly on the monoamine theory, which state...
Psychedelics alter consciousness and may have potential for drug development. As psychedelics are likely therapeutically active, it is important to study their effects and mechanisms using preclinical models. Here, we examined the effects of phenylalkylamine and indoleamine psychedelics on locomotor activity and exploratory behaviour using the mouse Behaviou...
AIM: Psilocin is an active metabolite form of psilocybin and exerts psychoactive effects. Recent studies suggest that psilocin may have regulatory effects on abuse drugs, but the mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we want to explore the effects of psilocin on methamphetamine (METH)-induced alterations of behavior in mice and its molecular mechanisms. ...
Psilocybin is a serotonergic psychedelic that has gained prominent attention recently as a potential therapeutic for neuropsychiatric disorders including Major Depressive Disorder. Pre-clinical and initial studies in humans suggest that serotonin 2A receptor agonists, including serotonergic psychedelics, have anti-inflammatory effects. This may contribute to...
IntroductionMescaline (3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine) is one of the oldest hallucinogens, with evidence of use dating back 5700 years. Mescaline is a naturally occurring alkaloid found in cacti, mainly in the peyote cactus (Lophophora williamsii) and in the cacti of the Echinopsis genus. Since the prohibition of psychoactive substances in the early 70s, res...
Clinical studies provide evidence that ketamine and psilocybin could be used as fast-acting antidepressants, though their mechanisms and toxicity are still not fully understood. To address this issue, we have examined the effect of a single administration of ketamine and psilocybin on the extracellular levels of neurotransmitters in the rat frontal cortex an...
Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of startle is a sensorimotor gating phenomenon perturbed in a variety of neuropsychiatric conditions. Psychedelics disrupt PPI in rats and humans, but their effects and involvement of the serotonin 5-HT receptor (5-HTR) in mice remain unexplored. We tested the effect of the psychedelic 1-(2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodophenyl)-2-aminopropane (...
4-phosphorloxy- N,N -dimethyltryptamine (psilocybin) is a naturally occurring psychedelic compound that is being investigated in clinical studies in conjunction with psychotherapy for treatment of several psychiatric disorders. It is well established that 4-hydroxy- N,N -dimethyltryptamine (psilocin) is the bioactive metabolite of psilocybin which mediates i...
