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...
Background Recent survey data indicate that some people report long-term improvement in color vision deficiency (CVD), also known as color blindness, following use of psychedelics such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and psilocybin. However, there are no objective data reported in the medical literature quantifying the degree or duration of CVD improveme...
Most illicit drug casework samples at the Israel Police National Drug Laboratory are found to be mixtures of substances. Some are a mixture of an illicit drug with fillers, and others may contain more than one illicit drug. This study was triggered by a routine gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis of an unusual casework sample. The sample ch...
Mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety are major contributors to the overall global health burden. COVID-19 has further aggravated mental health disorders and also increased substance abuse due to lockdowns1. The Global Burden of Disease reported that the pandemic has led to a 27.6% increase in cases of major depressive disorder (MDD) and a 2...
The beneficial effects of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy on alcohol use disorder (AUD) are significant, based on a study published in JAMA Psychiatry last month. In general, psychedelic medications have been a focus of research, but less is known about psilocybin, and it has been 40 years since the studies with lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) provided do...
Following a decades long period of investigational dormancy, there is renewed interest in employing psychedelics as psychiatric treatments. The academic journals, institutions, and countries that have helped sustain clinical psychedelic research and the evolution of the literature on clinical studies of psychedelics have only recently begun to be investigate...
Research on the therapeutic potential of psychedelic substances is expanding. A limitation within this field is the unpredictability of individual responses to psychedelics. Better understanding of factors predicting psychedelic experience is essential to clinical progress and wider harm reduction frameworks. Ketamine, MDMA, LSD and psilocybin were selected ...
The utility of classical drugs used to treat psychiatric disorders (e.g., antidepressants, anxiolytics) is often limited by issues of lack of efficacy, delayed onset of action or side effects. Psychoactive substances have a long history of being used as tools to alter consciousness and as a gateway to approach the unknown and the divinities. These substances...
AimsInformation on time trends in use of different plant-based hallucinogens is lacking. The current study used nationally representative U.S. data to assess overall and age-specific time trends in the prevalence of lifetime and 12-month use of plant-based hallucinogens and dissociative agents.MethodsParticipants were respondents aged ≥ 12 years (N = 1,006,0...
ObjectivesDifferent psychoactive substances are widely used in today's society. So far limited data are available on the use of psychedelics in the general population. The main aim of this study is to estimate the numbers of users of substances with psychedelic properties (classical psychedelics, cannabis, ecstasy, and ketamine) in the Czech Republic.Methods...
IntroductionMajor depressive disorder remains a prevalent world-wide health problem. Currently available antidepressant medications take weeks of dosing, do not produce antidepressant response in all patients, and have undesirable ancillary effects.Areas coveredThe present opinion piece focuses on the major inroads to the creation of new antidepressants. The...
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is known to induce powerful psychoactive effects in humans, which cemented its status as an important tool for clinical research. A range of analogues and derivatives has been investigated over the years, including those classified as new psychoactive substances. This study presents the characterization of the novel lysergami...
IntroductionA limited number of preliminary open-label (n = 3) and placebo-controlled clinical trials (n = 5) have suggested psilocybin and LSD as potential rapid antidepressants. In this context, there is a growing need to verify and document their safety and tolerability as therapeutic agents, discuss the challenges associated with their administration, an...
4-Acetoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (4-AcO-DMT, psilacetin, O-acetylpsilocin) is a synthetic tryptamine with psychedelic properties. Psilacetin may also act as precursor drug of psilocin, similar to psilocybin, but little is known about its metabolism. In this study, the phase I and phase II in vitro metabolism of 4-AcO-DMT was investigated with pooled human li...
Promising outcomes of Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy (PAT) for depression have generated concerted efforts to replicate, extend, and refine protocols to maximize efficacy. Psychotherapy research reveals that clients benefit most when important components of treatment align with their personal preferences. One open question related to PAT concerns the importance...
Fibromyalgia (FM) is a difficult to treat chronic pain condition for which there is strong interest in alternative treatments. There is growing interest in the potential of psychedelic substances (e.g., psilocybin) in conjunction with psychotherapy to treat chronic pain. Via a cross-sectional, anonymous, online survey, we aimed to characterize knowledge, per...
Depression treatments succeed with many but leave others unimproved, and they can generate concerns about side effects, time, and cost. Psilocybin has generated media attention and empirical support for antidepressant effects, but lay impressions of its effectiveness are unclear. Although perceptions of treatment credibility contribute to outcome, beliefs ab...
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...
Veterans are at increased risk of experiencing symptoms of trauma. Although many benefit from available treatments, some find treatment inaccessible or ineffective and explore alternative substances. One such substance is psilocybin. This Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis study aimed to provide an initial insight into the experiences of veterans who h...
