Psychedelics, More Than Just A Trip

[michael94]

http://sci-hub.io/10.1124/pr.115.011478 ( source, recent meta-analysis )

TISSUE REGENERATION

Psychedelics may also have potential to stimulate
tissue regeneration. Arvanian et al. (2006) carried out a
study in which rats received a staggered double hemi-
section (DH) at postnatal day two (P2) of the left
hemicord at T11 and the right hemicord at T12. A
second group had a complete transection at T11 (CT),
with a third group serving as a sham-operated control.
Drug treatments consisted of neurotrophin-3 (NT-3)
and LSD given either alone or in combination. Drugs
were administered intrathecally above the lesion dur-
ing surgery and again subcutaneously at P4, P6, P8, and
P10. The frequency of rearing in an open field test and
hindlimb kicks during swimming were then used to
assess motor function, and both DH and CT rats showed
severe impairment. DH rats treated with the combina-
tion of NT-3 and LSD showed significantly more kicks
during swimming than untreated DH or CT rats or
treated CT rats. Improvement began as early as P9 and
lasted for the duration of the testing. Rearing frequency
also improved with treatment, beginning only in the
third postnatal week, when it normally develops, and
reached sham values by P40. The authors suggest that
the combination treatment of NT-3 with LSD may be a
promising strategy for facilitating recovery from mod-
erate spinal cord injury (SCI). The possibility that LSD
might promote neuronal regrowth in SCIs is very
exciting.

ANTI-INFLAMMATORY

Although serotonin itself has long been established to
be involved in inflammation and inflammatory process-
es, the role of psychedelics and their primary target,
the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor, in these processes was
unknown until recently. In 2008, Charles Nichols
discovered that psychedelics produced powerful anti-
inflammatory effects against tumor necrosis factor
(TNF)-a–mediated inflammatory processes in several
cell types, including primary aortic smooth muscle cells,
through activation of 5-HT2A receptors (Yu et al., 2008).
Whereas several psychedelic drugs, including LSD,
demonstrated potent anti-inflammatory effects, the
drug R-DOI was extraordinarily potent at blocking
inflammation

TERMINALLY ILL DEPRESSION

One of the most well documented therapeutic effects
of LSD, first established in the 1960s, was alleviation of
anxiety and depression in acutely ill patients. This
research direction received its original impetus from
observations by Chicago internist Eric Kast. Kast and
Collins (1964) found that LSD had an analgesic effect at
least comparable to opiates, but that the LSD analgesia
outlasted its acute psychologic effects. Subsequent
study revealed that patients treated with LSD had
improved psychologic adjustment, were more respon-
sive to their families and environments, and had
enhanced ability to enjoy everyday life (Kast, 1966,
1970). Beginning in 1963, a group at the Spring Grove
State Hospital in Maryland developed an extensive
research program to study the value of psychedelic-
assisted psychotherapy of patients with alcoholism or
neuroses, patients who were addicted to narcotics, and
patients who were dying of cancer (Pahnke et al.,
1970a). With respect to treatment of dying cancer
patients, this group found that about two-thirds of
cancer patients who received LSD treatment had
improved mood and reduced anxiety and fear of death
(Pahnke et al., 1969, 1970b; Grof et al., 1973)

DEPRESSION

Psilocybin significantly increased positive affect, but
not negative affect or state anxiety. Psilocybin in-
creased subjective reports of positive mood but did not
increase anxiety. BOLD fMRI results revealed that
psilocybin significantly attenuated right amygdala
activation to both negative and neutral pictures;
amygdala reactivity to negative and neutral stimuli
was lower after psilocybin treatment than placebo.
Psilocybin-induced attenuation of amygdala reactivity
was significantly correlated with increase of positive
mood. Attenuation of right amygdala reactivity in
response to negative stimuli was associated with the
psilocybin-induced increase in positive mood state. The
authors conclude that their findings may be relevant to
the normalization of amygdala hyperactivity and neg-
ative mood states seen in patients with major depres-
sion, and they suggest that psilocybin has the potential
to normalize limbic hyperactivity in persons with de-
pressed mood.

HEADACHES

Cluster headache is a devastating idiopathic pain
syndrome. It is the most severe type of headache,
characterized by unilateral orbital or periorbital pain,
accompanied by ipsilateral autonomic features in the
nose, eyes, and face, with attacks lasting on average
about 90 minutes. Cluster attacks can be acute or
episodic, although the episodic form is most common
(May, 2005). The most effective treatments have been
100% oxygen or subcutaneous sumatriptan (Becker,
2013). Recent evidence, however, has indicated that
psychedelics may be more effective therapies for abort-
ing acute attacks than conventional treatments. Online
interviews of 53 cluster headache patients who had used
either psilocybin or LSD to treat their condition found
that 22 of 26 psilocybin users reported that psilocybin
aborted attacks, and 25 of 48 psilocybin users and 7 of 8
LSD users reported cluster period termination. Exten-
sion of the remission period for attacks was reported by
18 of 19 psilocybin users and 4 of 5 LSD users (Sewell
et al., 2006

AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS

Although a rationale for treating autism with LSD
might seem obscure on the surface, there is a potential
scientific basis for such treatment. Murphy et al. (2006)
used single-photon emission computed tomography
(SPECT) imaging with a 5-HT2A– selective antagonist[123
I]-radioligand (123I-5-I-R91150) to compare cortical
density of 5-HT2A receptors in 10 healthy adult subjects
and 8 adults with Asperger’s syndrome. They found that
the Asperger’s patients had a significant reduction in
cortical 5-HT2A binding in the total, anterior, and
posterior cingulate; bilaterally in the frontal and supe-
rior temporal lobes; and in the left parietal lobe. They
reported that reduced receptor binding was signifi-
cantly related to abnormal social communication. It
therefore seems possible that the use of a 5-HT
2A agonist might improve functioning, at least acutely.

CREATIVITY

n 1991, tech journalist Denise Caruso attended
SIGGRAPH, the largest gathering of computer graphics
professionals in the world. Apparently hearing that
the use of psychedelics had played a foundational role in
the development of computer graphics and software,
she took a survey of 180 professionals in the field who
admitted they had taken psychedelics and that they
were important to their work. She published her story in
the August 4, 1991 edition of the San Francisco
Examiner. The late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs was
open about the fact he had experimented with LSD
while in college and said that taking LSD was a
profound experience, and “one of the two or three most
important things I have done in my life.”
Another incidence of psychedelic drug–induced crea-
tivity from the scientific community comes from Nobel
Prize–winning chemist Dr. Kary Mullis, the inventor of
PCR, who is quoted as saying“ Would I have invented
PCR if I hadn’t taken LSD? I seriously doubt it
...I couldsit on a DNA molecule and watch the polymers go by. I
learnt that partly on psychedelic drugs.”
Nobel Prize winner Francis Crick, who discovered the
double-helix structure of the DNA molecule, is known to
have used LSD on occasion. Although there have been
allegations that he conceived the idea of the double-
helix while on LSD, the story is false. His biographer
has pointed out that although Crick was given LSD on
several occasions from 1967 onward, his major break-
through discoveries occurred prior to that date.

 

[ecstatichamster]

Fantastic. Thanks so much.

 

[Parsifal]

Few questions: Why psychedelics can cause HPPD (hallucination persisting perception disorder), bad trips or flashback?