psilocybin

Study identifies cognitive benefits of ketamine in patients with treatment-resistant depression

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Ket­a­mine mol­e­cules attach them­selves to NMDA neu­ronal recep­tors, which play an impor­tant role in brain plas­tic­i­ty and pre­dic­tive pro­cess­ing. C22H31NO2, CC BY-SA

Which fac­tors deter­mine what we believe about our world, our­selves, our past, and our future? Cog­ni­tive neu­ro­science sug­gests that our beliefs are depen­dent on brain activ­i­ty, specif­i­cal­ly on the way our brains process sen­so­ry infor­ma­tion in order to make sense of our environment.

These beliefs (defined as prob­a­bil­i­ty esti­mates) are cen­tral to our brain’s pre­dic­tive pro­cess­ing func­tion, which enables it to pre­dict the prob­a­bilis­tic struc­ture of the world around us. These pre­dic­tions could even be the fun­da­men­tal build­ing blocks of men­tal states, such as per­cep­tions and emotions.

Many psy­chi­atric dis­or­ders, such as depres­sion and schiz­o­phre­nia, are char­ac­terised by irreg­u­lar beliefs whose ori­gins we still don’t ful­ly under­stand. But if we can iden­ti­fy the cere­bral sys­tems gov­ern­ing them, we could tar­get those very areas in a bid to alle­vi­ate the pain asso­ci­at­ed to these ill­ness­es. [Read more…] about Study iden­ti­fies cog­ni­tive ben­e­fits of ket­a­mine in patients with treat­ment-resis­tant depression

Why MDMA-assisted psychotherapy may become an FDA-approved treatment for PTSD within 2 years

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For peo­ple with post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der, recall­ing mem­o­ries of phys­i­cal or sex­u­al assault, com­bat or dis­as­ter-relat­ed events can induce intense anx­i­ety or pan­ic attacks as well as debil­i­tat­ing flashbacks.

In the U.S., about 7% of peo­ple suf­fer from PTSD and lose an aver­age of about four work­ing days each month as a result. Trau­ma-spe­cif­ic psy­chother­a­py, like cog­ni­tive pro­cess­ing or “talk” ther­a­py, is the cor­ner­stone of treat­ment for PTSD. But for approx­i­mate­ly half of peo­ple, these tra­di­tion­al approach­es are inef­fec­tive at ful­ly address­ing PTSD symp­toms over the long term. Anti­de­pres­sant drugs are fre­quent­ly used if psy­chother­a­py fails, or in com­bi­na­tion with it, but the effects are usu­al­ly mod­est. [Read more…] about Why MDMA-assist­ed psy­chother­a­py may become an FDA-approved treat­ment for PTSD with­in 2 years

Next: Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy?

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How ecsta­sy and psilo­cy­bin are shak­ing up psy­chi­a­try (Nature):

… The Impe­r­i­al study was one of a spate of clin­i­cal tri­als launched over the past few years using illic­it psy­che­del­ic drugs such as psilo­cy­bin, lyser­gic acid diethy­lamide (LSD) and MDMA (3,4‑methylenedioxymethamphetamine, also known as mol­ly or ecsta­sy) to treat men­tal-health dis­or­ders, gen­er­al­ly with the close guid­ance of a psy­chi­a­trist or psy­chother­a­pist. The idea has been around for decades — or cen­turies in some cul­tures — but the momen­tum has picked up dras­ti­cal­ly over the past few years as investors and sci­en­tists have begun to cham­pi­on the approach again. [Read more…] about Next: Psy­che­del­ic-assist­ed psychotherapy?