Psychedelics Research Links December 2020

This is all the other psychedelic research that came out in December 2020. These papers don’t (yet) have their own page in our database.

Find our recap of the most interesting papers this month in our December Recap.

You can find all interesting papers in our Papers Database.

Related papers

Use CTRL/CMD+F to quickly search if anything relevant for you has been published this month.

• The ameliorating effects of Vitamin E on hepatotoxicity of ecstasy (in mice, given a lot of MDMA, protected from liver damage if also vitamin E was given)

• Rethinking enhancement substance use: A critical discourse studies approach (“… if we reframe all substance use as providing enhancement or achieving a self-improvement goal, we have the potential to destigmatise substance use and eliminate the over-simplistic binaries that surround it.“)

• Examining Changes in Personality Following Shamanic Ceremonial Use of Ayahuasca (decrease in neuroticism after Ayahuasca use)

• Strengthened beliefs under psychedelics (SEBUS)? (preprint, commentary on the infamous REBUS paper)

• Modulation of the functional connectome in major depressive disorder by ketamine therapy (resting-state functional connectivity of those with MDD after ketamine treatment trended towards those of healthy controls)

• Esketamine for Postpartum Suicidality (“ first case of rapid life-saving improvement in postpartum depression (PPD) with severe suicidal ideation/attempt following the introduction of esketamine injections after failing to achieve a response with antidepressants“)

• Does Body Mass Index Predict Response to Intravenous Ketamine Treatment in Adults with Major Depressive and Bipolar Disorder? Results from the Canadian Rapid Treatment Center of Excellence (“Pretreatment BMI did not predict response to IV ketamine, which was effective regardless of BMI.“)

• Psychedelic-assisted therapy for functional neurological disorders: A theoretical framework and review of prior reports (review of psychedelics for functional neurological disorders (FNDs))

• Synthesis and Characterization of 5-MeO-DMT Succinate for Clinical Use (process described for making lab-grade 5-MeO-DMT, 139g, 99.86% purity – also see this press release)

• Ketamine treatment for individuals with treatment-resistant depression: longitudinal qualitative interview study of patient experiences (qualitative reports up to 2 months later, “Some participants described hopelessness when treatment stopped working, paralleled by increased suicidal ideation for three participants. The transient nature and cost of treatment were problematic.“)

• The ritual use of ayahuasca during treatment of severe physical illnesses: a qualitative study (qualitative (n=14) study on psychological processes in ritualistic ayahuasca use during illness)

• The History of Psychedelics in Psychiatry (review by Nichols and Walter)

• Psychedelics and Psychotherapy (review by Nayak and Johnson)

• Psychedelics in Psychiatry-Keeping the Renaissance From Going Off the Rails (short commentary by David Yaden, Mary Yaden & Roland Griffiths)

• A Validated Method for the Simultaneous Determination of Methamphetamine and 3,4-Methylenedioxy- N-methamphetamine in Blood-Based Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry (method for accurate detection of MDMA, and meth)

• Free energy calculations of the functional selectivity of 5-HT2B G protein-coupled receptor (“This work quantifies ligand-induced conformational specificity and functional selectivity of 5-HT2B and presents a platform for high-throughput virtual screening of ligands and rational engineering of the ligand-bound molecular free energy landscape“)

• Toxicology and Analysis of Psychoactive Tryptamines (biased? review, toxicology of tryptamines, doesn’t LSD as most common example?)

• The entropic tongue: Disorganization of natural language under LSD (investigates language use under the influence of a medium (75μg) dosage of LSD, finds increased entropy)

• Subanesthetic dose of ketamine for the antidepressant effects and the associated cognitive impairments of electroconvulsive therapy in elderly patients-A randomized, double-blind, controlled clinical study (lower cognitive decline, but no significant differences between ECT and ECT + low-dose ketamine on depressive symptoms)

• Studying pre-treatment and ketamine-induced changes in white matter microstructure in the context of ketamine’s antidepressant effects (pilot study (n=13), identifies specific white matter properties that correlate with clinical outcomes 24 hours later)

• Gray matter volume of rostral anterior cingulate cortex predicts rapid antidepressant response to ketamine (fMRI study (n=33) on depressed patients, shows that grey matter volume (specifically rACC) correlates with clinical outcomes 24 hours later)

• Consciousness, Religion, and Gurus: Pitfalls of Psychedelic Medicine (viewpoint article by Matthew Johnson, identifies 1) wrong use of consciousness as term, 2) religious/spiritual beliefs of clinician, and 3) clinical boundaries as challenges)

• Investigation of the Structure–Activity Relationships of Psilocybin Analogues (investigation of 17 psilocybin analogs, in mice)

• Mystical-type experiences occasioned by ketamine mediate its impact on at-risk drinking: Results from a randomized, controlled trial (double-blind, placebo-controlled study (n=40) showed that mystical experience predicted alcohol)

• Psilocybin-Assisted Group Therapy and Attachment: Observed Reduction in Attachment Anxiety and Influences of Attachment Insecurity on the Psilocybin Experience (this follow-up study (n=18) to Anderson and colleagues (2020) finds that attachment anxiety, but not attachment avoidance, decreased significantly 3 months after psilocybin-assisted group therapy)

• Salvinorin A Does Not Affect Seizure Threshold in Mice (in mice, no effect of Salvinorin A on seizure test)

• Rapid and long-lasting antidepressant-like effects of ketamine and their relationship with the expression of brain enzymes, BDNF, and astrocytes (in mice, ketamine changed brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) up to 30 days later)

• Corticosterone as a Potential Confounding Factor in Delineating Mechanisms Underlying Ketamine’s Rapid Antidepressant Actions (in rats, “we observed an over 3-fold increase in corticosterone levels in both serum and brain tissue, within an hour of administration of low dose ketamine (10 mg/kg), but not with (2R, 6R)-hydroxynorketamine (HNK) (10 mg/kg), a ketamine metabolite shown to produce antidepressant-like action in rodents without inducing immediate side-effects.”)

• Neurochemical and Behavioral Effects of a New Hallucinogenic Compound 25B-NBOMe in Rats (in rats, investigation of effects like head twitch response and locomotion)

• Combination of Electroconvulsive Therapy Alternating With Intravenous Esketamine Can Lead to Rapid Remission of Treatment Resistant Depression (case study, ECT + ketamine for better effect than both alone)

• Describing the Unspeakable: Psychedelic Communication Technologies and the Development of a Posthuman Language (description of psychedelic communication and how this (may) go beyond our current language models)

• Entheogenic Experience and Spirituality (making a framework for spiritual experiences (less intense than mystical experiences) which is predicted by spiritual motivation(?) but not spiritual affiliation or practices)

• People of color in North America report improvements in racial trauma and mental health symptoms following psychedelic experiences (prospective survey, n=313, found significant and moderate (d = -.45) effect of psychedelics (LSD, MDMA) on racial trauma, also reported on Ohio State website)

• Antidepressant actions of ketamine engage cell-specific translation via eIF4E (study in knockout mice, “The antidepressant activity of the drugs is mediated by 4E-BP2 in excitatory neurons, and 4E-BP1 and 4E-BP2 in inhibitory neurons.“)

• Rapid and long-lasting antidepressant-like effects of ketamine and their relationship with the expression of brain enzymes, BDNF, and astrocytes (in mice, ketamine “changed brain BDNF and GFAP expressions 30 days after a single administration“)

• Subanesthetic ketamine infusions for suicide ideation in patients with bipolar and unipolar treatment refractory depression (“Ketamine produced a significant reduction in SI as early as one hour (71.1%) and up to 1-week post-infusion (60.4%), accompanied by a reduction in overall depressive symptoms which were maintained until the 4th week.“)

• Ketamine as an adjunctive therapy for major depression – a randomised controlled pragmatic pilot trial (this randomized study (n=25) found no difference in depression scores (HRSD-24) between ketamine and midazolam (benzodiazepine medication))

• Acute Lysergic Acid Diethylamide Does Not Influence Reward-Driven Decision Making of C57BL/6 Mice in the Iowa Gambling Task (in mice, no effect found on reward-driven decision-making)

• Differential effects of propofol and ketamine on critical brain dynamics (brain study on monkeys, tested if criticality of brain function is lowered under ketamine (not much) and propofol (more so))

• A Systematic Review on the Efficacy of Intravenous Racemic Ketamine for Bipolar Depression (five studies (n=110) were finally analysed in this systematic review, found improvements in depression scores, suicidal ideation, and anhedonia)

• Neural network models for DMT-induced visual hallucinations (by Schartner and Timmermann)

• The Effects of Daytime Psilocybin Administration on Sleep: Implications for Antidepressant Action (interesting study on how psilocybin may influence sleep, specifically this study found later onset of REM sleep)

• A Dendrite-Focused Framework for Understanding the Actions of Ketamine and Psychedelics (opinion paper, focus on action at dendrites of classical psychedelics and ketamine)

• The role of dissociation in ketamine’s antidepressant effects (“Presently, the literature does not support the conclusion that dissociation is necessary for antidepressant response to ketamine.“)

• Ketamine Normalizes the Structural Alterations of Inferior Frontal Gyrus in Depression (MRI scans 24 hours pre/post ketamine infusion, n=50, some changes found only in MDD group, not MDD/PTSD nor healthy controls)

• Low Dose Ketamine Infusion for Comorbid Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Chronic Pain: A Randomized Double-Blind Clinical Trial (both ketamine and ketorolac proved to be effective for PTSD & chronic pain (CP) and CP groups)

• Therapeutic Mechanisms of Ketamine (review)

• Treatment response to low-dose ketamine infusion for treatment-resistant depression: A gene-based genome-wide association study (n=65, gene-based study that finds that some genes have predictive value on outcomes of ketamine for TRD)

• The acute antisuicidal effects of single-dose intravenous ketamine and intranasal esketamine in individuals with major depression and bipolar disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis (“The findings suggest that single-dose IV ketamine/IN esketamine is associated with robust reductions in suicidal thoughts at 2-h, 4-h, and 24-h post-intervention“)

• Subanesthetic ketamine infusions for suicide ideation in patients with bipolar and unipolar treatment refractory depression (also see previous paper, lower SI scores up to 1 week later)

• Investigating the role of 5-HT2A and 5-HT2C receptor activation in the effects of psilocybin, DOI, and citalopram on marble burying in mice (in mice, possible implications for OCD research)

• Synergistic effects of MDMA and ethanol on behavior: Possible effects of ethanol on dopamine D 2 -receptor-related signaling (“The combination of MDMA with ethanol enhanced their locomotor-increasing, rewarding, and discriminative stimulus effects without enhancing their effects on the release of dopamine from the nucleus accumbens in rodents“)

• Towards psychedelic apprenticeship: Developing a gentle touch for the mediation and validation of psychedelic-induced insights and revelations (model for working with/guiding psychedelic experiences)

• Ketamine reversed short-term memory impairment and depressive-like behavior in animal model of Parkinson’s disease (“ketamine reversed depressive-like behaviors and short-term memory impairment in rats with SNc bilateral lesions, indicating a promising profile for its use in PD patients“)

• Working memory associated with anti-suicidal ideation effect of repeated-dose intravenous ketamine in depressed patients (improvement in working memory (WM) as possible mechanism why ketamine reduces suicidal ideation (SI))

• Sleep improvement is associated with the antidepressant efficacy of repeated-dose ketamine and serum BDNF levels: a post-hoc analysis (n=127, better sleep led to better antidepressant effects of ketamine in those with MDD or BD)

• New psychoactive substances: a review and updates (review of new psychedelic(s) substances)