Psychedelics Research Links September 2021

This is all the other psychedelic research that came out in September 2021. These papers don’t (yet) have their own page in our database.

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

• Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of harmine derivatives as potent GSK-3β/DYRK1A dual inhibitors for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (in cells, harmine good against Alzheimer’s)

• A preliminary study on the neurotoxic mechanism of harmine in Caenorhabditis elegans (in cells, harmine bad)

• Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy After COVID-19: The Therapeutic Uses of Psilocybin and MDMA for Pandemic-Related Mental Health Problems (opinion article, provides reasons why psychedelic-assisted therapy/treatment may be useful after Covid-19)

• The Role of Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy to Support Patients With Cancer: A Critical Scoping Review of the Research (review, favorable on psilocybin-assisted therapy for cancer patients (anxiety))

• Psychedelics & Palliative Care A Comparative Analysis of Institutional Logics (thesis, link automatically downloads)

• Temporal irreversibility of neural dynamics as a signature of consciousness (pre-print, in monkeys, related to psychedelics, last author is Enzo Tagliazucchi, finds less accuracy under sleep and ketamine)

• Consciousness and complexity: a consilience of evidence (review, more on consciousness with mention of psychedelics)

• Consciousness in active inference: Deep self-models, other minds, and the challenge of psychedelic-induced ego-dissolution (theory of consciousness and rebuttal to psychedelic-induced ego-dissolution as counterargument, “I argue that an account of consciousness in the predictive brain is within reach via recent accounts of phenomenal self-modelling in the active inference framework. The central claim here is that phenomenal consciousness is underpinned by ‘subjective valuation’—a deep inference about the precision or ‘predictability’ of the self-evidencing (‘fitness-promoting’) outcomes of action.”)

• Ancient Roots of Today’s Emerging Renaissance in Psychedelic Medicine (opinion)

• Psychoactive Substance Use Among Individuals with Chronic Spinal Cord Injury: Patterns and Characteristics (n=4577, survey, 24% used psychoactive substances in population with spinal cord injury (SCI), but focus is on cannabis use, not psychedelics)

• Neural circuit dynamics of drug-context associative learning in the hippocampus (pre-print, in mice, “we reveal that drug-context associations for psychostimulants and opioids are encoded in a subset of hippocampal neurons … dissociative drug ketamine blocked both the drug-induced changes to hippocampal coding and corresponding drug-seeking behavior”)

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

• Assessing the effects of methodological differences on outcomes in the use of psychedelics in the treatment of anxiety and depressive disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis (review, finds more positive effects in trials with multiple dosages)

• Investigating the role microdosing psychedelics could have in the treatment of depression (thesis, “Experimental studies show no effects on depression, whereas qualitative and observational studies show positive effects regarding depression and positive lifestyle changes”)

• A novel method for predicting human cardiotoxicity without animal testing (thesis, covers ibogaine toxicity)

• Ketamine ameliorates depressive-like behaviors in mice through increasing glucose uptake regulated by the ERK/GLUT3 signaling pathway (in mice, “ketamine mitigated depressive-like behaviors in female mice by activating the ERK/GLUT3 signal pathway, which further increased glucose uptake in the prefrontal cortex“)

• Ketamine and depression: An old drug in search of a clinical indication (editorial)

• Investigation of MDMA Inhibitory Effect on CytochromeP450 3A4 in Isolated Perfused Rat Liver Model Using Tramadol (in rats, “the regular doses of MDMA cannot inhibit the CYP3A4 activity.“)

• Evaluating the Role of Ketamine/Esketamine in the Management of Major Depressive Disorder with Suicide Risk (review, “…benefits that appears to outweigh the potential risks of the treatment“)

• Spontaneous Spiritual Awakenings: Phenomenology, Altered States, Individual Differences, and Well-Being (n=152, finds temporal lobe lability and trait absorption to predict SSA/SKA, and similar to psychedelic-induced experiences)

• Serotonin transporter availability, neurocognitive function and their correlation in abstinent 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine users (review, “This suggests that serotonin transporter (SERT) availability is not a biomarker for MDMA-induced cognitive impairment and likely also not for MDMA-induced neurotoxicity“)

• Long-Term Efficacy of Intranasal Esketamine in Treatment-Resistant Major Depression: A Systematic Review (review)

• Ayahuasca Lyophilization (Freeze-drying) Protocol with Pre- and Post-procedure Alkaloids Quantification (how to store ayahuasca (freeze-dried) for research)

• Dose Effect of psilocybin on primary and secondary depression: a preliminary systematic review and meta-analysis (review)

• Global bioethical challenges of medicalising psychedelics

• Study protocol for “Psilocybin as a Treatment for Anorexia Nervosa: A Pilot Study (protocol)

• Is MDD the right target for early-stage psychedelic-assisted therapy trials? (valid critiques of targetting major depressive disorder, depression, MDD with psychedelic therapies)

• The environmental release and ecosystem risks of illicit drug during Glastonbury Festival (“MDMA mass loads were 104 times greater downstream in comparison to upstream sites … This concentration is deemed harmful to aquatic life using Risk Quotient assessment (RQ) and provides evidence of continuous release after the festival due to leaching of MDMA from the site.”)Wastewater analysis for psychoactive substances at music festivals across New South Wales, Australia in 2019-2020 (related)

• The use of esketamine in comorbid treatment resistant depression and obsessive compulsive disorder following extensive pharmacogenomic testing: a case report (case report, TRD & OCD reduction in symptoms after esketamine)

• New Insights Into the Clinical and Nonclinical Effects of Psychedelic Substances (review)

• Effect of Ketamine on Binge Drinking Patterns in Crossed Alcohol-Preferring (cHAP) Mice (ketamine for mice, but no effect found at sub-aneasthetic dose)

• Drug use, harm-reduction practices and attitudes toward the utilisation of drug safety testing services in an Irish cohort of festival-goers (n=1193, “The vast majority (96.3%; n = 1149) and would use drug checking services“)

• Prefrontal contributions to the stability and variability of thought and conscious experience (DFT and REBUS frameworks brought together)

• A Phenomenology of Challenging Psychedelic Experiences: From Relational Trauma to Relational Healing (thesis, “… phenomenological structure of challenging psychedelic experiences consisting of a change process that moved the participants from a sense of disconnection to a sense of connection with themselves, others, nature and the cosmos.”)

• Ketamine for Treatment-Resistant bipolar depression – need for more data! (commentary)

• Hard Boiled: Alcohol Use as a Risk Factor for MDMA-Induced Hyperthermia: a Systematic Review (safety, review, “It is concluded that recreational and clinical MDMA-users should refrain from concomitant drinking of alcoholic beverages to reduce the risk for adverse health incidents when using MDMA.“)

• Digging up the rabbit hole: a meta-analysis of the therapeutic efficacy of psilocybin in major depressive disorder (meta-analysis)

• Psychedelic experiences during the early COVID-19 pandemic: findings from an international online survey (more covid-19 and psychedelics papers, nothing too exciting)

• Imagine Sisyphus Vibing: The Existential Case for Psychedelics (essay)

• Panpsychism and Spiritual Flourishing: Constructive Engagement with the New Science of Psychedelics (“the main goal of the article is to map the conceptual terrain in which conversations about spiritual flourishing, psychedelics, and panpsychism might take place.“)

• Self-Administration of entactogen psychostimulants dysregulates GABA and Kappa Opioid Receptor signaling in the central nucleus of the amygdala of female Wistar rats (pre-print, in rats, “… our study suggests that CeA GABA and KOR mechanisms play a critical role in entactogen self-administration like those observed with escalation of alcohol or cocaine self-administration“)

• Exploring Moral Bio-enhancement through Psilocybin-Facilitated Prosocial Effects (interesting take, “… proposes that the prosocial effects of psilocybin likely satisfy the above-mentioned set of six necessary conditions [for moral bio-enhancement]“)

• Driving while under the influence of hallucinogens: Prevalence, correlates, and risk profiles (safety, “Nearly one in ten individuals who report using hallucinogens also report driving under the influence of hallucinogens—drugs that affect perception and risk-taking, with alarming implications for driving safety.“)

• Neuroplasticity as a convergent mechanism of ketamine and classical psychedelics (review)

• Astronomical Use of Nitrous Oxide Associated With Stress From the COVID-19 Pandemic and Lockdown (case report)

• Glutamate modulators and beyond: A neuroscience revolution in the making (opinion/overview)

• Ketamine’s modulation of cerebro-cerebellar circuitry during response inhibition in major depression

• In Vitro Study of the Bioavailability and Bioaccessibility of the Main Compounds Present in Ayahuasca Beverages (availability and non-toxic (cytotoxicity))

• Gender Differences in Depression and Quality of Life in Current and Abstinent Ketamine Users (recreational use of ketamine, “The current ketamine users with and without ketamine use disorder, in addition to the abstinent ketamine users with ketamine use disorder, have more severe depression and a lower QoL than healthy controls.” though correlation isnot causation)

• Psychedelic Therapeutic: Potential Treatment for Headache Disorders (patent application)

• Rediscovering Psilocybin as an Antidepressive Treatment Strategy (review)

• Co-design of Guidance for Patient and Public Involvement in Psychedelic Research (involving patients and public in designs of studies)

• Novel antidepressant drugs: Beyond monoamine targets (review)

• Low-dose ketamine infusion for treating subjective cognitive, somatic, and affective depression symptoms of treatment-resistant depression