DARK Classics in Chemical Neuroscience: Psilocybin
This literature review (2018) looks back at the research that has been done with psilocybin, and the promise that it holds in current clinical trials.
Authors
- Geiger, H. A.
- Wurst, M. G.
- Daniels, R. N.
Published
Abstract
Psilocybin is found in a family of mushrooms commonly known as “magic mushrooms” that have been used throughout history to induce hallucinations. In the late 1950s Albert Hofmann, of Sandoz Laboratories, identified and synthesized the psychoactive compounds psilocybin and psilocin which are found in psilocybe mushrooms. Psilocybin was marketed by Sandoz as Indocybin for basic psychopharmacological and therapeutic clinical research. Psilocybin saw a rapid rise in popularity during the 1960s and was classed as a Schedule I drug in 1970. This led to a significant decrease in psilocybin research. Recently, however, preliminary studies with psilocybin have shown promise as potential for the treatment of obsessive compulsive disorder, alcohol addiction, tobacco addiction, and major depressive disorder, and the treatment of depression in terminally ill cancer patients. This review describes in detail the synthesis, metabolism, pharmacology, adverse drug reactions, and importance of psilocybin to neuroscience in the past and present.
Research Summary of 'DARK Classics in Chemical Neuroscience: Psilocybin'
Introduction
Geiger and colleagues introduce psilocybin as the principal psychoactive alkaloid found in a range of ‘‘magic mushrooms’’ and place it in the broader chemical family of indolealkylamine compounds related to serotonin, melatonin and N,N-dimethyltryptamine. The text summarises basic physico-chemical contrasts between psilocybin and its active metabolite psilocin (for example, psilocybin: six hydrogen bond acceptors, three hydrogen bond donors, logP 0.03; psilocin: three acceptors, two donors, logP 1.32), and notes that psilocybin acts as a prodrug that is rapidly dephosphorylated to the more lipophilic psilocin, which can cross the blood–brain barrier to produce psychoactive effects. Beyond chemistry, the introduction sketches psilocybin’s historical arc: its isolation and synthesis by Albert Hofmann in the late 1950s, clinical and recreational rise in the 1960s, scheduling and resultant research hiatus after 1970, and recent re-emergence of clinical interest. The authors frame the review to cover synthesis and biosynthesis, metabolism, pharmacology, adverse reactions, legal/manufacturing constraints and the emerging clinical evidence for disorders such as obsessive–compulsive disorder, substance use disorders and depression in both terminal illness and treatment-resistant cases.
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- APA Citation
Geiger, H. A., Wurst, M. G., & Daniels, R. N. (2018). DARK Classics in Chemical Neuroscience: Psilocybin. ACS Chemical Neuroscience, 9(10), 2438-2447. https://doi.org/10.1021/acschemneuro.8b00186
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