Psychedelic drugs: neurobiology and potential for treatment of psychiatric disorders
This review (2020) gives a high-level overview of psychedelics and their (potential) role in the treatment of mental disorders.
Authors
- Franz Vollenweider
- Katrin Preller
Published
Abstract
Renewed interest in the use of psychedelics in the treatment of psychiatric disorders warrants a better understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the effects of these substances. After a hiatus of about 50 years, state-of-the art studies have recently begun to close important knowledge gaps by elucidating the mechanisms of action of psychedelics with regard to their effects on receptor subsystems, systems-level brain activity and connectivity, and cognitive and emotional processing. In addition, functional studies have shown that changes in self-experience, emotional processing and social cognition may contribute to the potential therapeutic effects of psychedelics. These discoveries provide a scientific road map for the investigation and application of psychedelic substances in psychiatry.
Research Summary of 'Psychedelic drugs: neurobiology and potential for treatment of psychiatric disorders'
Introduction
During the 1950s and 1960s, classic serotonergic psychedelics such as LSD and psilocybin were widely investigated in psychotherapeutic contexts, yielding a large but methodologically heterogeneous literature (more than 1,000 papers and reports involving roughly 40,000 subjects). Regulatory restrictions that followed the drugs' popularisation curtailed human research for several decades. With the advent of modern neuroimaging and molecular tools since the 1990s, experimental work has resumed and begun to clarify receptor-level actions, systems-level brain effects and cognitive–emotional consequences of psychedelics. Vollenweider and colleagues set out to review recent advances in the neurobiology and neuropharmacology of classic psychedelics and to consider mechanisms that might underlie their therapeutic effects. The review synthesises evidence from molecular pharmacology, animal electrophysiology and plasticity studies, human neuroimaging and electrophysiology, psychometric assessments of altered states, and recent clinical trials, and highlights discrepancies and key knowledge gaps while outlining directions for future research and clinical development.
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Vollenweider, F. X., & Preller, K. H. (2020). Psychedelic drugs: neurobiology and potential for treatment of psychiatric disorders. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 21(11), 611-624. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-020-0367-2
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