Psychedelics as a Novel Approach to Treating Autoimmune Conditions
This literature review (2020) argues that psychedelics may be used to treat autoimmune conditions. This may be done via inflammatory pathways, immune modulation or other methods.
Abstract
With a rise in the incidence of autoimmune diseases (AiD), health care providers continue to seek out more efficacious treatment approaches for the AD patient population. Classic serotonergic psychedelics have recently been gaining public and professional interest as novel interventions to a number of mental health afflictions. Psychedelics have also been shown to be able to modulate immune functions, however, while there has been great interest to researching into their psychotherapeutic applications, there has so far been very little exploration into the potential to treat inflammatory and immune-related diseases with these compounds. A handful of studies from a variety of fields suggest that psychedelics do indeed have effects in the body that may attenuate the outcome of AD. This literature review explores existing evidence that psychedelic compounds may offer a potential novel application in the treatment of pathologies related to autoimmunity. We propose that psychedelics hold the potential to attenuate or even resolve autoimmunity by targeting psychosomatic origins, maladaptive chronic stress responses, inflammatory pathways, immune modulation and enteric microbiome populations.
Research Summary of 'Psychedelics as a Novel Approach to Treating Autoimmune Conditions'
Introduction
Thompson and colleagues open by situating the problem: autoimmune diseases (AiD) are increasingly prevalent and impose substantial health and economic burdens. The paper notes over 100 defined autoimmune-related conditions affecting an estimated 50 million Americans and highlights that roughly 80% of those affected are women. The authors emphasise that AiDs are multifactorial in origin, with genetic predisposition, environmental exposures, infections, microbiome dysbiosis and psychosocial stress all implicated. They also point out frequent comorbidity between autoimmune conditions and psychiatric disorders such as major depressive disorder (MDD), anxiety and schizophrenia, and suggest bidirectional mechanisms linking immune dysfunction and mental illness. Against this background, the review proposes psychedelic compounds as a potentially novel, multi‑modal approach to AiD. Thompson frames classic/serotonergic psychedelics (for example LSD, psilocybin, DMT and 5‑MeO‑DMT) and certain non‑classical compounds (ketamine, MDMA, ibogaine) as agents with pharmacology that could modulate immune and inflammatory pathways, stress physiology, glutamate excitotoxicity, neuroplasticity and the gut microbiome. The introduction positions the paper as a narrative synthesis of biochemical, animal and preliminary human evidence that psychedelics may exert immunomodulatory and anti‑inflammatory effects relevant to autoimmunity and calls for further investigation.
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Thompson, C., & Szabo, A. (2020). Psychedelics as a Novel Approach to Treating Autoimmune Conditions. Immunology Letters, 228, 45-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.imlet.2020.10.001
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