Psychedelic Research Links June 2023

This is all the other psychedelic research that came out in June 2023. These papers don’t (yet) have their own page in our database.

You can find all interesting papers in our Papers Database.

Related Papers

In Rodents

• Tabernanthalog Reduces Motivation for Heroin and Alcohol in a Polydrug Use Model (in rats, “TBG effectively reduced motivation for heroin and alcohol in this test, indicating its efficacy is preserved in animals with a history of heroin and alcohol polydrug use.“)

• The G protein biased serotonin 5-HT 2A receptor agonist lisuride exerts anti-depressant drug-like activities in mice (in mice, shows antidepressant but not hallucinogenic (head twitch response) for lisuride)

• 5-MeO-DMT induces sleep-like LFP spectral signatures in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex of awake rats (in rats, “Our findings suggest that the psychoactive effects of classical psychedelics are associated with the integration of waking behaviours with sleep-like spectral patterns in LFPs.“)

• Systems-level analysis of local field potentials reveals differential effects of lysergic acid diethylamide and ketamine on neuronal activity and functional connectivity (in rats, “Our data suggest that the altered brain states of LSD and ketamine are caused by different underlying mechanisms, where LFP power shifts indicate increased neuronal activity but reduced connectivity following ketamine, while LSD also leads to reduced connectivity but without an accompanying change in LFP broadband power.“)

• The effect of lysergic acid diethylamide on brain BDNF levels and Pavlovian extinction learning in mice (in mice, thesis, related to recent findings on BDNF (tkbr receptor) publications, but “We did not observe statistically significant differences between the treatment groups in BDNF levels or behavioral experiments after the single LSD injections”)

• Underlying pharmacological mechanisms of psilocin-induced broadband desynchronization and disconnection of EEG in rats (in rats, “These findings suggest the involvement of all three serotonergic receptors studied as well as the role of dopaminergic mechanisms in power spectra/current density with only the 5-HT2A receptor being effective in both studied metrics.“)

• Systematic Characterization of LSD metabolites in C. elegans by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled with high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry (in C. elegans, imaging of LSD metabolites)

• Retigabine promotes ketamine’s antidepressant effect in the forced swim test in male and female C57BL/6J mice (in mice, “When simultaneously gave retigabine, ketamine’s antidepressant effect in the forced swim test was significantly enhanced with a prolonged effective duration.”)

• The Kappa Opioid Receptor Agonist 16-Bromo Salvinorin A Has Anti-Cocaine Effects without Significant Effects on Locomotion, Food Reward, Learning and Memory, or Anxiety and Depressive-like Behaviors (in mice, “These findings highlight that G-protein-biased structural analogues of SalA can have improved pharmacokinetic profiles and fewer side effects while maintaining their anticocaine effects.“)

• L-Carnitine Prevents Behavioural Alterations in Ketamine-Induced Schizophrenia in Mice: Possible Involvement of Oxidative Stress and Inflammation Pathways (in mice, “These data provided evidence that, due to the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of l-carnitine, it has a neuroprotective effect on mice model of schizophrenia.“)

Chemistry

• Cardioprotective Potential of the Ethanol and Water Extracts of Four Psilocybin Mushrooms on Angiotensin II-Induced Hypertrophy and Oxidative Stress on H9C2 Cardiomyocytes (chemistry)

• Swim in the Chiral Pool: MDMA and MDA Enantiomers from Alanine-Derived Precursors (chemistry, MDMA production)

• Formal Synthesis of Salvinorin A via Gold Catalysis (chemistry, Salvinorin A production)

• Analytical and behavioral characterization of N-ethyl-N-isopropyllysergamide (EIPLA), an isomer of N6–ethylnorlysergic acid N,N-diethylamide (ETH-LAD) (chemistry, also tested in mice shows half as potent as LSD)

• Synthesis of R- and S-MDMA via nucleophilic ring-opening of homochiral N-tosylaziridines (chemistry, MDMA production)

• Electrochemistry of the synthetic tryptamine 5-MeO-MiPT at glassy carbon and screen-printed electrodes: A rapid and simple screening method for application in forensic analysis (chemistry)

• Biosynthesis of psilocybin and its nonnatural derivatives by a promiscuous psilocybin synthesis pathway in Escherichia coli (chemistry, psilocybin production)

• Psilocybin decelerates cellular senescence (in cells, psilocybin as anti-ageing agents, “Overall, these data are the first experimental evidence suggesting that psilocybin may decelerate the process of cellular senescence.“)

• Neurotoxic effects of hallucinogenic drugs 25H-NBOMe and 25H-NBOH in organotypic hippocampal cultures (in cells, “25H-NBOMe and 25H-NBOH disrupt the balance between neurogenesis and neuronal death in the hippocampus and, although chemically similar, have distinct neurotoxicity mechanisms.“)

• DM506 (3-Methyl-1,2,3,4,5,6-hexahydroazepino[4,5-b]indole fumarate), a Novel Derivative of Ibogamine, Inhibits α7 and α9α10 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors by Different Allosteric Mechanisms (in cells, “his study shows for the first time that DM506 inhibits both α9α10 and α7 nAChR subtypes by novel allosteric mechanisms likely involving modulation of the extracellular-transmembrane domain junction and cytoplasmic domain, respectively, but not by direct competitive antagonism or open channel block.“)

Perspectives/Opinions

• Building Psychedelic Studies as an Interdisciplinary Academic Field: Its Urgency and Its Challenges (perspective on interdisciplinarity of the field)

• Psilocybin therapy: A novel approach to treating depression (editorial)

• Commentary: Not in the drug, not in the brain: Causality in psychedelic experiences from an enactive perspective (commentary)

• The DEA report on ayahuasca risks: “Science” in service of prohibition? (commentary on DEA document)

• America is Tripping: Psychedelic Pharmaceutical Patent Reforms Fostering Access, Innovation, and Equity (commentary, law perspective)

• A Regulatory Framework Review of Schedule I Psychedelics in the United States (commentary, regulatory perspective)

• The Perilous Policy of Oregon’s Psilocybin Services (editorial, about Oregon’s Psilocybin Services)

• Progress in treatment-resistant bipolar depression using repeated ketamine infusions (commentary)

• Psychedelic treatments for mental health conditions pose challenges for informed consent (commentary)

• No time to lose: the current state of research in rapid-acting psychotherapeutic (perspective)

• What is the progress of experimental drug development for fibromyalgia? (editorial, briefly covers psilocybin for fibromyalgia)

• Psychedelics and ketamine are a symptom of psychiatry’s woes, not a cure (correspondence)

• Psychedelics to Relieve Psychological Suffering Associated with a Life-Threatening Diagnosis: Time for a Canadian Policy Discussion (policy discussion)

• Commentary: Access to Psychedelics for Psychological Suffering at the End of Life – Prioritizing Our Priorities (same)

• Psychedelics, Meaningfulness, and the “Proper Scope” of Medicine: Continuing the Conversation (commentary, senior author David Yaden)

• Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy preparing your target using psychohistoriography: a Jamaican perspective (perspective)

• Psilocybin: The most effective moral bio-enhancer? (commentary/hypothesis-building, “Hence, psilocybin multiplies its effects on morality and on moral enhancement (as well as on happiness) if compared with non-psychedelic substances.”)

• On Redescribing the Indescribable: Trauma, Psychoanalysis and Psychedelic Therapy (perspective/analysis)

• Ethical considerations in rapid and novel treatments in psychiatry (perspective)

• Does acute stress play a role in the lasting therapeutic effects of psychedelic drugs? (perspective)

• Psychedelic unselfing: self-transcendence and change of values in psychedelic experiences (hypothesis)

• Psychedelics and neural plasticity (editorial)

Reviews

• Therapeutic and beneficial applications of LSD: a systematic review (review, Portuguese)

• A systematic review of the print media representation of ketamine treatments for psychiatric disorders (review, media attention on ketamine for depression, (too) positive)

• The Role of Ketamine in the Treatment of Bipolar Depression: A Scoping Review (review)

• Psilocybin in Palliative Care: An Update (review)

• Classics in Chemical Neuroscience: Dextromethorphan (DXM) (review of DXM)

• Learned Helplessness As a Potential Transdiagnostic Therapeutic Mechanism of Classic Psychedelics (review)

• Changes in synaptic markers after administration of ketamine or psychedelics: a systematic scoping review (review)

• Systematic review and rationale of using psychedelics in the treatment of cannabis use disorder (review)

• Psychedelics for post-traumatic stress disorder: Asystematic review and meta-analysis (review, covers ketamine & MDMA, finds treatment effect (-2.76 on CAPS scores)

• Balancing Therapeutic Efficacy and Safety of MDMA and Novel MDXX Analogues as Novel Treatments for Autism Spectrum Disorder (review, MDMA and analogues for autism (social anxiety))

• Molecular mechanisms of rapid-acting antidepressants: new perspectives for developing antidepressants (review)

• The development of psilocybin therapy for treatment-resistant depression: an update (review)

• Psychedelics in the treatment of eating disorders: Rationale and potential mechanisms (review)

• Ketamine in neuropsychiatric disorders: an update (review)

• Psychedelic medicines for end-of-life care: Pipeline clinical trial review 2022 (review)

• Paradoxical pharmacological dissociations result from drugs that enhance delta oscillations but preserve consciousness (review)

• Clinical specificity profile for novel rapid acting antidepressant drugs (review, covers psilocybin)

• Psilocybin’s Potential Mechanisms in the Treatment of Depression: A Systematic Review (review)

• Symmetry Perception and Psychedelic Experience (review)

• Molecular mechanisms of rapid-acting antidepressants: New perspectives for developing antidepressants (review)

• Ketamine Use in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: Emerging Data in Treatment-Resistant Depression, Insights from Adults, and Future Directions (review)

• The Impact of Psilocybin on Patients Experiencing Psychiatric Symptoms: A Systematic Review of Randomized Clinical Trials (review)

• Substance use and abuse in adolescents: An overview (review, briefly covers psychedelics)

Other

• Italian psychedelic therapies of the past century: An historical overview (history, overview of how PAT was practiced in Italy from 1927-1966)

• Flicker light stimulation enhances the emotional response to music: A comparison study to the effects of psychedelics (pre-print, flicker light produces 50% of LSD’s enhanced emotional response to music)

• The Varieties of Psychedelic Expertise in 1960s Canada: The Psychiatrists behind the Addiction Research Foundation’s Study of LSD Therapy (history)

• The safety of repeated ketamine dosing in paediatrics: A systematic review (safety, review, ketamine for children, finds safety even after repeated use)

• Augmenting rTMS With Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy (PAP) for PTSD: A Proof-of-Concept Study Design (hypothesis, combination of TMS with PAP)

• What Do Young Adults Expect from the Recreational Use of Ecstasy (3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine/Molly)? A Latent Class Analysis of a Convenience Sample of Dutch Young Adults (population research, youth in The Netherlands, “Findings show that ecstasy use expectancies can be used to create meaningful classes of users and non-users, and that these classes are different enough to warrant varied prevention approaches.“)

• Assessing the impact of a major electronic music festival on the consumption patterns of illicit and licit psychoactive substances in a Mediterranean city using wastewater analysis (waste water/population research, more festivals = more drugs)

• Hierarchical fluctuation shapes a dynamic flow linked to states of consciousness (consciousness research, related to psychedelics/informed by them)

• Neural assemblies coordinated by cortical waves are associated with waking and hallucinatory brain states (same)

• Long term structural and functional neural changes following a single infusion of Ketamine in PTSD (n=27, long-term effects of ketamine)

• The Altered Xperience Project (AXP): Quantitative and Qualitative Data from a Citizen Science Initiative on the Subjective Experience of Altered States of Consciousness (proof-of-concept dataset for altered states of consciousness)

• The History of MDMA (academic book by Torsten Passie)

• The Structural Organization and Construct Validity Evidence of the Brazilian Versions of the Mysticism Scale and the Ego-Dissolution Inventory in a Major Religion of the Ayahuasca (Portuguese version of two commonly used psychedelic scales)

• Subhallucinogenic Concentrations of Substituted Phenethylamines as a Novel Therapeutic Approach for Inflammatory and Neurological Disorders (patent highlight)

• Associations between the use of psychedelics and other recreational drugs with mental health and resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic (survey data, shows that during covid those who used psychedelics (and cannabis) did worse, correlational)

• In vivo mapping of pharmacologically induced functional reorganization onto the human brain’s neurotransmitter landscape (changes in brain landscape measured using psychedelics)

• The Expressive Forms of Amazonian Indigenous Peoples and Ayahuasca: the Huni Kuin and other Pano groups (ethnography)

• Psychedelics and workplace harm (n=482k, survey data, those who work and use psychedelics have lower stress, those without more (than general population))

• A case-study evaluation of the “Copenhagen Music Program” for psilocybin-assisted therapy (case study, n=1, finds music programme not suitable from Indigenous perspective)

• The Varieties of Psychedelic Expertise in 1960s Canada: The Psychiatrists behind the Addiction Research Foundation’s Study of LSD Therapy (academic book chapter)

• Research at the Intersection of Music and Psychedelic Experience (academic book)

• “2.5 g, I could do that before noon”: a qualitative study on people who use drugs’ perspectives on the impacts of British Columbia’s decriminalization of illegal drugs threshold limit (n=45, interview study of people in BC, Canada)

• Primary states of consciousness: A review of historical and contemporary developments (psychedelic-adjecent)

• Hallucinogen-Persisting Perception Disorder (HPPD): A Teenage Boy with Hallucinations (n=1, case study, HPPD, in academic book)

• Minorities’ diminished psychedelic returns (n=490k, survey study, finds no positive (correlational) effects of psychedelics for Black Americans)

• Health Benefits and Positive Acute Effects of Psilocybin Consumption: A Quantitative Textual Analysis of User Self-Reported Data (n=846, analysis of trip reports)

• Preferences and Support for Psychedelic Policies and Practices Among Those Using Psychedelics (n=1221, survey, broad support for decrim and personal consumption – participants used psychedelics themselves)

• Challenges With Short-term Use of Intravenous Racemic Ketamine With Psychotherapy for a Hospitalized Patient With Severe Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Depression (n=1, case report)

• Case report: Psychedelic-induced seizures captured by intracranial electrocardiography (n=1, case report, “We present a case of psychedelic mushroom-induced seizures in a person with refractory right temporal lobe epilepsy implanted with a responsive neurostimulation (RNS) system“)

• Short term ketamine treatment in patient with bipolar disorder with comorbidity with borderline personality disorder: focus on impulsivity (n=1, case report)

• This is your brain on death: a comparative analysis of a near-death experience and subsequent 5-Methoxy-DMT experience (n=1, case report, similarities and differences between near-death experience and 5-MeO-DMT)

• Psilocybin Induced Psychedelic Experiences: their Neural Mechanisms and Efficacy for Treating Depressive Disorders (thesis)

• This Is Your Brain on Drugs: A Multimodal Neuroimaging and Computational Investigation into the Effects of Psychedelic Tryptamines and MDMA on Human Brain Dynamics (thesis)

• Medical student attitudes and perceptions of psychedelic-assisted therapies (n=132, medical students, overall positive)

• In naturalistic psychedelic use, group use is common and acceptable (online survey, group use of psychedelics is common)

• Prevalence and Correlates of Past Year Ecstasy/MDMA Use in the United States (n=315k, population survey, 1% use in last year)

• Risk for Ecstasy Use Disorder and Other Substance Use Among International Users of Recreational Ecstasy/Molly/MDMA (safety, “The UNCOPE may be a useful clinical tool for detecting problematic ecstasy use. Harm reduction interventions for ecstasy should target young people, substance co-administration, and context of use.”)

• Alterations to self consciousness during mindfulness meditation and Flotation REST a comparative study (comparing meditation to psychedelic (psilocybin) state)

• Change in patient-centered outcomes of psychological well-being, sleep, and suicidality following treatment with intravenous ketamine for late-life treatment-resistant depression (n=25, open-label, “Psychological well-being, sleep, and suicidality improved in participants with late-life TRD who received IV ketamine for 8 weeks. A future larger and longer controlled trial is needed to confirm and extend these findings.“)

• Case Reports involving the use of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, LSD (safety, n=2, case reports)