Psychedelic drugs such as DMT and Ecstasy may offer a unique treatment pathway for various brain injuries and diseases because of their potency, helping patients learn lost and new skills.
. “It’s still early on, but this is a very exciting time. There’s a lot of interesting research that suggests this will be a really helpful treatment for these patients.”Human brains develop in a way that specific skills are most easily learned during targeted developmental stages, known as critical periods.
All the drugs had this effect, but those that produce the longest psychedelic experience in humans reopened the rodents’ critical period for the longest duration afterwards. With LSD, for example, whose psychedelic effects last around 10 hours, the mice keep learning the value of socialization for months afterwards, compared to weeks for psychedelics producing shorter hallucinations.
The reopening of learning windows seems to explain why psychedelic studies for mood disorders emphasize the importance of post-drug psychotherapy known as integration. As the brain is open to new ideas during integration it can approach its mental illness in novel ways, Dölen says.
MDMA could be a particularly valuable psychedelic for autism because it facilitates the desire for socialization, a skill many on the spectrum find challenging, says Robert Malenka, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University who has performed animal research using the drug. “Under the influence of MDMA, one has this profound … sense of wanting to interact with other people in a non-aggressive, prosocial and empathic way,” he says.
“The body needs to turn on the inflammation, but it also needs to turn it off,” Aggarwal says. When it doesn’t do the latter in a timely matter, neurons that escaped the initial injury can subsequently be damaged. One way that psychedelics decrease inflammation is by binding to serotonin receptors called 5-HT—which are responsible for producing the hallucinogenic sensations and also regulate inflammation.
Algernon first studied healthy individuals to evaluate whether it is safe to infuse low doses of DMT over six hours. Results are unpublished, but Bryan says this delivery proved safe, enabling the company to soon begin clinical trials in hospitalized stroke patients. By slowly infusing the drug, Bryan says that patients get a therapeutic dose without triggering DMT’s psychedelic effects, which could be jarring to someone recovering from a brain injury.
Deutschland Neuesten Nachrichten, Deutschland Schlagzeilen
Similar News:Sie können auch ähnliche Nachrichten wie diese lesen, die wir aus anderen Nachrichtenquellen gesammelt haben.
Margo Price Goes Down the Psychedelic Rabbit Hole With 'Strays II'The country singer-songwriter rolled out the first of three acts on Monday at midnight, Act I: Topanga Canyon featuring Buck Meek, Jonathan Wilson, and Ny Oh
Weiterlesen »
The psychedelic '60s have everything to do with climate changeArtist Hannah Rothstein uses the groovy, swirly vibe of iconic '60s images to glamorize solutions to the climate conundrum
Weiterlesen »
Zamrock legends make comeback with first album in 40 yearsAfter nearly four decades in oblivion, the Zambian psychedelic rock band WITCH that mesmerised audiences in the 1970s are back with a new album.
Weiterlesen »
Cracking the code that relates brain and behavior in a simple animal -- ScienceDailyResearchers model and map how neurons across the tiny brain of a C. elegans worm encode its behaviors, revealing many new insights about the robustness and flexibility of its nervous system.
Weiterlesen »