A new Johns Hopkins study found that mystical psychedelic experiences are linked to changes in peoples’ beliefs about consciousness.
After a single psychedelic experience, people were much more likely to attribute consciousness to animals, insects, fungi, plants, and even inanimate objects. However, psychedelics had no effect on beliefs about free will or superstition.
What do you think — do mushrooms have consciousness?
Patients with PTSD often have eating disorders too. MDMA is known to improve self acceptance and emotional processing, so it may be the perfect treatment for both!
In MAPS’ Phase 3 trial on MDMA for PTSD, 42%* of patients scored in the “clinical” or “at-risk” range on an eating disorder scale prior to the treatment.
MDMA therapy was found to significantly reduce eating disorder symptoms in comparison to a placebo.
MAPS is commencing a multi-site Phase 2 trial this May to further examine MDMA therapy on both anorexia and binge eating.
*Patients with active purging were excluded as a precaution to avoid cardiac arrhythmias.
One in four young adults contemplated suicide last year.
Clearly, something needs to change. Could ketamine be the solution?
A study last month found that ketamine was well-tolerated in adolescents aged 13-17 and significantly reduced their depression symptoms.
76% of participants had at least a 50% reduction in depression scores within 3 days of receiving a ketamine infusion, compared to 35% of the placebo group.
The teens had tried between 1 and 7 antidepressants without success prior to the treatment. They all remained on their medications during the trial (SSRIs, non-SSRI antidepressants, mood stabilizers, or lithium) with no serious adverse side effects.
Ketamine therapy for depression seems promising, but how do you know if it’s right for you?
About 30% of people have a genetic variant that impairs the secretion of BDNF, a protein that promotes the growth of neurons.
Since ketamine works by increasing the release of BDNF, people with this gene variant may have a decreased response to the antidepressant effects of ketamine therapy.
HaluGen just expanded its Psychedelics Genetic Test Kit to test for the gene variant! It also tells you how sensitive you’re to classical psychedelics and if you are at risk for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or psychosis.
Use code “DAILYMUSHROOM” to get 10% off HaluGen’s Psychedelics Genetic Test!
A common model of addiction involves conditioning rats to associate a drug with a certain area. The amount of time the rat spends in that area indicates how addictive the stimuli is.
In a recent study, rats showed a preference to the area associated with ethanol (alcohol) over the placebo area, which was expected since alcohol is addictive.
After a dose of ibogaine (a psychedelic compound found in the African iboga shrub), they no longer expressed a preference for alcohol.
Additionally, rats showed no preference between an area associated with ibogaine and the placebo area, suggesting that ibogaine is non-addictive.
“We found that ibogaine did not have rewarding effects itself, but it did block the expression of ethanol reward in a model that can commonly be referred to as a pre-clinical model of relapse,” explains the study author, Lais F. Berro.
The most common Parkinson’s medication, Levodopa, causes involuntary muscle movements in most patients who take it long-term.
PharmaTher (PHRM) found that a low dose of ketamine reduces these muscle spams in 100% of Parkinson’s patients — but it’s unclear by how much or for how long…
However, a separate study from 2016 found that low doses of ketamine reduced this side effect for up to one month and also eased depression.
PharmaTher is confident that the results will pave the way for a Phase 3 trial.
If synthetic psilocybin is cheaper to produce, why are many psychedelic companies sticking with the natural route?
Some believe that consumers would rather take a naturally grown mushroom than something formulated in a lab.
Other researchers, like those at Filament Health (FH), think the other unknown compounds in the mushroom could provide additional benefits that complement psilocybin.
This theory, called “the entourage effect”, is popular in the cannabis industry too.
Filament Health is committed to all-natural psilocybin and has developed a way to produce it at a low cost. They just received a second patent for the extraction and standardization of natural psilocybin.
Peyote has the longest documented use of any psychedelic, yet we don’t see many companies researching its properties.
That’s because the psychedelic cactus is endangered – the 13-year growth cycle can’t keep up with the rate of harvesting.
Lophos Pharmaceuticals is developing a sustainable cultivation technique that could reduce the long growth cycle to just 3 years, preserving the species and accelerating research.
The CEO of Lophos says that peyote could help treat obesity, addiction, anxiety, and depression, with a strong potential for microdosing.
Mind Cure Health (MCUR) and Core One Labs (COOL) appear to be running out of money as they look for strategic takeover opportunities.
A study published yesterday suggests that microdosing LSD reduces stress-induced anxiety and promotes neuroplasticity.
McGill University researchers found that giving rats a microdose 7 days in a row was able to prevent anxiety-like behaviour when exposed to chronic stress conditions, but a single dose had no behavioural effect.
They also found that repeated microdoses prevented two neurobiological changes that occur with stress: the loss of dendritic spines (the branches on neurons that conduct electrical signals) and the decrease in serotonin transmission.
“We have shown that LSD can rebuild these branches that are ‘dismantled’ due to stress. This is a sign of brain plasticity,” explains one of the researchers.
Interestingly, a single microdose actually decreased serotonin neurotransmission – it was only the repeated regimen that increased the firing of serotonin neurons. So if you’re going to microdose, you may want to try it multiple days in a row 😉
If you’re looking to start microdosing, follow @chloedeutscher on TikTok for advice from an industry expert.
