Monthly Archives: September 2022

Theres a lot of excitement around the potential for psychedelics to treat a host of psychiatric problems. Drugs like ketamine, MDMA (often known as Molly or Ecstasy), and psilocybin, the hallucinogenic substance in magic mushrooms, are being studied to treat depression, anxiety, substance disorders and PTSD.

An increasing body of research shows these plant-based compounds have promise. For example, a recent small study found psilocybin dramatically reduced excessive drinking in people with alcohol use disorder. This is good news for people suffering from mood or substance use disorders who havent found relief through other therapeutics. Theres also a lot of hype surrounding these compounds, and many businesses trying to cash in on the psychedelic boom by offering therapy, products, retreats and more.

Today, a conversation about psychedelics in mental health treatment, their potential, and risks. Well talk about how these drugs affect the brain, altered states of consciousness and the stigma still associated with them.

Guests

David Yaden, Assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine working in the Center for Psychedelic & Consciousness research. Hes the co-author, with Andrew Newberg, of the new book, The Varieties of Spiritual Experience: 21st Century Research and Perspectives. @existwell

Ron Millward, an Air Force combat veteran andFounder and President of Balanced Veterans Network, an organization that provides education and advocacy of alternative therapies for veterans and their families.

The New York Times, The Promises and Perils of Psychedelic Health Care Many recreational drugs known for mind-altering trips are being studied to treat depression, substance use and other disorders. Heres what you need to know.

Wired, Is the Psychedelic Therapy Bubble About to Burst? A new paper argues that excitement has veered into misinformationand scientists should be the ones to set things straight.

Bloomberg, Get Ready for the Magic Mushroom Pill The medical benefits of psychedelic drugs have gone from Age of Aquarius punchline to solid science, but the startups racing to market might still be getting ahead of themselves.

See the original post here:

Psychedelics and mental health: the potential, risks and hype - WHYY

As strange as it might sound, there's reason to believe that companies developing mental health therapies based on psychedelic chemicals will make it big someday. With a drumbeat of impressive clinical trial results for using drugs like psilocybin in indications like treatment-resistant depression (TRD) building by the quarter, it's likely a matter of time until psychedelic medicines are commercially available.

Nonetheless, nobody's done it yet, meaning investors will need to be comfortable with significant risks if they choose to invest. There are a few compelling arguments in favor of buying shares of these companies now -- but there are also compelling arguments in opposition, so let's dive in.

One reason why now's a decent time to buy psychedelics stocks is that there's an ongoing fire sale across the entire industry, thanks to the bear market.

Leaders like COMPASS Pathways (CMPS -2.46%) and Atai Life Sciences (ATAI -2.48%) have seen better days. Shares of Atai are down by around 79.6% in the last 12 months, and shares of COMPASS are down by more than 61.3%. What's more, they might get even cheaper over the coming months if the market continues to fall.

And since both companies are still developing their first psychedelic therapy, buying shares in the near term will give investors the benefit of price appreciation if they report positive clinical trial results or favorable regulatory outcomes. As it's likely to take years before either of the pair has a chance to generate revenue, there isn't exactly a time pressure for investors to buy shares now, though.

Another reason why psychedelics stocks are attractive at the moment is that the legality of psychedelic compounds in the U.S. is slowly starting to shift in a direction that favors the industry. Right now, psychedelics are illegal federally. But, as of late 2020, the active component of psychedelic mushrooms, psilocybin, has been decriminalized in the state of Oregon. And a handful of municipalities, including well-known cities like Washington D.C., Ann Arbor, Maryland, and Oakland, California, have followed suit.

As if that weren't enough, this summer, Congress saw bipartisan efforts to amend this year's National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to enable the Department of Defense (DOD) to spend money to study psychedelics for their utility in treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). If the NDAA passes as it is and it gets signed into law, it's plausible that psychedelics stocks will get a bump, but the far more important takeaway will be getting another piece of evidence that prohibition is finally starting to thaw slowly.

For most investors, lower-priced shares and some marginal progress with the legal situation aren't exactly the most compelling reasons to buy psychedelics stocks. More importantly, the level of risk associated with the industry is still sky-high, and that won't be changing anytime soon.

Psychedelics companies face three serious risks. The first is that their therapies will fail to be proven safe and effective at treating mental illnesses in clinical trials. That risk is largely shared with other biotech stocks, but it's actually elevated in this context because even basic details about best practices for treatment protocols are still undetermined.

For example, COMPASS' lead program, COMP360, is a combination of psychological support from trained therapists and administration of a stabilized version of the drug psilocybin. Formulating a therapeutic molecule is a problem that many other biotechs have successfully navigated in the past, but developing an in-clinic psychedelic treatment protocol and a training regimen for the clinicians who will administer it is entirely new ground.

The second risk is that whatever psychedelic treatments companies devise will fail to be commercially viable even if regulators agree that they're safe and effective. COMPASS' model for COMP360 requires patients to visit specialized clinics that are staffed by highly paid professionals. It's unclear how much a course of COMP360 might cost, and it's also unclear whether public and private insurers would be willing to help patients.

And with that, we've arrived at the third major risk: Psychedelic therapies are still illegal for medicinal use in the U.S., as well as in much of the Western world. There's simply no way for any business to commercialize a psychedelic medicine until that changes, even if clinical trial results are favorable and the expected economic returns are massive. The recent progress on this front is nice, but it's so preliminary that it isn't enough to invest on.

So, at the moment, psychedelics stocks are highly speculative and will probably continue to be for at least a few more years. If the thoughts of losing all your money or needing to wait for years before your investment breaks don't scare you, invest away to take advantage of low prices. On the other hand, for most investors, it's probably a smarter move to invest where you can have a little bit more certainty of a positive return.

More here:

Is Now a Good Time to Invest In Psychedelics Stocks? - The Motley Fool

A Chinese woman of about sixty years old entered the shop, approached the counter fast without hesitating to check out the trippy posters that decorated the walls nor the far-out substances on display behind glass next to the register, and launched right into it.

I dont know anything about mushrooms. My friend gave me a mushroom pill and said that it would make me happy again, and it worked, she said. Now her posture shrank a little and her voice became quiet. I just want to be happy again.

Of course you do! The woman seated behind the counter smiled and then delivered a cursory explanation of how research showed that psilocybinthe psychotropic compound in so-called magic mushroomscould be a highly effective treatment for depression and other mood disorders. Then she launched into an overview of the different mushrooms they had for sale, ultimately recommending that the woman start out by trying microdosing. She set a little box on the counter, and the customer (or patient, perhaps) eyed it warily.

This isnt going to turn me into a crying mess, will it?

Not these. The cashier shook her head, then gestured to a different product. These will.

Located in Vancouver, BCs troubled downtown junkie district of East Hastings, the Medicinal Mushroom Dispensary is a truly one-of-a-kind establishment. In this humble shop, one can buy various forms of mushrooms, LSD, DMT, peyote, and a range of other substances. Theres also an onsite cafe where you can buy drinks made with coca leafthe plant that can be processed into cocaineas well as the cheapest sandwiches in town.

While shifting attitudes toward psychedelics have resulted in the gradual introduction of a range of psychedelic businessesor at least psychedelic-adjacent businessesacross Canada and the U.S. (Mexico has long turned a blind eye to cafes selling psychedelic mushrooms in a handful of remote villages in the mountains of Oaxaca, though these have always struck me less as proper businesses than straight up witches huts), this is the only dispensary on the continent to go all-in in terms of selling the strangest of the strange. Psychedelics are illegal in Canada, so how does the Medicinal Mushroom Dispensary operate legally?

Simply put, it doesnt. When asked, a member of the staff told me something about operating in a legal grey area, but it turns out that theres nothing legal or grey about it. Its outright illegal. Butperhaps by the grace of the DMT elvesthe Fuzz has elected to look the other way.

When pressed on why the police nor the city have moved to shut the business downlet alone make any arrestsrepresentatives of both have expressed that theyre more concerned with addressing the opioid crisis rather than wrestling with the increasingly embraced psychedelic scene. It probably isnt a stretch to guess that they see the writing on the wall. Psilocybin mushrooms and ketamine are already allowed in Canada for patients with certain health conditions, and it likely wont be long before natural substances like mushrooms and peyote gain fully decriminalized if not legal status. Synthetic substances like MDMA and LSD might be slower to the decrim/legalization party, but theyre on the horizon.

Just because the shop flaunts the law doesnt mean that they dont have a mind for safety considerations. Beside the register are several stacks of educational material explaining the benefits and risks associated with each substance. And new initiates to the clubfor customers must become card-carrying members before they can buy any of the stronger substances (a policy that is almost certainly intended to ward off certain legal challenges)receive detailed guidance on how to safely use the drugs.

Having spent a good amount of time hanging around the store sipping cocaccinos and taking in the vibe, I can report that its owner and staff are benevolently dedicated to the psychedelic cause. This is no cynical venture attempting to capitalize on a fast-rising trendthese people are out to help those in need.

And there is no greater reminder of the importance of that help than the neighborhood in which the dispensary operates. The ravages of the opioid crisis are all-too-obvious on the sidewalks of East Hastings, and studies have repeatedly shown that psychedelics can be a powerful tool for treating addictionfar more effective, statistically, than any other treatment we have at our disposal. Beyond addiction, depression and anxiety have reached epidemic proportions, and here again, science has shown that psychedelics can be a highly effective solution.

So while the existence of the Medicinal Mushroom Dispensary is awesome (or perhaps radicalin the 1990s sense of the wordis a more accurate descriptor), its also important to the community it serves.

Read more here:

I went to the only psychedelic dispensary in North Americaheres how they do it - The Manual

Research with psychedelic drugs has made a dramatic comeback amid a heady mix of softening societal attitudes, the lure of commercial opportunity, misgivings about the war on drugs, and the desire to develop new ways to treat mental health conditions.

So you might have read in the media that theres a new study which shows that ketamine can banish depression, or psilocybin is effective at treating post-traumatic stress disorder, or microdosing LSD makes you more creative.

In this fervour, which research is worth your time and, more importantly, your trust? Of course, whats worth your time depends on what you want.

Im a doctor, a drug researcher and a clinical trialist. As such, Im interested in whether psychedelic therapy can be a new form of medicine. That question needs clinical trial evidence. Thats what Ill be concentrating on here, although some of the principles apply to medical research more broadly.

First, your source. Good scientific research is published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Peer reviewed means that independent experts have read and anonymously criticised the paper. This is an important form of scrutiny. If the journal youre looking at does not support peer reviewing, move on.

Some journals claim to be high-quality enterprises, publishing peer-reviewed articles but are actually pop-up money-making schemes that publish anything.

Spotting these is a bit like spotting a spam email or social media post. Poor grammar, spelling and formatting mistakes, substandard websites and too-good-to-be-true statements are all telltale signs of a journal that wouldnt let the truth get in the way of a good publishing fee.

In contrast, good quality journals are generally long established, are indexed in scientific databases such as PubMed, and usually have good impact factors (a measure of how often the journals papers are cited). While this isnt a perfect metric, it is useful as a guide, and it will be stated on the journals homepage. A higher number is more reassuring.

With a good quality journal, youre halfway there.

Before you read anything about the paper, look to see who the authors are, where they work and what their disclosures and funding sources are (this is usually stated at the end of an article). Authors who are top of their field often have great reputations.

But they also have more to lose by results that dont fit their theories. They are more likely to be paid consultants for companies seeking to commercialise new treatments, too.

Similarly, just because a study comes from a pioneering, high-quality institution doesnt mean you should blindly trust it. In fact, those very teams that were the pioneers are precisely the ones who might also be heavily biased. Put another way, why would we have got into such a stigmatised field if we didnt hold a strongly positive preconception?

That said, institutions and research teams with good reputations earn them because their peers respect their methods and believe their results. So, overall, go for the most well-respected authors, but have in the back of your mind the other factors at play.

Now take a look at the paper itself. For clinical research, the multi-centre, randomised, placebo-controlled trial is king. Almost all psychedelic research is not this (yet).

Initial trials take place in one institution. Thats fine, but it doesnt say anything about whether the treatment works beyond that institution. For that, you need a multi-centre trial. The more centres, the better.

If it works in lots of centres, theres more reason to believe itll work in the real world. This is called generalisation, and its an unanswered question for psychedelics.

Randomised and placebo-controlled refer to the participants being randomly allocated to two or more groups, one of which is treated with a placebo (dummy pill). Unless you have a placebo control group to compare with, you dont know if the effect you observe in the treatment group might not have happened anyway.

Similarly, if there is no randomisation, then any effect you observe might be due to something else common to one of the groups.

Early psychedelics trials were often not randomised or controlled. Thats fine, but you cant conclude much from these pilot studies. They just show that the research can be done.

The more participants a trial has, the more statistical power it has to detect a true effect (or a true absence of an effect). This often needs hundreds, even thousands, of participants.

These trials cost a lot, which is why many large-scale clinical trials are funded by companies - its the only way to raise the money to get the trial done. But dont dismiss commercial trials.

Yes, profit and healthcare arent easy bedfellows. But commercial trials are far more heavily regulated than non-commercial trials. Almost all the medicines we have today were licensed based on commercial trials.

All clinical trials should have a pre-registered primary outcome. The primary outcome can be anything: a blood test result, a neuroimaging finding, or a measure of depression. It is that outcome that the trial is designed around.

Pre-registering happens on websites like clinicaltrials.gov before the trial starts. If the researchers havent pre-registered their hypothesis, their primary outcome measure and their methods of analysis, then they could have cherrypicked the results youre reading.

Put another way, if you torture your data hard enough, it will tell you whatever you want. This is one of the great research sins.

If I flip a coin ten times, then keep doing that again and again, at some point Ill get ten heads, just by chance. Its the same principle here. The more measures I put in a trial, and the more ways I choose to analyse the data, the more likely Ill get a significant result.

A final thought before you go. No one clinical trial or piece of research can tell you anything for certain. The more a result is replicated, the more believable it becomes.

Here is the original post:

Psychedelic drugs: how to tell good research from bad - The Conversation Indonesia

Psychedelics and grief share a surprising kinship. Both are shrouded in societal taboos and folklore mysticism that places them at cultural outskirts and conversations. More importantly, they are both a delicate, natural and ancient human experience that it seems the world may finally be ready to learn not just about but learn from.

What we know well is that grief is an emotional and bodily traumatic event that rewires the brain, much like PTSD. When a bond is formed, there are significant changes to the way those proteins are folded in the nucleus accumbens of the brain. Over time, our neurons are devoted to firing in a certain pattern and with it, devoted to this bond or a partner. The nucleus accumbens plays a motivational role in our reward system responsible for feeding, sexual behavior, stress and drug self-administration, aka addiction. Drugs like heroin and cocaine activate and disrupt this same reward system. The comparison between love and its drug-like addictive effects is a widespread theme, but we are growing privy to the fact that grief chemically functions along that same neural pathway. The lacking bond or missing person causes this loss to be a shock to our reward, nervous, limbic and physiological systems. In other words, it rocks your entire world and in a devastating way at first.

Neurologist, Lisa M. Shulman says that grief is an evolutionary adaptation to promote survival in the face of emotional trauma. Thinking of grief as a tool for transformation is a relatively new idea. Most household conceptions about grief are in fact outdated like the five stages of grief otherwise known as The Kbler-Ross model introduced by Elisabeth Kbler-Ross in 1969. This model was actually shaped off of the series of emotions experienced by a person who is dying, not necessarily grieving. It still became a tangible and accepted explanation of the complex and abstract emotional upheavals one experiences during the varying phases along their grief journey. The last stage was once reaching a point of inevitable acceptance, but it was her protege and partner, David Kessler, todays most popular media expert on Grief and Grieving, that shifted the laymans narrative in 2019 with his book Finding Meaning: The Sixth Stage of Grief. Since then, new-age grief work like experiential retreats or writing workshops such as the Make Meaning Workshop, provide avenues to alchemize their grief into meaning.

This critical sixth step to find meaning offers a bridge between grief and a more fulfilled and emotionally balanced life. But this innate ability to adapt to the shock of grief by making meaning from it was explored in Dr. Robert A. Neimeyers book Meaning Reconstruction and The Experience of Loss published in 2001. Very similar to psychedelic integration models, Neimeyer discusses Meaning-Reconstruction Theory as the capacity to reconstruct, reshape and rethink our experiences or stages of bereavement to initiate recovery and personal growth beyond our previous capacities.

This seemingly simple sixth step of grief can present itself as a perilous and daunting task for the average bereaved person, but if one successfully practices the process and skill of creating or reconstructing meaning, then one successfully integrates a new evolutionary coping mechanism and life tool for the brain, body and spirit.

It is an emotional excavation and reconstruction that asks us to explore the depths and caverns of our most treacherous memories to essentially form new bonds in the brain. This is where psychedelic-assisted therapies come into play for those seeking more holistic and nuanced approaches to overcome prolonged grief. Psychedelics help those grieving in the similar ways that psychedelics have been proven to help heroin addicts, PTSD victims and those who have experienced traumatic events. They help access memories and pivotal events that have negatively altered the reward system in order to confront and offer their brain a path to reconstruct them in a positive way.

New-age grief work looks at symptoms of bereavement or stages of grief as opportunities or entry points for meaning reconstruction to take place. Psychedelic-assisted therapies provide a catalyst to meaning reconstruction, among countless other benefits. Nonetheless, new-age grief work and psychedelic-assisted therapies have similar methodologies. They encourage self-exploration and the notion that we have all we need within ourselves to find true healing and growth if we can only take the pieces of what was to create and admire what now is.

Excerpt from:

The Connection Between Psychedelics and Grief - Psychedelic Spotlight