Psychedelics have ‘extraordinarily potent’ anti-inflammatory power. Is there a place for them in mainstream medicine? – Genetic Literacy Project

Research on psychedelics, which have been profoundly stigmatized, highly restricted, and tragically undeveloped for more than half a century, is stirring back to life and rekindling scientific, medical, and cultural interest in these compounds.

In 2008, a psychedelic compound related to the primary psychoactive alkaloid in peyote was discovered to exert extraordinarily potent anti-inflammatory effects at very low drug concentrationsin vitroandin vivo. Additional studies have confirmed the capacity of psychedelics to modulate processes that perpetuate chronic low-grade inflammation and thus exert significant therapeutic effects in a diverse array of preclinical disease models, includingasthma,atherosclerosis,inflammatory bowel disease, andretinal disease.

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency recently acknowledged thepotential of subperceptual psychedelics. To address the high rate of mental illness among active duty military personnel, DARPA aims to discover new compounds that can exert the rapid and robust antidepressant effects of psychedelics without the associated trip.

In the private sector,Compass Pathwaysis conducting Phase 2 trials of psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression.

The time has come to make psychedelics, once seen as out there substances, mainstream and boring again.

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Psychedelics have 'extraordinarily potent' anti-inflammatory power. Is there a place for them in mainstream medicine? - Genetic Literacy Project