The Effect of Ketamine Administration on Pain Control in Painful Crisis of Sickle Cell Anemia Patients during Childhood

Blood || 2018
The Effect of Ketamine Administration on Pain Control in Painful Crisis of Sickle Cell Anemia Patients during Childhood
By Yurdanur Kilinc, Hacer Temizturk, Hayri levent Yılmaz, Metin Cil, Goksel Leblebisatan, and Hatice Ilgen Sasmaz

Sickle cell anemia (SCA) is a hemoglobinopathy as a result of substitution of glutamic acid with valine in the 6th position of the β globin chain. The vaso-occlusive crises of patients are often caused by pain that requires in-patient treatment. The attack rate is reported to changed between 0.5-1.0 attacks per year per patient. It could be reach up to 10% in 5% of patients. Identification of the SCA painful crisis and the determination of appropriate treatment is very important for the pain relief. Recently studies support that ketamine treatment is beneficial in patients who do not respond to traditional methods. . . [read more]

An exploratory study of experiences with conventional eating disorder treatment and ceremonial ayahuasca for the healing of eating disorders

Eating and Weight Disorders || November 24, 2018
An exploratory study of experiences with conventional eating disorder treatment and ceremonial ayahuasca for the healing of eating disorders
By Marika Renelli, Jenna Fletcher, Kenneth W. Tupper, Natasha Files, Anya Loizaga-Velder, and Adele Lafrance

Ayahuasca is a traditional Amazonian medicine that is currently being researched for its potential in treating a variety of mental disorders. This article reports on exploratory qualitative research relating to participant experiences with ceremonial ayahuasca drinking and conventional treatment for eating disorders (EDs). It also explores the potential for ayahuasca as an adjunctive ED treatment.

Participant reports were organized with key themes including that ayahuasca: led to rapid reductions in ED thoughts and symptoms; allowed for the healing of the perceived root of the ED; helped to process painful feelings and memories; supported the internalization of greater self-love and self-acceptance; and catalyzed spiritual elements of healing. . . [read more]

The Mercurial Life of Drugs: Psychedelics as models, risk factors, and treatments for mental disorders

Somatosphere || October 30, 2018
The Mercurial Life of Drugs: Psychedelics as models, risk factors, and treatments for mental disorders
By Johanna Pokorny, Kris De Meyer, Philipp Haueis, Tara Mahfoud, and Sam McLean

The Neuroscience and Society Network organised a workshop on 11-12 July 2018 at the Institute of Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London (KCL) titled “The Mercurial Life Of Drugs: Psychedelics As Models, Risk Factors, And Treatments For Mental Disorders”. In the workshop, we explored what makes psychedelic research unique, different and potent, and how do (or how might) researchers manage this.

Recent decades have seen a ‘revival’ of psychedelic research, and the interest seems to already capture the potency and potentiality of these substances—they are not just like any other drug. In this research, psychedelics and related compounds – LSD, psilocybin, cannabis, ketamine – are used in different, sometimes seemingly contradictory, ways. In some cases, they are potential risk factors for psychosis and other mental disorders (Arseneault et al., 2002; Henquet, Murray, Linszen, & van Os, 2005). The effects of psychedelics are also used as models of psychotic states associated with mental disorders (Langlitz, 2017). However, more recently, researchers have been exploring their therapeutic value, suggesting that they open up new possible directions for treatments for mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression (Carhart-Harris et al., 2016; Vollenweider & Kometer, 2010).

How these drugs treat, however, is still an open question: by what means do the drugs “work”? How do the drugs alter experiments, trials, and therapy? How does the therapist (and researcher) work with the psychedelic experience, both phenomenologically and environmentally? How is the therapeutic potential standardized, if at all? What are the ethics of medicalising and potentially normalising psychedelics? These different uses and questions begin to suggest their ‘mercurial’ quality. There is something changeable, ambivalent but also potent and potential, about these substances in combination with humans, their brains and their surrounds. . . [read more]

Intensity of Mystical Experiences Occasioned by 5-MeO-DMT and Comparison With a Prior Psilocybin Study

Frontiers in Psychology || November 20, 2018
Intensity of Mystical Experiences Occasioned by 5-MeO-DMT and Comparison With a Prior Psilocybin Study
By Joseph P. Barsuglia1, Alan K. Davis, Robert Palmer, Rafael Lancelotta, Austin M. Windham-Herman, Kristel Peterson, Martin Polanco, Robert M. Grant, and Roland R. Griffiths

5-MeO-DMT is a psychoactive substance found in high concentrations in the bufotoxin of the Colorado River Toad. Emerging evidence suggests that vaporized 5-MeO-DMT may occasion mystical experiences of comparable intensity to those occasioned by more widely studied psychedelics such as psilocybin, but no empirical study has tested this hypothesis.

Data was obtained from 20 individuals (mean age = 38.9, male = 55%, Caucasian = 85%) who were administered 5-MeO-DMT as part of a psychospiritual retreat program in Mexico. All participants received 50mg of inhaled vaporized toad bufotoxin which contains 5-MeO-DMT and completed the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ30) approximately 4-6 hours after their session. Administration of 5-MeO-DMT occasioned strong mystical experiences (MEQ30 Overall Mintensity = 4.17, ± 0.64, range 0–5) and the majority (75%) had “a complete mystical experience” (≥60% on all MEQ30 subscales). . . [read more]