Alcohol Addiction | +80 articles

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Non-hallucinogenic DMT targets alcohol addiction*

Further in vivo studies with PSIL-002 will evaluate its antidepressant, anxiolytic, and anti-addictive properties.

by Emily Jarvie | Psychedelic Spotlight | 9 Dec 2021

Florida-based biotechnology company Psilera Bioscience believes it has created a safe and well-tolerated DMT derivative that maintains the psychedelic’s mood benefits while reducing hallucinations.

Results from the company’s in vivo preclinical study show the derivative, PSIL-002, achieved these benefits with no hallucinogenic effects at all administered dosages between 0.5mg/kg to 100mg/kg in mice.

The study used a head-twitch-response (HTR), which is a well-established and widely used method of assessing hallucinogenic effects in animals, to evaluate PSIL-002. A HTR is a rapid side-to-side rotational head movement that occurs in rats and mice after the administration of hallucinogens and other 5-HT2A agonists. This method is used in preclinical studies because there is evidence that HTR potencies in mice are correlated with hallucinogenic potencies in humans, meaning it can be a useful indicator as to whether a compound is likely to display hallucinogenic activity in humans.

Compared to the positive control, a psilocybin mimic called psilacetin, no dose of PSIL-002 induced a HTR. “Other psychedelics like psilocybin and DMT often produce the HTR at doses from 1mg/kg to 10mg/kg, or as low as 0.05mg/kg to 0.1mg/kg for LSD, further demonstrating the non-hallucinogenic potential of PSIL-002 and broader range for therapeutic dosing,” Psilera Bioscience explained.

There are several advantages of reducing the hallucinogenic effects of psychedelics such as DMT, for example, the development of therapeutics that can be administered outside of a clinical setting, such as medications that can be self-administered.

“Compounds like PSIL-002 have the potential to reach new patient populations in need with greater access than current models, especially for those suffering from conditions where hallucinations may be undesirable,” explained Psilera Bioscience CEO and Co-Founder Dr. Chris Witowski.

“This biological data is key to our vision of reducing side effects such as hallucinations while further optimizing classical psychedelics into next-generation drugs.”

The company now plans to conduct further in vivo studies with PSIL-002 to evaluate its antidepressant, anxiolytic, and anti-addictive properties, specifically targeting alcohol consumption.

PSIL-002 is part of Psilera Bioscience’s patent-pending new chemical entity (NCE) library, all of which are compounds designed to maintain the positive effects of current psychedelics while eliminating hallucinations and other adverse effects such as cardiotoxicity. “New formulations tailoring the therapeutic effects of DMT will improve treatment scalability and patient compliance, further expanding addressable markets,” Psilera Bioscience said.

The company has selected its NCEs with the help of its proprietary BRAIN technology platform, which can be used to identify new compounds that may have a therapeutic effect on mood, cognitive, and substance-use disorders. This platform virtually screens and filers compounds for their psychedelic potential at multiple receptors, specifically the 5-HT2A receptor.

*From the article here :

Non-Hallucinogenic DMT? Psilera Bioscience Makes Progress

DMT has a reputation for short but powerful hallucinogenic trips, but this derivative maintains mood benefits while reducing hallucinations.

psychedelicspotlight.com

 

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Treating alcoholism with psychedelics

While there is more and more work on psychedelics to treat people for drug and tobacco addiction, it’s treating alcoholism that is gaining new interest.

by Dave Hodes | Green Market Report | 15 Feb 2022

While there is more and more work on psychedelics to treat people for drug and tobacco addiction, it’s treating alcoholism that is gaining new interest from psychedelics researchers today. But finding that specific psychedelics treatment to slow down alcoholism, or even stop it completely, continues to be a head-scratcher for psychedelics researchers.

Help is desperately needed. Alcoholism is more destructive than ever today. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, there are 95,000 alcohol-related deaths in the U.S. each year, making alcohol the third-leading preventable cause of death in the U. S. (the first is tobacco).

More concerning is an emerging trend to high-intensity drinking—drinking alcohol at levels that are two or more times the gender-specific binge drinking thresholds.

As evidence of this growing alcoholism problem continues to pile up, a number of new studies and surveys on psychedelics and alcoholism have emerged over the last few years.

One recent study that examined the role ketamine plays as an effective treatment in alcoholism has caught the attention of psychedelics researchers everywhere.

It’s one of the first studies in the world to explore the effects of serial ketamine infusions in combination with psychotherapy to treat alcohol use disorder (AUD) over a 6 month follow up period, sponsored by Awakn Life Sciences (OTC: AWKNF) and led by Celia Morgan at the University of Exeter. The study was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry in January, 2022.

The Phase II study involved 96 participants with severe AUD who were required to abstain from alcohol for at least 24 hours prior to undergoing the randomization process, which allowed the researchers to examine the effects of ketamine on prolonging abstinence.

In a double-blind placebo-controlled trial, the patients were randomly assigned to different ketamine infusions combined with therapy. They were able to abstain from using alcohol for a set period of time—before relapsing.

This ketamine research supports the belief that psychedelics can absolutely play a role in successfully treating alcoholism.

Researchers have also found that psilocybin may reduce alcohol use, and that perhaps ibogaine and ayahuasca can help as well since they have shown promise in the treatment of various addictions through observational studies. But exactly how they work and what they can do is still not known.

Psychedelics researchers have been circling the alcoholism treatment issue for years, dating back to 2013, when the potential of psychedelics to treat addictions was first considered.

One of the first clinical trials with psilocybin, for instance, was a proof-of-concept study done in 2015 to quantify the effects of psilocybin in alcohol-dependent participants, and to provide preliminary outcome and safety data.

Ten volunteers were given psilocybin in one or two supervised sessions, in addition to therapy sessions devoted to preparation for and debriefing from the psilocybin sessions.

Abstinence from drinking alcohol increased significantly following psilocybin administration. But the study’s authors admitted this was just the beginning. “These preliminary findings provide a strong rationale for controlled trials with larger samples to investigate efficacy and mechanisms,” the study authors concluded.

More controlled trials on using psilocybin to treat alcoholism have been done over the last four years than during any other period before. Researchers hope they are zeroing in how it can help.

In one study, participants said that psilocybin helped them with “acute and lasting alterations in their perceptions of self, in the quality of their baseline consciousness, and in their relationship with alcohol and drinking.”

A recent study with lab rats used psilocybin to lower the cravings for alcohol, lessen alcohol-seeking behavior, and reduce the risk of relapse.

LSD has also been considered as a treatment for alcoholism as well. An anonymous online survey by Johns Hopkins researchers in 2019 of 343 people with drinking problems who took LSD on their own found that it helped them slow down their alcohol consumption or stop it altogether. “These results suggest that naturalistic psychedelic use may lead to cessation or reduction in problematic alcohol use, supporting further investigation of psychedelic-assisted treatment for alcohol use disorder,” the survey authors concluded.

Experiments with zebra fish and microdosing LSD to treat alcoholism are also showing promise. And mescaline was recently discovered as another psychedelic that could help.

But for now, psychedelics researchers admit they are stumped. They can’t say for sure what characteristics of a psychedelic experience can or should lead to the changes in alcohol addiction, even calling for using machine learning to analyze written reports of psychedelic experiences that may allow for accurate prediction of alcohol-quit outcomes within psychedelic therapy.

*From the article here :

The Holy Grail of Psychedelics Research: Treating Alcoholism

While there is more and more work on psychedelics to treat people for drug and tobacco addiction, it’s treating alcoholism that is gaining new interest from psychedelics researchers today. But finding that specific psychedelics treatment to slow down alcoholism, or even stop it completely...

www.greenmarketreport.com

 

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Drinking to excess? Psychedelics can help

by Adi Zuloff-Shani | Psychedelic Spotlight | 8 Apr 2022​

Clearmind Medicine CEO Adi Zuloff-Shani, PhD in human biology and immunology, writes this guest blog about how new psychedelic-based technologies, like MEAI, can help in the fight against alcoholism.​

Warmer weather isn’t officially connected with drinking to excess, but with summertime and holidays, like upcoming 4th of July, being linked to inebriated revelries across the United States, it might as well be.

It’s easy to dismiss these merriments as good, light-hearted fun, but, alas, the statistics tell a different, and much grimmer story. In 2019, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism conducted an extensive survey on the drinking habits of Americans. The results were chilling: According to the survey, a full quarter of all Americans older than 18 said they’d engaged in binge drinking in the previous month, and many admitted to high-intensity drinking, or consuming alcohol at levels that are two or more times the specified binge drinking thresholds.
And COVID-19, sadly, only exacerbated these habits: Since the advent of the pandemic, alcohol consumption increased by a whopping 39 percent, with one in four adults reporting they were now drinking much more than they used to, largely to manage their stress and anxiety as reflected in the latest Stress in America poll.

These behaviors come at a cost: Alcohol is now the third-leading cause of preventable death in the United States, killing a staggering 95,000 Americans each year, more than those who succumb to other drug overdoses. And yet, while drug use is rarely glamorized these days, movies, television shows, and pop songs are still more likely than not to present binge drinking as an innocent pastime, and those who engage with it as desirable and fun. This, in part, helps explain why we hear so much of the opioid addiction epidemic, but relatively little about the ravages of alcoholism.

It’s time we took a different approach: treating alcohol abuse as the serious scourge it is. And luckily for us, we’ve a secret and surprising weapon in our arsenal: Psychedelics.

If the thought of fighting one consciousness altering substance with another strikes you as strange, you may want to read up on one Dr. Humphry Osmond. Born in Surrey, England at the tail end of World War I, Osmond trained as an architect but was diverted to medicine by the Second World War, specializing in psychiatry. Observing his patients, he posited the theory that some mental illness is caused by chemical imbalances in the brain. Today, we know this to be true and consider it a staple of treating depression, anxiety, and a host of other conditions; back in the 1940s, it was a radical and deeply controversial assertion, and Osmond was equally celebrated and denounced.

His insight, however, didn’t end there. Searching for a way to treat these chemical imbalances, he discovered that using several hallucinogenic drugs in controlled doses had a deeply positive effect on patients’ well-being. He even came up with a term for these substances: Psychedelics, a term we still use today. And by the early 1950s, he realized that psychedelics could do much to help another group of people struggling with a very particular addiction—alcoholism. Among his patients was one Bill W., who, inspired by the experience, went on to found Alcoholics Anonymous.

Thankfully, the state of the science has come a long way since Osmond’s day, and whereas his explorations into using psychedelics to treat alcoholism were met with mixed results, we now know much more about how to do this safely and effectively. As the BBC reported late last year, we now have something in the range of 6,000 studies on more than 40,000 patients, showing psychedelics to be effective in treating a dazzling array of conditions, none more successfully than alcoholism.

And new psychedelic-based technologies are making this fight against excessive drinking even more successful: A new psychoactive molecule called MEAI, for example, is already showing strong signs of producing the same euphoria-like experience you get from a few stiff drinks, while significantly reducing the desire to consume actual alcoholic beverages.

If this sounds implausible to you, imagine the following scenario: Say you’re fond of cheesecake and had just finished gobbling up two slices of the finest, goopiest stuff you could find. If someone offered you a third, you’d likely say no, not because you didn’t want to eat more cheesecake, but because your mind would report feeling completely satiated and inform your body that consuming more sweetness was ill-advised. Early evidence seems to show that MEAI seems to produce the same feeling when it comes to drinking, making the thought of picking up another shot or cocktail physically repulsive.

Let us seize this moment and get serious about helping to curb alcoholism. We have the psychedelic tools we need to make headway in this crucial fight, so let’s hope that this April soon becomes known as the month we got serious about offering those who suffer from alcoholism the help they need.

Adi Zuloff-Shani is the CEO of Clearmind Medicine, which is developing breakthrough treatments for binge behavor and mental health, including alcohol use disorder, binge eating and depression.

https://psychedelicspotlight.com/drinking-to-excess-alcoholism-psychedelics-can-help-clearmind/​

 

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Journey Colab to develop Mescaline as an FDA-approved treatment for Alcohol Use Disorder

Louis Metzger IV, Ph.D. | 24 May 2022​

• Alcohol use disorder (AUD) has increased during the Covid-19 pandemic
• Conventional therapies for AUD have limited effectiveness in ensuring long-term remission and harm reduction
• Journey Colab will test mescaline, a long-acting psychedelic found in peyote, as an adjuvant to conventional treatments for AUD
• Journey Colab gives co-founder equity to the Indigenous communities that inspire its work

Pushed to the periphery of public awareness during Covid-19 pandemic, the disease of substance addiction continues to ravage humanity. Substance abuse deaths are often “deaths of despair,” as addiction is a brain disease that is often coincident with other mental illnesses, such as anxiety and depression. The need for new ways to treat substance use disorder has never been greater, yet medicine possesses few pharmacological tools with which to combat this pernicious disease. In addition to the burgeoning opioid epidemic, addiction to alcohol has been increasing, driven in part by the stresses of pandemic life and by the economic disparities made worse in the wake of Covid-19.

The treatment of alcohol use disorder (AUD), in particular, has limited pharmaceutical options with which to augment non-pharmacological therapies. Among the few drugs approved in the US for treatment of AUD, disulfiram, green-lit by the FDA in 1949, causes patients to experience swift and powerful hangover symptoms if they consume alcohol, thereby acting as a deterrent. More recently-approved naltrexone blunts the pleasure derived from alcohol consumption, while acamprosate helps to protect against the neurotoxicity that can occur during alcohol withdrawal. While these pharmaceuticals can be used to treat AUD, each has limitations and drawbacks. There is therefore a high unmet medical need for additional FDA-approved therapeutics targeting this disease.​

 

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Humphry Osmond

Alcoholism as a Biochemical Illness*

by Erika Dyck | MAPS | 8 Jun 2022

In the early 1950s, clinical researchers exploring the therapeutic value of LSD achieved intriguing results with subjects suffering from alcoholism. Spiritual or transcendental experiences produced by the drug were a powerful adjunct to rehabilitative psychotherapy for alcoholics. They provided a profound and chemically-induced awakening or enlightenment that often led to sobriety. This article investigates LSD as a treatment for alcoholism. The increased focus on drug therapies brought changes in treatment options and ushered in new theoretical explanations for the causation of alcohol abuse as a disease.

The psychiatrist Humphry Osmond was one of the key figures in the development of LSD treatments for alcoholism. Osmond was a Senior Registrar at the psychiatric unit at St George's Hospital in London, England in 1950, where he worked closely with his colleague John Smythies and cultivated a keen interest in chemically induced reactions in the human body. Smythies and Osmond examined the properties of mescaline, the active agent in the peyote cactus. Nearly 2 years of research led them to conclude that mescaline produced reactions in volunteers that resembled the symptoms of schizophrenia, including hallucinations, delusions, disorganised thoughts and behaviour.

Further work suggested that mescaline's chemical structure was remarkably similar to adrenaline. These findings led to the theory that schizophrenia resulted from a biochemical imbalance in the sufferer. These findings led to the theory that schizophrenia resulted from a biochemical imbalance in the sufferer. This tantalizing hypothesis captivated Osmond's interest for the next 2 decades and inspired him to embark on a variety of experiments.

Osmond and Smythies colleagues at St George's Hospital were not particularly interested in their biochemical research, but Osmond was intent on continuing the work. After responding to an advertisement for a deputy director of psychiatry at a Canadian Mental Hospital in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, he and his family moved to Canada in October 1951. In the prairie province of Saskatchewan he established a biochemical research programme. Within a year, Osmond met Abram Hoffer. Hoffer had graduated from the provincial university in Saskatoon with a Bachelor of Sciences degree in agricultural chemistry. He later graduated with a Ph.D. in agriculture before beginning a medical degree the following year. In medical school, Hoffer developed a particular interest in psychiatry. On 1 July 1950, the Saskatchewan Department of Public Health hired the recently graduated Hoffer to establish a provincial research program in psychiatry.

Hoffer and Osmond soon joined forces and began collaborating on their mutual research interests in biochemical experimentation. Osmonds curiosity about mescaline soon introduced him to d-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), which, he discovered, produced similar reactions to those observed with mescaline. However, LSD was a much more powerful drug. As in the case of mescaline, early trials with LSD, too, seemed to substantiate their theory that mental illness had biochemical roots.

During their initial LSD experiments, Hoffer and Osmond hypothesized that the drug might possess therapeutic benefits. In 1953 they began introducing the drug to a new set of subjects: diagnosed alcoholics. They wanted to test its curative effects on individuals for whom temperance reformers advocated the development of more will power and self-actualisation. Perhaps, they reasoned, the LSD reaction would cultivate precisely that kind of strength and insight. Early trials with LSD seemed to substantiate their theory that mental illness had biochemical roots. Osmond reasoned that it would not be difficult to convince lay people that excessive drinking or alcoholism, as a disease, constituted a meaningful concept.

In Saskatchewan in the 1950s, LSD played a prominent role in reconstructing alcoholism as a disease. The growing public perception of drunkenness as a physiological condition reinforced the need for medical attention and, moreover, redefined problem drinking behavior as something that could be cured.

*From the article here :
http://www.maps.org/research-archive...ck_22866_1.pdf​

 

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The beneficial effects of LSD on alcoholism

by Nick Collins

In the 60s and 70s several clinics ran trials to determine whether LSD could help alcoholics overcome their dependence with varying degrees of success. The supervisors of one trial noted: It was rather common for patients to claim significant insights into their problems, and to feel that they had been given a new lease on life, and to make a strong resolution to discontinue their drinking.

None of the experiments featured enough patients to draw any firm conclusions, but now a reanalysis of all the data taken together, totaling 536 patients, suggests the treatment could have potential after all. The new study published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology found that LSD had a positive effect on alcohol misuse in each of the trials, with 59 per cent of patients who took the drug having improved at follow-up, compared with 38 per cent who took a placebo. A single dose of LSD produces benefits which last between six and 12 months, and repeated doses along with modern treatments could ensure longer term results, the researchers said.

The drug, which causes hallucinations that make users experience the world in a distorted way, is not physically addictive but some experts believe users can become dependent on its effects, for example from a need to distance themselves from reality.

Johansen, Norwegian researcher and fellow of Harvard Medical School, who led the research, said: Given the evidence for a beneficial effect of LSD on alcoholism, it is puzzling why this treatment approach has been largely overlooked.

Dr David Nutt, former advisor on drugs to the government, said: I think this study is very interesting and it is a shame the last of these studies were done in the 1960s. I think these drugs might help people switch out of a mindset which is locked into addiction or depression and be a way of helping the brain switch back to where it should be, in a similar way that Alcoholics Anonymous programs do.​

 

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Ketamine may help alcohol addiction by rewiring the brain

Ketamine may help change drinking habits by promoting neuroplasticity. But questions linger over the treatment's ethics and safety.

by Rebecca Tidy | Discovery Magazine | 20 Jun 2021

Alcohol misuse is a huge issue across the world, accounting for 4 percent of deaths and 5 percent of the burden of disease globally. It’s well-known that staying sober is the key to reducing alcohol-related harm, but unfortunately, treatments for alcoholism are limited in their effectiveness, and people often relapse after only a short time.

Over the last decade, there has been growing interest in the use of the dissociative anesthetic and scheduled drug, ketamine, to treat alcohol addiction. It’s traditionally used to induce and maintain surgical anaesthesia, but can legally be used off-label —sometimes in conjunction with psychotherapy — in the hope of sustaining abstinence for longer.

Clinics across the globe are offering ketamine infusions designed to help patients overcome addiction, and reduce the symptoms of psychiatric disorders. It’s making a controversial treatment choice, partly because this drug is commonly abused by recreational users — it holds the ability to make people feel dreamlike and detached, as well as relaxed and euphoric.

The UK’s first publicly accessible ketamine-assisted psychotherapy clinic — Awakn — opened in Bristol recently. Grounded in medicine, it’s run by trained professionals including a doctor, psychiatrist, psychologist and several research scientists. For a charge of around $8,300, patients participate in a course of nine psychotherapy sessions, with three incorporating low-dose ketamine infusions to boost the healing power of the therapy.

Discover spoke to the team at Awakn to find out more about ethics and safety in this emerging industry.

Firstly, is it safe to use a dissociative anesthetic during a therapy session?

Celia Morgan is the head of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy for alcohol use disorder at Awakn and a scientific researcher at the University of Exeter. She says, “When used correctly, ketamine is very safe — it’s administered daily in casualty departments across the world during minor surgical procedures. We use ketamine at much lower doses than it’s used as an anesthetic. And all patients are carefully screened and fully monitored throughout, as safety is a priority.”

Can it ever be ethical to treat alcohol addiction with a dissociative drug, such as ketamine? Surely you’re just replacing one addiction with another, even with small doses?

According to Professor Morgan, ketamine-assisted psychotherapy is a short-term treatment that leads to sustained behavior change and significantly improved abstinence rates. None of the existing studies saw people go on to ketamine dependence, possibly because the drug was not used on an ongoing basis.

She says, “This is why we think the therapy plus ketamine package is so important — it provides a safe container for these experiences, and patients understand the drug to be working with the therapy. After all, the drug is a catalyst but the therapy is where the healing truly takes place.”

“Interestingly, Bill Wilson — the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous — actually considered including LSD in the program to help people struggling with the spirituality aspect, but he was dissuaded. Since then, they've been very anti-drugs, though members can take antidepressants. If we can see ketamine as medicine, as we should, then perhaps its use wouldn’t be considered so problematic for organizations like AA,” she explained.

Experts were unsure whether ketamine is definitely effective in treating alcoholism until recently. In fact, the American Society of Ketamine Physicians, Psychotherapists and Practitioners still notes that ketamine therapy isn’t a panacea for the general public experiencing stress or pain, and even argues that mainstream advertising for quick and easy access to an instant mood boost is harmful.

Until 2020, only two large studies suggested that ketamine could successfully reduce alcoholic relapse. They were carried out in Russia during the 1980s, but were limited in scope as participants chose whether they were assigned to the ketamine or control group. Those electing to receive the drug had three intravenous ketamine treatments combined with psychotherapy, while the other simply had psychotherapy — the results showed that 66 percent of patients who received ketamine were abstinent one year later, in comparison to 24 percent of the control group.

Since then, it’s been hypothesized that the increased level of abstinence among ketamine patients was the result of the drug’s acute antidepressant effect, and ability to improve the learning of new information.

Several studies have suggested that people struggling with addiction are more likely to have low levels of neuron and synapse growth — also known as neurogenesis and synaptogenesis — in the nervous system. This means they’re more likely to struggle to learn new information, such as alternative ways of conceptualizing situations.

It’s been hypothesized that ketamine is especially beneficial for people struggling with addiction, as it stimulates the growth of neurons and synapses in the nervous system, in turn boosting the efficacy of psychological therapy.

Morgan explains “From 2016 to 2020, the University of Exeter KARE study tested the impact of ketamine on alcohol use disorder (AUD). It measured 96 participants’ percentage of days abstinent and relapsed at six months, along with depressive symptoms, craving, and quality of life. The Medical Research Council-funded trial showed that a combination of ketamine and therapy demonstrated a clear capacity to improve the lives of people struggling with alcohol problems, and reduced drinking over a six-month period.”

So what’s the future of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in treating alcohol addiction?

Morgan says, “With drinking habits increasing during lockdown, we are now facing a significant increase in mental disorders and addictions to all substances, of which AUD is by far the most concerning.”

“Given the results we've seen from the KARE study and other psychedelics, we think this will be a real growth area — these drugs when combined with therapy are safe and have really long lasting effects so bring new hope for patients where previous treatments have failed.”

As we all know there’s no quick-fix cure or magic wand capable of reducing the symptoms of alcoholism or the underlying mental health problems, but perhaps psychedelic-enabled psychotherapy offers our best hope for the future — only time will tell.

 

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Psilocybin reduces relapses for those with Alcohol Use Disorder

CIMH | Neuroscience News | 23 Nov 2021

Current research results uncover the unknown potential of psilocybin to restore molecular circuits in the brain and thus contribute to a reduction of relapses in alcohol dependence. This could lead to new therapeutic approaches.

Alcohol dependence is one of the most common neuropsychiatric diseases. In Germany, more than five million people are affected. The consequences are often severe physical and mental suffering and a high mortality rate. The average life expectancy of those affected is reduced by more than 22 years.

Despite the severity of the disease, whose chronic course is characterized by frequently recurring relapses into excessive alcohol consumption and great suffering pressure for those affected, we still know little about the causal mechanisms in the brain.

Cortical mGluR2 deficit as a pathological molecular mechanism of altered behavior in addiction

Mental processes that control behavior, attention and emotions are known as executive functions. In many psychiatric diseases, the ability to control one’s own thoughts and actions and to regulate emotions are disturbed, for example in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, schizophrenia, borderline syndrome and also in addiction.

In a multidisciplinary, international collaboration led by Dr. Marcus Meinhardt, Prof. Dr. Rainer Spanagel and Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Sommer (all at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim), the molecular mechanism of altered executive functions and increased relapses in alcohol dependence have been investigated.

The research focuses on the role of the metabotropic glutamate receptor 2 (mGluR2). In the brain, this receptor works as an antenna for the neurotransmitter-glutamate and regulates its release in various brain areas.

In their current work, which has now been published in the journal Science Advances, the research team shows a causal link between a reduced mGluR2 function within the brain region of the prefrontal cortex in alcohol-dependent rodents and an impaired executive control as well as craving for alcohol. mGluR2 activation has thus been identified as a potential therapeutic mechanism in alcohol dependence.

Psilocybin restores the production of mGluR2

Hallucinogenic substances such as psilocybin—the active ingredient in the so-called magic mushrooms—or LSD act on serotonin 2A receptors (5-HT2AR) in the brain. These receptors are present in large numbers in the prefrontal cortex.

Previous research has shown that 5-HT2AR and mGluR2 can form a functional complex. This complex has been linked to the mechanism of action of psychedelics, but the molecular functions of this complex in addiction were previously unknown.

“We were able to show that psilocybin can restore mGluR2 levels which leads to a reduction in relapses to alcohol,” says Marcus Meinhardt. "Thus, this research opens up the possibility of developing new therapeutic approaches that focus on psilocybin as a driver of mGluR2."

Original Research: Open access.
“Psilocybin targets a common molecular mechanism for cognitive impairment and increased craving in alcoholism” by Marcus W. Meinhardt et al. Science Advances
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Psychedelic Microdosing Improves Mental Health - Neuroscience News

Microdosing psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin alleviates symptoms of depression and anxiety while improving feelings of wellbeing.

neurosciencenews.com