ANXIETY | +70 articles

[mr peabody]

Hemp Elixir: A natural product for reducing stress and anxiety*

by Juno Sisoian | Entheonation

Amma Elevate Hemp Elixir is a fantastic option for anyone who is looking for natural products for reducing stress and anxiety that can be added to any beverage!

Alcohol has long been the household drug of choice used to help take the edge off a stressful day, as well as the mainstay of mood-altering, social libations… followed by weed. But booze can be a downer, habit-forming and unhealthy if over-used, and can turn you into a messy drunk nursing a hangover full of regrets the day after.

Weed can make you too high to speak, or paranoid, bringing on other socially undesirable consequences. Kava kava is a little harder to come by – kava lounges are few and far between, and too much of it can make you feel like a blissfully tranquilized rhino. What could you use instead to take the edge off, as well as offer in a social gathering, if you don’t wish your party to descend into drunkenness, or turn into a smoke den?

Amma Healing’s Elevate Hemp Elixir might be the healthy, mood-enhancing alternative for people who wish to be emotionally uplifted, without being socially compromised.

I recently moved into a new household where a few of the members don’t drink alcohol at all. I’ve never been much of a drinker myself, but I’ve always enjoyed a good cocktail or glass of wine at social gatherings in particular. Seeing as my new roomies didn’t partake in booze, it became my pursuit to investigate mood enhancing refreshments we could all enjoy.

Everyone in the house is on board with hemp, so we gave it a whirl with some homemade hemp elixir cocktails. The effect it had was mellowing and relaxing, without making us feel sleepy. I feel like it aided in smoother conversation and helped me adapt to a new social situation by minimizing some of my social anxiety. Everyone enjoyed it and it’s become a sort of ritual now that I make a hemp elixir once or twice a week when we all want to hang out, play music, or have people over.

What is hemp elixir?

Amma Healing’s Elevate Hemp Elixir is similar to CBD oil, but with some key differences. The elixir is a CBD-infused product with the added benefit of fatty acids to aid in absorption. Instead of an oil base, it uses fatty acids, glycerin, and quillaja extract; a plant-based emulsifier. The result is a tincture-like product that blends beautifully with other liquids, making it an ideal ingredient for a relaxing mocktail. The hemp elixir is a bit more potent than the CBD oil, so a little bit goes a long way.

Why use hemp elixir?

These are stressful and uncertain times, and it’s easy to turn to alcohol or drugs to try to offset the anxiety and tension. However, many people are looking for natural alternatives that won’t leave them feeling hungover, but will actually help to shift their mood and mindset.

Personally, if I’m going to take the time to prepare a mocktail, I want something with a little more panache than just spritzer water with fruit juice and mint. I’m looking for potions and plant extracts that are going to really add dimension to the drink. Amma Elevate Hemp Elixir has a genuine effect on your mood, leaving you feeling deeply relaxed. Now you can vibe out with your friends or at the end of a long day without getting drunk.

As someone who has struggled over the years with periods of anxiety, I’m always looking for ways to relax and reset my nervous system. While I use CBD oil as a staple, I enjoy having the elixir as a more potent alternative, that, unlike kava kava, also blends really well with drinks.

It’s also a fun way to imbibe with guests as an alternative to drinking. One of my favorite mixes includes sparkling water, a splash of pomegranate juice, ginger juice, some simple syrup or stevia, a few mint sprigs, and 1-2 drops of Elevate elixir. It also makes a superb addition to a creamy cacao drink.

What’s in hemp elixir?

Elevate Elixir contains only four all-natural ingredients: Organic broad spectrum+ hemp oil, quillaja extract (a plant-based emulsifier), fatty acids, and glycerine.​

• Organic broad spectrum+ hemp oil: The base of this product is Amma’s broad-spectrum hemp oil, which is a potent oil containing over 40 cannabinoids, terpenes, and flavonoids. It contains 0.0% THC, which means it has all of the therapeutic effects without the psychoactive components. To read more about the broad spectrum hemp, check out my review here.​
• Fatty acids: Fatty acids are known to help aid in more rapid absorption, and have their own host of benefits. You can feel the effects of the elixir more quickly than you do with the oil, which is pretty cool.​
• Quillaja extract: There are plenty of chemical or animal-based emulsifiers used in food products, and I really appreciate that Amma has chosen an all-natural plant-based emulsifier.​
• Glycerine: When mixing oil and water, you need a stabilizer. Alcohol is commonly used as a stabilizer, but the use of glycerine in this elixir makes it an alcohol-free choice.​

Elevate elixir is a great way to relax that actually benefits your body overall, rather than doing damage to it. If you’re looking for a healthy way to experience a pleasant high, either in social situations or at home, Amma Elevate Hemp Elixir is for you.

If you have high standards around what you ingest, the ingredients used and the way it’s grown, then this is also a great choice for you. Amma as a company provides a high degree of transparency around their sourcing and testing standards. It’s important that any CBD product you buy has been tested and openly shares their certificate of analysis to show whether it contains potentially harmful substances like chemical residues, residual solvents, microbes, heavy metals, pesticides, flammable residues, and mycotoxins. Amma’s COA shows its oil to be clean on all of these fronts.

Amma uses a cold-pressed extraction method for the main ingredients in the elixir: the broad spectrum+ hemp oil. Many companies use harmful solvents and heat the plant to over 300 degrees in the process, whereas Amma uses a cold-pressed method with an all-natural binding agent. When heat methods are used for extraction, many of the terpenes and cannabinoids are destroyed, resulting in a less desirable product.

Overall I could find many more pros than cons when it comes to the Hemp Elixir. Its ease of use, potency, and fast-acting effects greatly outweigh the bitterness of its taste and the slightly high price tag:

Pros​

• I found it easy to add a single drop to my mocktails to create something genuinely soothing for my mood.​
• One drop is potent enough to have a significant effect meaning I don’t have to use the whole bottle to feel anything.​
• Amma’s products are organically and sustainably grown.​
• I was happy to know there were only four simple ingredients.​
• Hemp Elixir is guaranteed to contain no pesticides, unnatural fillers, mycotoxins, and other undesirables.​
• It helps me to relax and alleviates nervous tension almost instantly.​
• I love that it’s infused with brain healthy fatty acids that aids in quick absorption.​

Cons​

• The biggest con for me was probably the intensity of the taste. It has a bitterness to it that needs to be balanced with other ingredients if you want to make a tasty drink. If you’re looking for something palatable on the tongue, I would start with Amma Healing Broad Spectrum+ Hemp Oil peppermint flavor.​
• If you’re trying to use Hemp Elixir as a nightly addition to cap off your evening, it’s going to get pricey. I find that I need to reserve it for that special one or two nights per week rather than as a nightly staple.​

Conclusion

Amma Elevate Hemp Elixir is a fantastic option for anyone who is looking for natural alternatives to drugs like alcohol, that has a discernible effect on your mood. If you’re looking for a really high-quality CBD based product that can help with stress and anxiety and that you will actually feel almost instantly, then this is a great product for you if:​

• You want to simultaneously relax and feel uplifted, in the most healthy way​
• You want to be clear-minded enough to socialize and drive your vehicle safely​
• High-quality ingredients are important to you, right down to cultivation​
• You value CBD products that come with a certificate of analysis​
• You prefer CBD products that use cold-pressed extraction methods​

Overall, I think Amma has made a really fantastic product with the Elevate Elixir. When I’m looking for something with a little more of a punch than hemp oil on its own, I will make a mixed drink with a couple of drops of Elixir and feel fantastic afterward. Elevate Elixir is potent, fast-acting, and a great addition to your mocktail ingredients collection.

*From the article here :

Amma Healing Elevate Hemp Elixir Product Review: A Non-Alcoholic Plant-based Mixer for the Conscious Partier

Our review of the Amma Healing Elevate Hemp Elixir – a hemp extract that can be added to any beverage for an instantly relaxing mocktail.

entheonation.com

 

[mr peabody]

Ships in Distress in a Raging Storm c1690 by Ludolf Backhuysen

Ketamine useful in treating severe Social Anxiety

The first placebo-controlled study of Ketamine's effect on social anxiety disorder has provided more evidence that the anesthetic could be helpful in severe cases.

"Many patients with anxiety continue to have impairing symptoms despite first-line talk therapy (cognitive behavioral therapy) and first-line medications (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors)," said study authors Jerome H. Taylor of the University of Pennsylvania and Michael H. Bloch of Yale University.

"Therefore, our research group thought it was important to find potential new treatments for anxiety. We chose to investigate Ketamine because several studies have found it to be helpful for anxiety symptoms in treatment-resistant depression."

A previous study on 12 adults with general anxiety disorder or social anxiety disorder, which was published in 2017, found that Ketamine reduced their symptoms. But this study was not placebo-controlled.

The new double-blind, placebo-controlled trial tested the effects of intravenous Ketamine on 18 adults with social anxiety disorder. Ketamine alleviated symptoms of social anxiety as measured by the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale but not as measured by the self-reported Visual Analogue Scale for Anxiety.

Participants also reported increased social engagement in the days following Ketamine treatment, but this was not systematically tracked.

"Our study provided proof-of-concept that Ketamine-like agents may be useful for anxiety, Taylor and Bloch told PsyPost. "Many pharmaceutical companies are working on developing medications that act like ketamine without the abuse potential as a treatment for depression, PTSD and suicidality. Our research suggests these medications may also prove useful for anxiety."

The findings were published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.

Previous research has found that Ketamine produces a strong and rapid antidepressant effect in patients with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder. But Ketamine did not significantly improve depressive symptoms in Taylor and Bloch’s study.

This was "likely due the fact that in our study most patients had mild to moderate depression as opposed to the more severe treatment-resistant major depression studied in Ketamine clinical trials," the researchers wrote in their study.

Ketamine works by inhibiting NMDA glutamate receptors in the brain. The drug also has euphoric and dissociative effects, making it a potential drug of abuse.

"Ketamine needs more data to show efficacy in anxiety, and even if effective probably should only be reserved for refractory and debilitating cases that have failed medication and CBT – for instance, adults homebound from agoraphobia, kids refusing to attend school due to anxiety," the researchers explained.

"Ketamine is a drug that can abused when given at higher doses over shorter periods of time than used in this study. As such, we consider that Ketamine should only be used in research studies related to anxiety at this time. If used for clinical purposes it should be restricted to hospital-like settings where the abuse potential is much lower."

http://www.psypost.org/2018/01/ketamine-prove-useful-treatment-severe-social-anxiety-50634​

 

[mr peabody]

Welcome to Kava culture - a spreading alternative to reduce anxiety

by Mohawk Greene | Filter | Dec 20 2019

Bula!—which means “life” or “to live”—is the traditional exclamation before drinking kava tea in Fijian culture. The ritual has also been adopted in some kava bars stateside.

I knew very little about it until 2017, when I was introduced to the culture through a friend who knew a kava bartender in Brooklyn, where I live. I had been searching for a receptive community where I could meet like-minded people, share ideas and make harm reduction resources available. I checked out the bar and it seemed like a great space to distribute DanceSafe adulterant screening kits and occasionally host meetings or social gatherings.

I initially found the beverage itself less than desirable, however. In its default tea form, kava has a bitter, chalky taste. I’m also used to ingesting a substance and feeling noticeable effects within the hour. However, kava has a reverse tolerance effect—meaning someone who is new to it often feels nothing the first time, or the first few times. So I was unimpressed with it and opted instead for the kratom that was also available most days I went to the bar.

Despite this, after becoming both unemployed and sober from alcohol, the bar became a space where I often went to get myself out of the apartment and work productively in a relaxing atmosphere. Low-key social spaces that don’t promote or prioritize alcohol, where small groups can get together and that are open late can be hard to find. So it was perfect for me.

Since kratom is a partial opioid agonist, tolerance to the substance builds with frequent use, and it can become habit-forming, with some mild-but-unpleasant side effects. I still find kratom highly beneficial in moderation, but I didn’t want to create a new habit that emulated my former patterns and consequences of alcohol use. So instead, I gave kava another chance. After consuming it more regularly, I found that it did have the calming effects that I desired, but without the side effects I was experiencing with kratom.

What kava does

Kava, or Piper methysticum, is a tropical evergreen shrub in the nightshade family, native to the South Pacific islands, including Vanuatu, Fiji, Hawaii and others. Its roots are mashed or ground up and consumed orally, typically as a bitter-tasting beverage. It has long been used for medicinal, religious, political, cultural and social purposes throughout Polynesia, including as an aphrodisiac.

In Western societies it has been used to treat anxiety, tension and restlessness, as well as to successfully counteract alcohol use disorder. A preliminary study conducted in 2001 found that the active ingredients in kava, known as kavapyrones, bind to many sites in the brain that are associated with addiction and craving.

It’s also catching on as a social substance in the US, where kava bars are spreading—noticeably so in Brooklyn. Many bars can whip up some pretty tasty kava cocktails with ingredients such as lavender, mint, cayenne, mocha and chai. It also comes in tinctures or capsules.

Regarded as an herbal supplement, kava is currently unscheduled in the US (and most countries), meaning that it is legal to sell, possess or ingest. Currently, there are no known calls to schedule or regulate kava in the US. However, due to concerns over potential liver toxicity, numerous other countries have placed regulatory controls on kava, ranging from warnings to consumers to removing kava products from the marketplace.

Kava acts on the brain’s GABA receptors. GABA is an important neurotransmitter in the central nervous system that controls most of the functions of the brain and body. Low levels of GABA activity may be linked to conditions such as anxiety or mood disorders, epilepsy, chronic pain, insomnia, depression and psychiatric disorders. There have been a range of clinical trials demonstrating that kava may have benefits for people with sleep problems, social anxiety and chronic nociceptive pain—which is pain from physical damage such as that from a sports injury, a dental procedure, arthritis, or other physiological functions that are impacted by low levels of GABA activity.

Researchers suspect that GABA activity may boost mood, or have a calming, relaxing effect. Other substances that promote this include alcohol and benzodiazepines.

Many people I know and the research I’ve done suggest that kava users report not only positive social implications but also improved mental health, better memory, a better sleep schedule and easing of physical pain. As long as they avoid taking excessive amounts, most users report a sensation of happy lightheartedness, comfort and satisfaction. Muscle-relaxing, antispasmodic, analgesic, local anesthetic and nerve-protecting properties have been pharmacologically demonstrated.

A US kava culture

Amanda Yee is an avid kava drinker who lives in Brooklyn. “I first learned about kava a few years ago from a New Yorker article, which highlighted the opening of Kavasutra,” she told Filter, referencing a bar located in Manhattan. “I think the community first developed there, because there were probably people who can’t or just decide not to drink, and they were eager for a place to hang out where they didn’t feel pressured to drink alcohol. I’m guessing kava (and kratom) gained popularity from this location, and the community started to grow.”

“I’ve made a lot of friends through this culture,” Yee continued. “I can’t drink, because like a lot of Asians, I lack the enzyme that metabolizes alcohol, so it makes me really ill. But alcohol plays such a central role in social relationships when you’re an adult, so I would often go to a bar just to hang out with friends and not drink. Through this community, I found other people who shared my interests, shared my politics, who also can’t drink—whether because they struggle with addiction issues, or they find alcohol exacerbates their anxiety or depression. That makes me feel less alone.”

The bar I frequent feels like a tight-knit community between regulars and employees, and a sanctuary. The atmosphere is calm, and you’re welcome to spend extended periods of time there—in this way it’s perhaps more similar to the coffee shops of Amsterdam than to noisy and chaotic bars and cafes.

“What this space meant to me was an alcohol-alternative space, another path to promote social connection and mood-boosting perception,” Mistik The Blue Dragoon, an artist and event host at a bar called Caffeine Underground, told Filter.

When anxiety disorders are so common, it’s no wonder that kava establishments are gaining popularity. In a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study conducted in 2013, kava showed a significant reduction of anxiety for patients with generalized anxiety symptoms compared with placebo. It is pitched by the bars as a healthier and safer alternative to alcohol.

“Most of the people I’ve introduced it to say that they like kava/kratom better than alcohol,” said Yee, “because it alleviates anxiety but you’re still lucid, so you don’t make bad decisions and you don’t experience a hangover in the morning.”

Concerns around liver damage

That’s not to say there are no potential harms. The FDA has warned of the potential for liver damage. However, these cases are rare. A total of 25 adverse events reports about kava were submitted to the FDA from 2004 to 2015. On the other hand, FDA research suggests that fewer than 1 percent of the severe adverse events caused by dietary supplements are actually reported.

There are several theories about why repeated kava use might cause liver damage. First, kava is metabolized by a group of liver enzymes that are involved in metabolizing many drugs. According to a 2008 study on the toxicity of kava, it may “tie up” these enzymes so that they cannot readily metabolize the other drugs, causing those drugs to accumulate and damage the liver. Second, the kava itself, especially in inconsistent preparations, might be metabolized into substances that directly cause damage to the liver cells. However, it has also been observed that genetic differences of the descendants of Asian migrants to the Pacific may explain why they have supposedly not experienced kava hepatotoxicity.

Other researchers believe that the liver toxicity comes from kava often being taken with alcohol, and that the liver damage is due to alcohol. Yet another theory is that inflammation and depletion of important substances in the liver are to blame. These latter two theories seem to be less supported by scientific data.

Pacific islanders have traditionally used kava and, while it has never been thoroughly studied, there are no reports of higher occurrence of liver injuries there. There was one incident in the US where a mother called Poison Control because a father had mistakenly given their five-year-old daughter a full dropper of a liquid kava product instead of vitamins. Poison Control assured her that this one-time dose, even in a child, should be well tolerated. When Poison Control followed up the next day, the child had no symptoms. Kava has a generally safe toxicity profile.

Kava activism

There is also a political aspect to Brooklyn’s kava culture. When a handful of workers unionized, protested against pay and conditions and migrated from House of Kava in 2018, many patrons, including Yee and myself, supported them and followed their lead. This was a direct result of the bonds made while enjoying the anxiolytic brews.

“A labor dispute among the manager and the bartenders forced a group of regulars to organize a boycott in support of the staff,” recalled Yee. “During this time, we organized kava/kratom pop-up basement parties where the community we developed could continue. Although long, the labor struggle ultimately ended in our favor. House of Kava suffered from the bad publicity, lost a lot of clientele, and ultimately closed a year later. I would like to see the kava/kratom community get more involved with these kinds of struggles.”

If kava continues to become a more widespread alternative to alcohol and other substances in the US, both the public health and social impacts of this change could be far-reaching and positive.

Welcome to Kava Culture: A Spreading Alternative to Reduce Anxiety

Kava bars are opening up around the US. A distinct culture is forming, and the social and public health impacts could be positive.

filtermag.org

 

[mr peabody]

Ketamine rapidly reduces depression, but can also treat anxiety*

by Greg Gilmanon | Psychedelic Spotlight | 28 Dec 2021

Psychedelic Spotlight speaks to a Field Trip Health patient and a psychotherapist, whose experiences suggest ketamine can also treat anxiety.

Ketamine is shaping up to be one of the best tools legally available to relieve depression and suicidal thoughts as well as other mental health issues.

A systematic review of 83 published research papers, led by the University of Exeter and funded by the United Kingdom’s Medical Research Council, found ketamine therapy rapidly reduced symptoms of depression one to four hours after a single treatment, and the effect lasted up to two weeks. Additionally, suicidal thoughts in patients reduced moderately to largely as early as four hours after treatment, and lasted on average between three and seven days.

“Our research is the most comprehensive review of the growing body of evidence on the therapeutic effects of ketamine to date,” says lead author Merve Mollaahmetoglu. “Our findings suggest that ketamine may be useful in providing rapid relief from depression and suicidal thoughts, creating a window of opportunity for further therapeutic interventions to be effective.”

She adds, “It’s important to note that this review examined ketamine administration in carefully controlled clinical settings where any risks of ketamine can be safely managed.”

The paper published in The British Journal of Psychiatry Open last week included 33 systematic reviews, 29 randomized control trials, and 21 observational studies to come to the conclusion of ketamine’s effectiveness in relieving symptoms of depression and suicidal thoughts. Authors, however, noted more research is required to fully understand the optimal dosage amount and frequency, as well as the interactive benefit of psychotherapy in addition to how to best prepare patients for treatment.

Field Trip Health is on the forefront of this growing avenue in mental health care and research. In addition to its own proprietary drug development program, the Canada-based company currently administers ketamine-assisted psychotherapy to qualified patients at 11 locations, seven of which are located in the United States in cities New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, Seattle, and San Diego. More locations are on the horizon, too.

CEO Ronan Levy tells Psychedelic Spotlight, “This study further validates what we see every day at our Field Trip Health centers across North America: not only is ketamine an extremely effective depression treatment, when paired with the integration protocols we’ve developed at Field Trip, it is arguably the most effective depression treatment currently available, full stop. We commonly see our clients’ depression symptoms improve from ‘severe’ to ‘mild’ with those benefits lasting for 120 days or more. To my knowledge, no other treatment option even comes close to offering these kinds of improvements.”

What about anxiety?

Dr. Mike Dow (pictured above), a New York Times bestselling author, television personality, and psychotherapist who works at Field Trip Health’s LA location, tells Psychedelic Spotlight that the North American clinics eventually hope to integrate psilocybin and MDMA into treatments once it is legal to do so. “We are just sort of pioneering this work and just really excited about what everyone else is doing in this field,” he says. “We are rooting for everyone to create some great protocol for medicine we would love to offer in our clinic as well.”

In the meantime, Field Trip is finding ketamine to be very effective in treating not just depression, but anxiety as well.

Although the University of Exeter review noted “there is early evidence to suggest the potential benefit” for other psychiatric disorders, including anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorders, the authors stated these effects require replication in larger randomized placebo-controlled trials.

Despite that caution, Levy believes “the study also validates that ketamine can be used to treat a host of other mental health conditions.”

“It is easy to potentially confuse the declaration that the evidence is ‘less robust’ to mean that it is ‘less effective’ but that’s not necessarily the appropriate conclusion,” he tells Psychedelic Spotlight. “It simply means that the amount or volume of evidence to support ketamine as a treatment option for other conditions isn’t as great as it is for depression. As more data becomes available, the evidence for using ketamine to treat other mental health conditions may well become as robust as it is for depression. Based on our hands-on experience at Field Trip, we fully expect this to be the case.”

It was certainly the case for Seth Wilson, a Field Trip Health patient who went through the program this past summer at the Chicago clinic. He says ketamine-assisted psychotherapy ended a decades-long struggle with anxiety in addition to treatment-resistant depression he developed in wake of his mother’s death.

“Not only was I overly conscious with how others perceived me, but I had a hard time speaking up for myself and vocalizing what I wanted,” he wrote in a personal essay about his experience provided to Psychedelic Spotlight. “Being in a crowd, even during a standard Costco run, was enough to make my palms sweaty and send my mind into a panic.”

“For years I turned to standard medication for help. I’d been on Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) and anti-anxiety medication since I was 22 years old,” he continued. “And while they helped for a while, four years ago I lost my mother to cancer and the grief manifested into something I either couldn’t or wouldn’t let myself understand.”

A look inside Field Trip Health’s Los Angeles clinic in Santa Monica, California

Wilson tells Psychedelic Spotlight he underwent six ketamine sessions total, starting slightly below the standard introductory dose of 40 milligrams and steadily increasing until he was injected with 110 milligrams of ketamine during his last session. What resulted were metaphysical experiences that were nothing short of profound.

“During my sessions, I became one with the aurora borealis, and black holes’ event horizons flowed through me one moment while the next I manifested into its singularity,” he wrote. “As I continued the sessions, they led to some life-changing realizations about myself, my thought patterns, and my coping mechanisms. It was also there that I learned I had been masking my own symptoms and that I had a compulsive need to make sure everyone around me was okay. The therapy allowed me to understand and manage my anxieties for the first time in years.”

When speaking to Psychedelic Spotlight months after completing the treatment, Wilson confirmed he’s still feeling better than ever and is only on “an extremely low dosage” of the SSRIs his doctor had previously prescribed. “It’s essentially going to act more as a placebo than anything else,” he explains. “But I’ve managed to get really, really well for sure.”

Ketamine isn’t for everyone, though. Dr. Dow says ketamine can amplify psychosis in those suffering from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. “But for the vast, vast majority of patients who do have a diagnosis—whether it’s PTSD, anxiety disorders, depression, this is a very effective medication,” he says. “We use ketamine for a lot of different diagnoses.”

“The other thing that people don’t really understand in the literature is that people don’t fit squarely in boxes,” he adds. “So you and Seth talked about his depression and anxiety. It’s very common in mental health for people to have a substance use disorder and depression or depression with anxiety, or PTSD with depression … So it’s really about custom tailoring this journey to the person.”

Watch our interview with Field Trip Health CEO Ronan Levy at Wonderland Miami, the largest psychedelic conference ever held, below.



*From the article here :

Ketamine Reduces Depression Says 'Comprehensive Review' of Evidence

Review of 83 published papers confirms ketamine treats depression, but a Field Trip Health patient's experience suggests more applications.

psychedelicspotlight.com

 

[mr peabody]

​

Microdosing psychedelics linked to lower anxiety*

by Andrea Rice | PsychCentral | 17 Dec 2021

• Psychedelic microdosing has increased as a coping tool for mental health concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the 2021 Global Drug Survey.​
• An international study of more than 8,500 people from 84 countries shows a link between microdosing and reduced symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress.​
• Conflicting evidence suggests a placebo effect associated with microdosing.​
• The effectiveness of psychedelics for treating mental health conditions may be dose-dependent and is likely to vary between people.​

Psychedelic microdosing has exploded in popularity in recent years, with a noticeable uptick during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research is exploring the possible mental health effects of microdosing.

A November 2021 study Trusted Source, by the University of British Columbia (UBC), observed that people who microdosed psychedelics, such as psilocybin and LSD, reported less anxiety, depression, and stress than non-microdosers.

The international study, published in the journal Scientific Reports and the largest-ever of its kind, looked at how different microdose patterns and behaviors affected the well-being of individuals outside the laboratory.

“Microdosers are engaging in the practice with therapeutic and wellness-oriented intentions,” said Joseph Rootman, MA, lead author of the study and doctoral researcher in clinical psychology at UBC Okanagan.

The 2021 Global Drug Survey (GDS) shows that 1 in 4 people who tried psychedelics in the past 12 months reported microdosing, with some reporting mental health relief.

The effects of smaller doses have emerged as an area of interest in popular culture and scientific literature:​

• Research from 2018 suggests that microdosing may improve creativity and focus, which may have contributed to microdosing’s recent rise in popularity.​
• Research from 2019Trusted Source suggests that psilocybin (magic mushrooms) and LSD (acid) are among the most commonly microdosed psychedelics.​
• Evidence from 2019 suggests that low doses administered every few days could be considered safe.​
• A January 2021 studyTrusted Source posits a therapeutic value to psychedelic microdosing based on self-reports.​

As interest in the psychological benefits of psychedelicsTrusted Source expands, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) recently authorized an increase in the production of psychedelics to meet the growing demand for research.​

What the new research shows

To better understand microdosing and mental health outcomes, UBC researchers collected data from 8,703 anonymous respondents from 84 nations between November 2019 and July 2020, with the largest percentage hailing from the United States, Canada, Australia, and Great Britain.

Participants responded to a questionnaire at the website microdose.me and were classified as either microdosers or non-microdosers based on their response to the question, “Are you currently engaged in a regular practice of microdosing?” Nearly half of respondents indicated they were microdosers.

Mental health was assessed with questions such as, “Do you currently have any psychological, mental health, or addiction concerns?” (Pandemic-related questions were not specifically asked).

Other questions addressed the following:​

• microdosing substance​
• dosage, timing, and frequency​
• “stacking” practices, which means combining microdoses of psychedelics with non-psychedelic substances such as Lion’s Mane mushrooms, chocolate, and niacin​
• motivations for microdosing​

The large observational study is the first of its kind to show a link between microdosing and a reduction in symptoms associated with anxiety, depression, and stress, with health- and wellness-related motives among the most prominent factors.

“The legal status of psychedelic substances does not speak to the intentions of the people using them — whether for recreational or therapeutic reasons,” said Rootman.

“It’s clear most microdosers in our study were driven toward the practice as a means of supporting their mental well-being, so it’s certainly likely some of these concerns were pandemic related.”
​

Full doses vs. microdoses

Psychedelics have a long history of ceremonial use among Indigenous Peoples in the Americas for their health and healing properties and have been adopted and often appropriated by Western culture over the past few decades to enhance well-being.

The bulk of research on psychedelics has focused on the possible benefits of larger, consciousness-altering doses.

As studies on psilocybin and MDMA Trusted Source (the drug Ecstasy) continue to show possible benefits in humans, an opinion article from 2021 suggests these drugs could be among the first to be paired with therapy to address post-pandemic mental health concerns.

Long-term effects of a full dose

Recent studies have examined the possible long-term mental health effects of psychedelics.

An October 2021 studyTrusted Source was the first to present direct evidence in mice of long lasting changes in brain neurobiology from a single dose of a psychedelic drug similar to LSD, including a reduction in fear and anxiety.

“Psychedelics disappear from blood or urine within hours; however, their effects on alleviating depression or PTSD can last for several months,” study co-author Chang Lu, PhD, professor of chemical engineering at Virginia Tech, said in an email. “This has been puzzling the field.”

Further research is needed to determine the long-term effects in humans.

Finding the sweet spot

As with any drug, there is a sweet spot for effectiveness, Joe Moore, co-founder and CEO of Psychedelics Today, explained in an email.

“We need to find the right dosages for all compounds — too much could cause unpredictable results, or in some cases, cause negative effects,” Moore said. “Too little could simply not provide enough neuroplasticity or simply agitate without creating a helpful mind state.”

Possible placebo effect?

Conflicting evidence suggests that microdosing benefits can be explained by a placebo effect.

Results from a March 2021 study show similar positive results between a microdosing group and a placebo control group after 4 weeks. There were 191 participants in the study, making it the largest placebo-controlled trial on psychedelics to date.

"Placebo-controlled designs are a natural next step,” said Rootman. “But our study revealed an incredibly diverse array of motivations and practices captured under the umbrella of microdosing, which also suggests that there is more room for observational studies to further explore the practice.”

Takeaway

Recent studies highlight a need for more rigorous, longitudinal research in humans to determine the potential mental health effects of different dosages of psychedelics and possible placebo effects.

Although the UBC study did not specifically address the pandemic, a forthcoming follow-up survey will take a closer look at COVID-related microdosing practices.

“Microdosing research is still in its infancy, leaving plenty of room for novel discovery,” said Rootman.

If you have a mental health condition, it’s best to consult your doctor or therapist before trying microdosing, especially if you take medications. Psychedelics are still in their experimental phase and are not a substitute for medical treatment.

“We suspect we’ll see a continuation of liberalization of drug policy in the USA over the next few years,” said Moore. “As countries with legal access currently are being flooded with medical tourism, we expect to see this trend expand to other countries interested in similar revenues.”

*From the article here :​

Psychedelic Microdosing Linked with Lower Anxiety, Depression

Psychedelic microdosing is on the rise during the pandemic. New research suggests that people who microdose may have lower anxiety and depression.

psychcentral.com

 

[mr peabody]

Microdosing DMT for anxiety

Cameron, Benson, DeFelice, Fiehn, Olson (2019)

Anecdotal reports have suggested that serotonergic psychedelics administered in low doses on a chronic, intermittent schedule, so-called “microdosing”, might produce beneficial effects on mood, anxiety, cognition, and social interaction. Here, we found that chronic, intermittent, low doses of DMT produced an antidepressant-like phenotype and enhanced fear extinction learning without impacting working memory or social interaction. Taken together, our results suggest that psychedelic microdosing may alleviate symptoms of mood and anxiety disorders, though the potential hazards of this practice warrant further investigation.

Psychedelics are potent psychoplastogens, and their effects on neural plasticity have been invoked to explain their long-lasting behavioral effects related to mood and anxiety. Previously, we observed that even a low dose of DMT caused changes in the frequency and amplitude of spontaneous excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) that lasted long after the drug had been cleared from the body. Therefore, we hypothesized that administration of this low dose on a chronic, intermittent schedule might impact behaviors relevant to mood and anxiety that involve the PFC.

Here, we demonstrate that chronic (∼2 months), intermittent (every third day), low (1 mg/kg) doses of DMT facilitate fear extinction learning and reduce immobility in the forced swim test without producing the anxiogenic-like effects characteristic of a high dose (10 mg/kg). Taken together, the data presented here suggest that subpsychedelic doses of psychedelic compounds might possess value for treating and/or preventing mood and anxiety disorders. Despite the therapeutic potential of psychedelic microdosing, this practice is not without risks, and future studies need to better define the potential for negative neurobiological or metabolic repercussions.

Despite the potential risks associated with psychedelic microdosing, the data presented here suggest several exciting possibilities for the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders. First, a chronic intermittent dosing regimen lends itself to the potential prophylactic treatment of neuropsychiatric diseases. As acute doses of serotonergic psychedelics produce similar effects as an acute dose of the psychoplastogen ketamine, and ketamine has demonstrated promise for preventing stress-induced depression- and anxiety-related phenotypes in animal models, it will be interesting to see if psychedelic microdosing is also capable of preventing the development of depression and anxiety symptoms. Second, the ability of low doses of DMT to produce positive effects on mood and anxiety suggests that the perceptual effects of psychedelics can be decoupled from their therapeutic properties. This could lead to the development of non-psychedelic psychoplastogens with broad therapeutic potential and minimal risk for abuse. Taken together, our results encourage cautious optimism about the potential for psychedelic microdosing to produce beneficial effects on depression and anxiety.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acschemneuro.8b00692​

 

[mr peabody]

Why Kava is a beautiful, legal way to treat anxiety

by Madison Margolin | Doubleblind | 29 April 2020

I had my first experience with Kava a few years ago, sipping it from a latte in the corner of a brick coffee house in Bushwick, where the menu was filled with other trendy add-ins like kratom and CBD. A far cry from the tropics of Fiji, where much of the world’s kava originates, my Brooklyn kava latte—if not authentic, per se—speaks to the growing popularity of the root, especially for those looking for herbal alternatives to alcohol.

Native to the South Pacific, kava—a.k.a. awa in Hawaiian, ava in Samoan, and yaqona in Fijian—derives its name from the Tongan and Marquesan word for “bitter.” Related to the pepper family, kava is known for its mild, mellow, and calming effect, and can even help with sleep or muscle pain, says Naoshi Grady, founder of Potent Kava, a small family-run company based out of Kauai. “Generally, it’s a social drink that brings family and friends together,” he says. “Traditionally, we drink it out of a big tanoa, a big wooden bowl that’s the kind of bowl they drank kava out of for centuries, talking, sitting cross legged, usually in a circle—in a kava hut or shack.”

According to Hawaiin mythology, Kane and Kanaloa, the gods of water and fertility, brought kava to Hawaii from Kahiki, the heart of Polynesia. “It’s been in Hawaii for hundreds of years, used socially, and in spiritual or religious ceremonies,” Grady explains. Used as a sacrifice to the gods, or in ceremonies such as for the upcoming planting season or to pray for rain, kava has helped people feel connected to the gods and communicate with them. Each region throughout the Pacific has its own particular kava practices—whether that’s presenting kava to the village chief for permission to go fishing, closing a business deal, or settling a dispute—but in Hawaii, Grady says “pretty much anytime is kava time,” be it for a birthday, a funeral, a milestone, a celebration, or simply a get-together.

Like cannabis, kava comes in different varieties, with each strain offering different effects. “It’s not a psychedelic,” Grady distinguishes. “You just get mental clarity and relaxation.” Kava is a long term crop, he adds, taking about three to five years to mature. While it grows wild in certain valleys, those who cultivate it need to prep the ground and area—ideally somewhere in the mountains with a good water supply.

Growing up, Grady traveled to Fiji often with his father, who bought a kava farm there. “He grew some kava down there when I was still a little kid, and got super into the whole thing, exporting it back to Hawaii, where people were selling it,” Grady says. “So I fell into it, and started to farm it, too, in Hawaii.” Now he says there’s an emerging market on the mainland, too, serving spots like that Brooklyn kava cafe.

Naoshi Grady, founder of Potent Kava, grew up around Kava on his father’s farm in Fiji.

To prepare kava, you need to mash up the root and mix it with water, before straining it to your desired viscosity. “You knead it with your hands in a strainer, then you strain up all the fibers, then you sit down in a circle and do your kava protocol,” says Grady. “And then you serve it up with half coconut shells and say mahalo ka Awa—giving thanks to the kava.”

To the kanaka or native Hawaiian way of life, which includes hunting, fishing, and gathering, says Grady, kava is integral. “One of the most important plants in our culture, in all of the Pacific, is the kava plant.” It’s a way of life that in some ways couldn’t be more opposite from a dark corner of that Brooklyn cafe—but perhaps a taste of that slow, mellow, island life is what the rest of us on the mainland need, especially in hustle hubs like New York. Not only exporting a root, the Pacific islands are exporting a culture with much to teach us about unwinding into a greater presence of mind.

Why Kava is a Beautiful, Legal Way to Treat Anxiety, Build Community, and Create Ritual

Kava is known for its sedative, mellow effect. Now DoubleBlind has partnered with the Hawaiian-based Potent Kava so readers can enjoy it, too.

doubleblindmag.com

 

[mr peabody]

Socially anxious people are taking MDMA to cope

by Shayla Love | VICE

Chris* had never been comfortable in large social settings, he'd rather hang out in small groups of close friends. But as a young man living in the heart of London, he kept finding himself at big parties and outings, and drinking heavily to cope.

That is, until he tried MDMA. When he took the psychedelic for the first time at 18, "it felt like an answer to something," said Chris, who is now 37. "Everything suddenly felt very different. Quickly, it became the only way that I felt comfortable."

The anxiety that Chris experienced is very common. About 15 million Americans have been diagnosed with social anxiety—which is characterized by the fear of what others think about you, worrying they're judging you, that you'll mess up and say something stupid or wrong. It’s the second most-diagnosed anxiety disorder in the country.

While it's not unusual for people to turn to alcohol for liquid courage, a subset reach for harder drugs like MDMA, and other psychedelics, like magic mushrooms, ketamine, and LSD, for social lubrication. They say the drugs help them interact with people in a new, elevated way, whether it be at a party, concert, or work event.

The therapeutic effects of these drugs work best in tandem with therapy and guidance from an expert, and MDMA actually has a history of being paired with psychotherapy to achieve greater mental well-being. Today, since it and other psychedelics are illegal, people have been seeking out these benefits on their own, despite the risks of doing so.

But we are in the midst of what some are calling a psychedelic renaissance. The illegal drugs relegated to rave and hippie culture have been popping up in clinical trials at top universities all over the world. Psychedelics have garnered preliminary evidence that they could be effective in treating conditions like depression, PTSD, or anxiety. So what about social anxiety?

The increasing research on these compounds is leading to an understanding of what they do in the brain to create those warm fuzzy feelings, to explain what people like Chris have been noticing. “It shaped all my relationships, most of my friends," Chris said. "It’s hard to imagine what my life would have been like without it.”

The pharmaceutical company Merck first synthesized MDMA in 1912, but no one tried it until the 1970s. A chemist from California named Alexander Shulgin used himself as a guinea pig, writing of the experience, "I feel absolutely clean inside, and there is nothing but pure euphoria. I have never felt so great or believed this to be possible…I am overcome by the profoundness of the experience.”

Shulgin shared the drug with a California psychotherapist, Leo Zeff, who had been using other psychedelics in his practice. Zeff subsequently gave MDMA to around 4,000 patients and trained more than 150 other therapists to use it in between 1977 and 1985. At a conference called MDMA in Psychotherapy, held right before MDMA became illegal in 1985, therapists discussed how MDMA had the ability to open a person up, make their emotions more intense, and give them access to closed-off memories and insights.

In the 1960s, psychiatrist Claudio Naranjo found that it helped people get along in group therapy settings, to trust and empathize with each other. Around the same time, the drug even began to be used in couples therapy for this reason. A psychiatrist named Rick Ingrasci treated 100 patients with MDMA, about a third of them couples. He wrote that “what MDMA does is actually remove the fear of being real, of being authentic with yourself and with other people.”

“You basically couldn’t design a molecule that is better for therapy than MDMA," psychiatrist Julie Holland told The Guardian this past April. And yet, in 1985, the drug was labeled as a Schedule 1 drug, despite protestation from many clinicians—essentially halting research on its therapeutic applications.

The first time Greg Ferenstein, a data scientist in San Francisco, took MDMA, he thought it would be like an exaggerated experience of alcohol or Adderall. Then he started to gush about his emotions, “talking about the most intimate things about my life, and expressing gratitude and appreciation for my friends in ways that I didn't completely understand,” Ferenstein said. “I felt this wave of happiness and warmth, and I wanted to show my friends how much I appreciated them, and talk about very deep things about myself.”

Though MDMA is still illegal, these recreational and euphoric effects are well-known. Ferenstein said he takes different psychedelics in all settings, like conferences for work, where there can be an anxiety around impressing people. He didn't consider himself an extremely socially anxious person before drugs, but they made him a better listener, more gracious, appreciative and less selfish. “One of the ways I know a psychedelic is working is when it’s harder to talk about myself,” he said.

The use of psychedelics for social anxiety “has been going on for a long time,” said Guy Jones, a chemist who helps run The Loop, a drug safety testing lab at festivals and events in the U.K. "MDMA is perhaps the most obvious and well-known for its pro-social effects, but I’ve also spoken to people who have found that psychedelics have left them with longer-lasting improvements while sober as a result of introspections they had while intoxicated."

There has been only one recent study specifically on social anxiety and the effects of MDMA, led by Alicia Danforth, a clinical psychologist who has researched MDMA and psilocybin-assisted therapy. At Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, she and her colleagues gave MDMA to a group of autistic adults in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled experiment from 2018.

"Moderate to severe social anxiety is common in people with autism," Danforth said, "so they wanted to explore how MDMA could help with the social anxiety in a population with an increased need for treatment."

In her participants, she found that the ones who got MDMA in their therapy sessions had a fast and long-lasting decrease in their social anxiety symptoms. “We continue to hear from some participants who check in to tell us, years after treatment, that they are still experiencing less social anxiety at college, at work, in romantic relationships, and in everyday life,” she said.

The resurgence in research on MDMA, psilocybin, and LSD in healthy volunteers is revealing the mechanisms of how they could be achieving this: The drugs boost positive emotions while also lowering how much we perceive negative social cues, like angry and scared facial expressions, and they dull the pain of social rejection.

A study from 2013 found that ketamine and psilocybin change the electrical response of the brain to neutral and fearful faces. If people were shown a picture of a person with an angry or upset face, subjects on drugs didn’t recognize the negative emotions as easily. "This could be a factor for why if they were in a group or social setting, the social anxiety would be lessened,” said José Carlos Bouso, a psychologist and pharmacologist at the International Center for Ethnobotanical Education, Research and Service (ICEERS) in Spain.

Similarly, MDMA doesn’t just make people feel good, it may blunt their ability to notice the bad. In 2010, researchers found that MDMA lowered people's ability to detect threatening facial expressions. If people aren’t able to detect negative emotions, it might make social interactions more appealing.

Meanwhile, people with mood disorders like depression and anxiety tend to pay more attention to negative expressions and have heightened brain responses to threats. This may explain one of the ways other psychedelics, like magic mushrooms, have been helping in clinical trials of people with depression.

Psychedelics may also change the way we feel about being excluded socially. Scientists studied this through an activity called Cyberball, in which participants play a virtual game of toss and catch, but over the course of the game, get left out by other avatars in the group. Those with various mental health issues, including depression and anxiety, are more sensitive to this social exclusion.

On MDMA, people said that their mood and self-esteem wasn’t as affected by being skipped over in Cyberball. And since social pain, or the pain of being rejected or excluded, is associated with increased brain activity in certain regions, scientists found that taking mushrooms, reduced activation in several of them.

Many psychedelics lead to a reduction of activity in the amygdala, a region of the brain that processes emotions, including fear, Bouso said, and psychedelics interact with serotonin in the brain, a brain chemical associated with mood. MDMA also promotes the release of oxytocin, a hormone that affiliated with social behaviors, to create feelings of social affiliation while lowering negative responses to social rejection.

Not noticing negative social cues, not feeling excluded, a decrease in fear—the combination of all these effects could lead to more enjoyable, empathetic, and profound interactions with others. Translating them to a treatment for social anxiety requires an additional step, though: Not just taking psychedelics but getting talk therapy while you trip.

"We still have a lot to learn about psychedelics, and teasing apart which drug—MDMA, mushrooms, ketamine, or LSD—works best for specific kinds of anxiety, and when," Jones said. "The burgeoning state of the research means that these drugs can often get rolled up altogether, when their mechanisms of treatment and risks could be quite different."

"Along with the impacts on the brain, MDMA might be an opportunity to practice social skills," Danforth said, "like training wheels for interpersonal interactions. Then, when people remember what they were able to do while on MDMA, they can approach daily life with more confidence."

She wants to try a similar approach in adults without autism soon, the kind who regularly use alcohol to make it through social situations, like Chris before he tried MDMA. Danforth thinks that as far as substances go, psychedelics as a group could be more therapeutically productive than alcohol. "Alcohol can temporarily reduce social fears and serve as a means of avoidance," she said, "and it reduces the activity of the frontal lobe, where our brain makes decisions, plans, and performs reasoning. MDMA increases activity in the frontal lobe, while decreasing activity in the amygdala." While alcohol reduces our awareness, Buoso said, it can also increase violence and other non-social behaviors. “On the contrary, MDMA is a very peaceful substance,” he said.

“I don't see where people learn a whole lot about themselves or improve their capacity to function when they're intoxicated with alcohol,” said Charles Grob, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA and co-author on Danforth's paper. “On the other hand with MDMA within a therapeutic context, it's a learning experience and it's a guided learning experience and the individuals learn something about themselves."

Ferenstein still regularly takes psychedelics, and said he sees them as a tool for personal growth. “I’ve done them for conferences, I've done them for conference calls, birthdays, weddings," he said. "I like to do them in almost any situation I can get my hands on. I like to send emails on them, Tweet on them. I like to see how I am different in lots of different ways.”

"While taking psychedelics without the guidance of a professional can be dangerous, especially for those with a history of mental health issues, it makes sense that people are seeking them out," says Ben Sessa, a psychiatrist who studies and practices MDMA-assisted psychotherapy.

“People are desperate for help,” Sessa said. “They are increasingly finding that traditional psychopharmacological options are letting them down, so they are turning to alternative options—even ones that are illegal and unlicensed.”

A crucial part of taking full advantage of these therapeutic properties is to combine these drugs with a psychotherapy habit in which many or most of the sessions don’t include drugs. “A great deal of support and integration is required to make sense of such experiences,” Sessa said. “When done in a facilitative environment, with adequate support, psychedelics can be very useful."

"Without a trained therapist, and in the kinds of settings that people often take these drugs, it can be impossible to push the experience in a healing direction. A dance floor is often not the right place to mentally relive traumatic childhood memories," he said.

Chris doesn't take drugs anymore, it's been about five or six years since he's touched anything. But his experiences stayed with him. "There’s definitely a very clear sense of unlocking a different way of thinking, a different sense of consciousness,” he said. “Even when the drug wears off, there is a lingering perspective on things that you can’t and don’t come back from.”

Socially Anxious People Are Taking MDMA and Other Psychedelics to Cope

Scientists say that combined with therapy, these drugs could be a promising treatment option.

www.vice.com

 

[mr peabody]

Researching Ketamine for Social Anxiety Disorder

by Cristela Tello Ruiz | Truffle Report | 9 Feb 2022

Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) is a persistent and excessive fear of social situations. It is also known as social phobia and is a serious medical and psychological condition going way beyond being shy or having poor social skills. Lately, a conversation has been emerging about whether psychedelic therapy can help with social anxiety. Substances like LSD seem to be very effective when treating generalized anxiety disorder, and ketamine has been proven to work extremely well for other conditions such as treatment-resistant depression. Could ketamine-assisted therapy help treat social anxiety disorder?

SAD involves extreme fear or anxiety about being ridiculed or scrutinized in social situations and lasts at least six months. This fear can cause significant distress and negatively impact an individual’s quality of life. The average age of onset in SAD patients is between 10 to 13 years, and SAD is rarely diagnosed after the age of 25.

While there is no single concrete reason known as to why people with anxiety disorders develop symptoms, research suggests that like most mental health conditions, social anxiety might be caused due to a combination of biological and psychological factors, as well as traumatic life experiences. Symptoms of social anxiety disorder generally occur before the age of 18, and women are slightly more likely than men to be affected by this condition.

Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) is the most effective treatment so far for social anxiety disorder. This behavioural therapy may also include exposure therapy, which involves direct or imagined controlled exposure to things or circumstances that cause anxiety. Anti-anxiety medications and traditional antidepressants as conventional treatments have also been shown to be useful, and many individuals receive a combination of medication and CBT to facilitate maximum effects on anxiety symptoms.

MDMA-assisted therapy for Social Anxiety Disorder in autistic adults

Before diving into how ketamine can help patients with treatment of social anxiety, it is important to have a bit of background. Other psychedelics have successfully been used to treat social anxiety, including MDMA. A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled exploratory pilot study was conducted by MAPS and UCLA to assess the viability of MDMA-assisted therapy for social anxiety in adults on the autism spectrum. This was the chosen population because research suggests that autistic adults are more likely to experience social anxiety.

For this study, 12 participants were selected to take part in two blinded experimental sessions in which they received either MDMA (75 to 125 mg) or a placebo substance. Each of the sessions lasted seven hours. The participants went through three distinct hour-long preparatory sessions before each experimental session to learn what to expect and complete pre-treatment assignments. Subjects also got three separate hour-long integrative sessions after each experimental therapy to help them integrate their experiences.

When compared to the placebo group, the active treatment group showed some reduction in social anxiety indicators. Overall, the experiment demonstrated that MDMA might be a feasible therapeutic option for autistic individuals suffering from social anxiety. However, in order to achieve more certain conclusions, these preliminary findings must be investigated in bigger samples. While the sample was very small, this study is a good stepping stone into researching how other psychedelic substances could assist with social anxiety in a wide variety of populations, including, of course, adults outside of the autistic spectrum.

How does Ketamine work as a treatment for anxiety?

Researchers have found that the effects of ketamine for treatment of social anxiety disorder can be quite helpful. The human brain is made up of several complex and comprehensive chemical processes. Ketamine can help with anxiety disorders because of how the substance interacts with these processes as well as the brain chemicals and receptors.

Ketamine is an NMDA receptor antagonist and an AMPA (Alpha-Amino-3-Hydroxy-5-Methyl-4- Isoxazole Propionic Acid) receptor stimulator. AMPA has a variety of biological functions in the brain, including the production of new receptors and synapses, which connect neurons. Deficits in the normal mechanism, functioning, and interactions of these receptors have been linked to mood disorders including depression and social anxiety.

On the other hand, glutamate is a key factor in the formation of brain synapses and is required for normal brain function. It can be found in around 80 percent of neurons. Glutamate. However, excessive amounts of this amino acid can cause overstimulation, tension, anxiety, and other unpleasant symptoms. Ketamine, being an NMDA receptor inhibitor, effectively balances out the production of glutamate.

Ketamine Infusion Therapy for Social Anxiety Disorder

A randomized, placebo-controlled crossover clinical trial to determine the effectiveness of ketamine when treating social anxiety disorder was conducted by Yale University from 2014 to 2016. For this trial, 18 adults with social anxiety disorder were selected and randomized into two different treatment arms. One group received an intravenous ketamine infusion (0.5 mg of ketamine per kilogram of body weight) and the other received a placebo saline solution. Ketamine and placebo infusions were administered in random order with a 28-day washout period between infusions. This means that each participant received either ketamine or placebo infusion on Day 0; then on Day 28, the participant received whichever infusion they did not get on Day 0. Assessments were conducted pre-infusion, three hours post-infusion, and on days one through 10 and 14 post-infusion.

Ketamine showed a significant positive effect in reducing symptoms of social anxiety compared to the placebo. It also showed a significant reduction in fear, avoidance and other clinical outcomes. It did not, however, significantly reduce comorbid depressive symptoms in the 12 subjects with comorbid depressive disorder. It was also overall very well tolerated by the subjects and did not cause any unpleasant side effects. While this study is a few years old, it is a foundation for more studies to come. Also, it is important to note that several psychedelic-inspired ketamine clinics have since begun to offer ketamine-assisted therapy for the treatment of anxiety disorders with significant success.

Risks and side effects of Ketamine treatments

Compared to other psychiatric drugs like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or anxiolytics, ketamine has been shown to have few adverse effects when used to treat social anxiety disorders. Unlike other common medications used to treat mood disorders that have a variety of major side effects, ketamine has just a few minor adverse effects that usually go away within a few hours of the treatment ending.

Some of the short-term side effects include hallucinations, disorientation, diminished environmental awareness and short-term memory loss. These are very rare when ketamine therapy is administered a clinical setting. Ketamine treatments also acts significantly faster than most drugs used to treat mood disorders, which might take several weeks before showing any significant results mitigating body and mood symptoms in patients.

Truffle Report has previously discussed these risks, as well of the effects of as little as a single dose infusion or esketamine nasal spray on depressed patients, with practitioners of various ketamine clinics throughout North America. Despite the promise for these treatments, the potential benefits of ketamine in combating patient anxiety levels should always be weighed against the possibility of dependence or other adverse events.

Researching Ketamine for Social Anxiety Disorder

- Ketamine has been proven to work well for conditions such as depression. Could ketamine-assisted therapy also treat social anxiety disorder?

www.truffle.report

 

[mr peabody]

New study reveals the neurobiological mechanisms by which LSD could relieve anxiety

TruHavn | 18 Apr 2022

The craze for psychedelics used for therapeutic purposes is real. However, the scientific evidence supporting their effectiveness and explaining their mode of action in treating mental health disorders is still very thin. A new study led by Dr. Gabriella Gobbi, a senior scientist in the Brain Repair and Integrative Neuroscience (BRaIN) Program at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC), sheds light on previously unexplained neurobiological mechanisms by which LSD is believed to relieve anxiety.

While preliminary studies suggested that psychotherapy-assisted microdosing was effective in alleviating anxiety and depressive symptoms in people with severe psychiatric or neurological problems, the biological mechanisms underlying these effects had remained unclear to date. The study conducted by Dr. Gobbi's team demonstrates for the first time that regular administration of low doses of LSD reduces anxiety symptoms through neurobiological mechanisms that are similar to some commonly prescribed classes of antidepressants and anxiolytics : selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). SSRIs are better known by their trade names: Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa, Cipralex, etc.

“Our lack of knowledge of the biological processes associated with psychedelic drugs hinders the development of potential new treatments,” says Dr. Gabriella Gobbi, also a Professor and Head of the Neurobiological Psychiatry Unit in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University. “Understanding the mechanisms of action and efficacy of psychedelics will allow us to develop a more precise indication of hallucinogenic drugs for psychiatric and neurological diseases,” she says.

The study, which was published today in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, was conducted in collaboration with researchers in psychiatry at McGill University, as well as researchers in neuroscience at Vita Salute San Raffaele University and in Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences at the University of Padua, Italy.

Neurobiological mechanisms under the microscope

According to the results of the study, the use of LSD increases the nervous transmission of serotonin, also called 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT). Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that plays an essential role in the state of well-being. It has been shown that prolonged periods of stress result in a decrease in the activity of the neurons that transmit serotonin (5-HT neurons). Like the SSRI antidepressants, LSD is believed to desensitize the receptors, which decrease the electrical activity of serotonin on these neurons, thereby stimulating them to release more serotonin.

Dr. Gobbi's study also found that low doses of LSD promoted the formation of new dendritic spines in rodents. These spines are the branches of neurons that are responsible for transmitting the electrical signal to the nerve cell body. “We have shown that LSD can rebuild these branches that are 'dismantled' due to stress. This is a sign of brain plasticity,” explains Dr. Danilo De Gregorio, who is today an Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at San Raffaele University in Milan and first author of the study.

The research team evaluated the administration of low doses of LSD over a period of seven days on a group of mouse models subjected to chronic stress conditions. Repeated doses showed optimal results in decreasing anxiety-like behaviors caused by stress. More studies are needed to demonstrate the drug effectiveness for depressive and anxiety disorders in humans and the inherent mechanisms of action.

Another study by Dr. Gobbi, published in 2016, had already shown that low doses of LSD affected only the nerve transmission of serotonin while higher doses affected the dopamine system, causing the psychotic effects.

“I began my research on psychedelics several years ago out of personal curiosity. How is it possible that a simple drug can change your state of mind so profoundly? What is its mechanism of action? To my surprise, this research is now in the spotlight,” says Dr. Gobbi. The next step for her team will be to evaluate the mechanisms of action of other psychedelic substances, such as psilocybin (an active component of magic mushrooms) and ketamine.

Caution and patience required

There have been no major advances in psychiatric care in the last decade. It is essential to develop new therapeutic alternatives, because for a proportion of people with serious mental health problems, current treatments are not working. LSD, psilocybin, Ayahuasca and MDMA are among the drugs that are being developed to treat various psychiatric disorders such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction, as well as certain neurodegenerative diseases. Health Canada authorized the use of psychedelic drugs in a very strict clinical setting last January.

However, there is still a long way to go, says Dr. Gobbi. “Interest in LSD stems from its ability to influence serotonin levels and produce feelings of happiness, confidence and empathy as well as improvement of social behavior. However, more studies are needed to identify safe and effective therapeutic uses, as psychedelics can cause psychosis and neurotoxic effects,” says the researcher, who warns the public about the dangers of self-medicating with illegal drugs.

About the study

The study Repeated lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) reverses stress-induced anxiety-like behaviour, cortical synaptogenesis deficits and serotonergic neurotransmission decline was conducted by Gabriella Gobbi, Danilo De Gregorio, Antonio Inserra, Justine P. Enns, Athanasios Markopoulos, Michael Pileggi, Youssef El Rahimy, Martha Lopez-Canul and Stefano Comai.

DOI: 10.1038/s41386-022-01301-9

LSD: A Future Anti-Anxiety Pill?

A new study by McGill University’s Dr. Gabriella Gobbi reveals the neurobiological mechanisms by which LSD could relieve anxiety.

www.nxtpsychedelics.com

 

[mr peabody]

FDA clears LSD drug trial for Anxiety*

by Alexis Pellek | PSYCOM PRO | 14 Feb 2022

What’s happening – The FDA has cleared the INDA for the LSD-based drug MM-120 (Mind Medicine Inc.) to proceed with a Phase 2b trial to treat generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The upcoming trial, expected to launch in early 2022, will study 200 participants with GAD. Participants will receive a single dose of MM-120 or placebo and will be followed for 12 weeks.

Why it’s noteworthy – The GAD trial marks the first commercial study of LSD in more than 40 years, with the company’s CEO calling it “a major milestone, for MindMed and for the industry as a whole” in a company release.

Related Studies & Perspectives ​

• Low doses of LSD may be a potential treatment for conditions involving problems with memory and language processing, such as brain injury, stroke and dementia, according to a study by Wießner et al that evaluated the effects of LSD on cognition.​
• Microdosing, or the practice of taking a sub-hallucinogenic dose of a psychedelic at regular intervals, can reduce anxiety, depression, and stress according to anecdotal reports and observational studies, and it was investigated recently in two separate clinical trials. Researchers found that microdosing LSD had “negligible” effects on mood and cognition while a related study found that microdoses of psilocybin did not affect symptoms of anxiety and depression compared with placebo.​
• A report in Vice explores the potential of psychedelics to move beyond psychiatric applications and help treat chronic pain.​
• See who’s tweeting about LSD and psychedelics for anxiety: @PsilocybinAlpha, @Dra_TeraizaMesa, @mindmedco, @matthabusby, @RachelYehuda​

In Practice ​

• A quick primer on psychedelic-assisted therapy​
• How to respond when patients ask to try psychedelics​
• SSRI treatment for anxiety​

*From the article here :

https://pro.psycom.net/news-research/weekly-round-ups/week-of-february-14-2022

 

[mr peabody]

I tried to write a novel over lockdown with the help of psychedelics

That, plus yoga, concentration apps and the old reliable of never reading the news.

by David Hillier | VICE | 9 Jul 2022

Lockdown started with a flurry of articles explaining why this period of mass global anxiety was not the time to be struck by productivity guilt. On social media, self-appointed mental health mavens like Matt Haig and Jameela Jamil talked persuasively about the acceptability of eating crisps and watching Netflix all day. I dutifully followed their advice for two weeks and felt content that I wasn't working on the novel I'd been stuttering though for 16 months.

Then I read an article in The Guardian that reported a spike in submissions to publishers, and became overcome by a conviction that this strange new era offered an unparalleled opportunity. So I challenged myself to complete the manuscript – around 50,000 words of an initial 100,000, and my first novel other than a bizarre semi-fictional travelogue written on the carousel of heartbreak many years ago.

To make it interesting, I'd nudge things along with a series of lockdown-friendly life hacks that would hopefully see me embark on an unprecedented roll of around 1,700 words a day. Spoiler alert: the results were mixed.

Week One – Microdosing

Over the last five years, microdosing – ingesting an undetectable dose of a psychedelic like LSD, psilocybin or DMT – has gained traction as a tool for enhancing creativity, with a preliminary 2018 study in the Netherlands providing wary support for psilocybin, AKA magic mushrooms. I'm no psychonaut, but I have taken mushrooms recreationally around ten times, written about them fairly robustly, and recently emerged from a period of therapy feeling mentally fitter than ever.

I bought a "journey" comprised of a tincture containing psilocybin-infused liquid, and caps with 0.10 grams of ground-up mushrooms. In retrospect, I shouldn't have started on a Monday following a boozy weekend of Zoom calls, as I was already afflicted by some creeping hangxiety. But I tried three days with the tincture, which gave me an earthy, alcohol-like pulse underneath my tongue, and it was a perfectly abject debacle. Instead of airily composing 2,000 words of florid-yet-focused prose a day, I spent Monday to Thursday with my mind chewing like an angry dog on my own loneliness and inanity, topped off with a dose of anxiety about the likelihood of imminent doom for myself and everyone else on Earth.

I later spoke to Jonathan Hoban, therapist and author of Walk With Your Wolf, who said: "There's a lot of free-floating anxiety around, and this time magnifies everything you're already sitting with. If you're a sensitive person, that will be heightened."

I should have spoken to Jonathan before I started taking psychedelics on a daily basis: ingesting a substance – even in minuscule amounts – that may enhance your emotional connectivity and clarity of thought might not have been such a good idea during this particular moment in history. Especially for someone who's already prone to anxious pursuits, nursing a three-day hangover and irretrievably alone in a dangerous world.

Anyway, I regretfully sacked the mushies off after crying during the news and sheepishly emailed my editor, because, full disclosure, this article was originally going to be titled, "Could I Microdose For A Month And Finish My Novel During Lockdown?"

WORD COUNT: 802 words of 50,000.

Week Two – Avoiding the News

I recalibrated the overall target to 70,000 words – so 20,000 in a month, rather than 50,000 – after discovering the "goal-gradient hypothesises", a theory posited by behavioural psychologist Clark Hull that states our efforts increase as we get closer to a goal. I felt 70,000 was the landmark point where I'd definitely finish the book, so, with science at my side, started the next "hack."

British research from 1997 found that negative TV bulletins facilitate lower moods and the "catastrophising of personal worries," while in another survey 56 percent of Americans said news causes them stress. Even the World Health Organisation released a statement suggesting we should think about minimising our news watching during coronavirus.

I didn't engage with Kuenssberg, Snow or Freedland, or dive into the Twitter bear-pit, all week. The results were stark: I'd written 5,000 words by Thursday. Normally I would have felt twitchy and uniformed, but, for me, life had temporarily boiled down to some key objectives: don't get sick and, if you do, stop other people getting your malady.

Graham Davey, the facilitator of the 1997 British research – and Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Sussex – told me that "in the absence of any real facts about when lockdown will end, or how it will end, news programmes and journalists have tended towards emphasising worse-case scenarios. Negatively sensationalised news causes feelings of anxiety and sometimes sadness, which in turn will fuel our own worries and stresses."

I did have a small wobble on the Friday, so went to bed at 2PM and watched all of Race Across The World. I chewed through more words that weekend, before taking some pictures of myself and my dog. The challenge was alive!

WORD COUNT: 6,725 words of 20,000.

Week 3 – Sunrise Yoga with Adriene

Like some 7 million subscribers, I had discovered the online oeuvre of Adriene Mishler, namesake and founder of the Yoga With Adriene YouTube channel. There's some research about yoga's effect on anxiety, brain health and quality of life, so, anecdotally, one could assume a sunrise (ish) blast would lay the foundations for a productive #amwriting day. Initially, it was a success: I was writing about 800 words a day, and I felt good about the book (!) and myself (!!), even if the pictures suggest my downward dog needed attention.

Then the sky fell in. I'd started reading the news again (the death toll had doubled to 16,000 since the last time I looked), I hurt myself on my rowing machine, so couldn't exercise, and it got sunny. This terrible trifecta blew the challenge totally off course, and I stopped doing the yoga. In fact, I stopped doing anything other than drinking Deliveroo'd beer in the afternoon and getting vile bouts of imposter syndrome from reading Medium articles with titles like "The Daily Routines of 20 Famous Writers," which espoused the sanctity of sitting at one's writing throne for hours, whatever the meteorological or psychological weather.

I then finished London Fields and thought I'd never write something that good, so, really, what was the point in trying? My personal worries – embarrassingly inconsequential compared to those affected firsthand by this vindictive virus – were nevertheless catastrophising, and made worse by comparing myself to everyone smugly posting their 5K NHS runs, while my daily exercise consisted of a solemn and lowly tup around some depressingly mainstream pornography.

WORD COUNT: 8,432 words of 20,000.

Week Four – Productivity Apps

In search of inspiration and affirmation, I emailed the literary agent Madeleine Milburn. As well as reporting a submissions spike, she said she thought "writers are finding the pandemic very distracting, and the constant news is making it hard to concentrate, even though they're getting more time." This made me less fraudulent, as did speaking with other writers. "Being stuck in fight or flight mode, or anxiety spirals, are pretty killer for creativity. My advice to would-be writers is: little and often – small, achievable goals," said author Tim Leach.

I asked Maddy for tips to get my first manuscript done. "I would try to get a complete first draft down while you've got momentum. Once you've finished, you can go back over it with a critical eye," she said. "Completing a first draft will fill you with confidence."

Confidence was certainly the tonic I craved, so I downloaded a programme called Write Or Die, used by authors like David Nicholls and Helen Oyeyemi. It's a basic processor where you set a target amount of words with a grace period of, say, 30 seconds. Stop writing for those 30 seconds and, depending on the mode you select, it will flash the screen red, bring up pictures of cat memes or start vindictively deleting your precious words.

Soon enough, I was chewing through the word count and began to find myself really enjoying writing for the first time in ages. Without delving too tediously into "process," the programme stopped me pondering the cosmic significance of every syllable in favour of allowing myself to get lost in the story, albeit in a hyper-focused way.

Which is all obviously very nice – but did I vault that magic 20,000? Well: no. I managed nearly 10,000 with Write Or Die, taking my total up to 18,126 words across the four weeks. But one of those weeks was my psychedelic Gallipoli, so I'm happy with that. Also, some words from therapist Jonathan Hoban have started sparkling brightly: "It's a time of huge uncertainty – take the pressure off, and you'll pick it up when you pick it up. You need to trust that."

For the first time ever, maybe I actually do.

FINAL WORD COUNT: 18,126 words of 20,000

@dhillierwrites

Does Microdosing Psychedelics Help You Concentrate?

That, plus yoga, concentration apps and the old reliable of never reading the news.

www.vice.com

 

[mr peabody]

I tried 20 anti-anxiety products, and these 10 actually work*

by Molly Longman | REFINERY29 | 5 Nov 2020

If your shoulders are tense, you're constantly on a deadline, or you're feeling anxiety about the future of democracy, you're not alone. There's a lot to worry about these days: Politics, of course. Relationships. The pressure to succeed in our jobs while working from home. How long is an acceptable amount of time to wait to text back your love interest? Ten minutes? Ten hours? Ten days? Speaking of counting the days, when was your last period — are you late? You get the point.

Life can turn you into a nail-biting ball of tension and nerves. Luckily, there are tons of remedies out there, from therapy to weighted blankets to peppermint tea.

For the record, there's a difference between feeling anxious and being diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, which is one of the most common mental health problems in America and deserves proper and professional care.

However, if you're just looking for something to help you chill out, we've taken it upon ourselves to test over 20 of the trendiest anti-anxiety and stress-reducing products out there. There were definitely some duds — puppy slippers, unique pillows, and cheesy journals didn't make the cut — but we basked in the 10 tranquilizing apps and knickknacks below until our heart rates were low, and our spirits were high.

Vitruvi Stone Diffuser

There are so many diffusers out there, but this one has safety features, and is produced cruelty free. As a bonus, it’s super cute from an interior design standpoint. Although there isn't enough conclusive research, Mayo Clinic notes that aromatherapy may have positive benefits such as relief from anxiety and improved sleep.

I use mine with a Vitruvi essential oil blend called Dusk, which is frankincense, eucalyptus, ho wood, and lavender. I keep it in my room, and I turn it on and close my door after particularly long days at work. It makes me feel as reborn as a caterpillar in a tiny, heavenly smelling cocoon of peace.

SPA Soothing Facial Treatment Mask

I keep one of these babies in the refrigerator at all times, in case a headache should strike. But feeling the cooling beads pressed against my forehead is soothing at any time, really. While waiting for 2020 election results, you can bet I had this baby strapped to my head. You can also warm it up in the microwave if you're looking for the "hot compress" effect.

A Funny Book

There are all kinds of great products out there that aim to de-stress, but nothing relaxes me more than sitting down for even 20 minutes with a great book. And during surreal times like these, a novel that'll make you smile isn't a bad choice. This one in particular by The Office's B. J. Novak never fails to give me a chuckle. There's a chapter about a sex robot named Sophia who grows attached to her human, and another about the man who invented the calendar.

This Works Pillow Spray

If you’re feeling amped up before bed, we’ve got the pillow spray for you. Before you fall asleep, spritz this onto your pillow, and breathe in deeply. The blend of sleep-friendly essential oils — including lavender, vetiver, and chamomile — is soothing to drift off to.

It’s not a cure-all for sleep anxiety, but it’s certainly a pleasant way to fall asleep. I use it anytime I find myself tossing, turning, or clock-counting. Plus, aromatherapy using essential oils such as lavender and roman chamomile can help improve sleep quality and anxiety levels, according to a small study published Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Herbivore Calm Dead Sea Bath Salts

If you're looking for something to make your baths even more relaxing than usual, we've found it. These bath salts look chic, feel chic, and even smell chic (thanks vanilla oil!). When you add 1/4 of the bottle to each bath, you'll emerge calmed, refreshed, smelling slightly like said vanilla, and ready to embark on one of the best night's sleep you'll ever have.

The Himalayan pink salts contain magnesium, zinc, and iron, which the brand calls "detoxifying," and Ylang Ylang essential oil only furthers the vanilla oils' aromatic mission.

A Plant from the Sill

Thanks to microbes in soil some are calling "outdoorphins," interacting with indoor plants can help reduce psychological and physiological stress, according to a study published in the Journal of Physiological Anthropology.

With that said, keeping a plant alive is a big responsibility, and the idea of killing a living creature can be anxiety-provoking. However, The Sill makes it easy for you. They’ll help you pick out your plant based on your needs, and give you a care card with explicit instructions. Plus, there’s an email you can reach out to if your green friends starts to wither and you don’t know why. With the help of their resources, even the most nervous and semi-neglectful plant owners can keep their potted herbage flourishing.

Bearaby Blanket

I was very skeptical when I first received this blanket, mostly because it was heavy AF. My 20 pound napper came in a large cloth bag — the kind you’d usually use to tote laundry — and when I first picked it up, I thought it was surely full of tiny dumbbells. It stressed me out just thinking about carrying it all the way to my bed.

However, once I unfolded it, and thrust it up over my legs and torso, it felt like a weight was lifted from my shoulders and transformed into a magical cloak of relief. It was a weird sensation, but I felt like my Cortisol (the primary stress hormone) levels were plummeting, and I was ready to relax.

Some research has shown that sleeping under evenly dispersed weight can help deepen sleep cycles and lower anxiety and stress levels. Blankets like these mimic the sensation of being swaddled or hugged, and use Deep Touch Pressure which is said to stimulate the production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that helps us feel calm. If none of that works for you, know that Bearaby is a super environmentally friendly company, so buying these woven blankets is good for the planet.

For the record, when I first got my blanket, it smelled a little like a warehouse. However, that’s nothing that a few squirts of This Works Pillow Spray didn't fix.

Aveda Comforting Tea

Of all the products on this list, I’ve been hooked on this one the longest. It’s my tried and true go-to for a relaxing night in. Sipping on the herbal blend will help soothe you with its warmth and heavenly smell. It’s caffeine and sugar free, and there are no added flavorings. That may sound boring and flavorless to you, but I assure you it's delightful despite these marks. Licorice root and peppermint make it naturally sweet. If I could, I'd abandon my life as a writer, and go live out the rest of my days as a small Thumbelina-like being in one of these teabags. It’s that relaxing.

Muse 2: The Next Generation Meditation Headband

Once you figure out how to tie back your hair so none of your locks are blocking the headband’s sensors, this lightweight and nifty tool is helpful for relaxation and focus.

The headband connects to an app, which guides you through various meditations. Meanwhile, the sensors on the device are picking up on your brain activity, heart rate, breathing, and body movements, as you go through various techniques.

Thanks to all these trackers, you'll get in-the moment feedback about whether you're concentrating. If you're focused on your breathe, you'll hear birds chirping. If not, you'll hear the sound of thunder and stormy weather.

During a mediocre meditation session, the app's speaker compared my wandering thoughts to a puppy learning how to sit and stay. It takes some time to train the dog, but getting angry won't help him learn to sit. The same goes for your easily distracted brain.

In general, this kind of mindfulness meditation is good for curbing anxiety. Doing about 30 minutes of meditation daily has been shown to improve symptoms of anxiety and depression, a Johns Hopkins analysis found.

Himalayan Salt Lamp

This product is revamping the phrase “I love lamp.” No longer is it just an Anchorman quote slowly fading from pop culture’s memory — it's now a burgeoning wellness trend.

The first thing you should know is that the lamp is very pretty. Secondly, it’s reported to have a laundry list of health benefits, because of the negative ions it’s said to emit. It’s supposed to improve air quality, help the body sleep, and boost our moods. It's said to be a champion of those with depression and Seasonal Affective Disorder. There still isn’t enough research to back up all these claims, but after testing one, I did feel that my mood was in a better place. It could have been placebo, but this beauty earned itself a permanent spot on my night stand.

I Tried 20 Trendy Anti-Anxiety Products & These 10 Actually Work

From weighted blankets to peppermint tea, we tested the best products to help ease your anxiety and stress.

www.refinery29.com

 

[mr peabody]

LSD may be effective as an anxiety treatment*

by Marybeth Gallagher, RN and Rita Ponce, Ph.D. | Medical News Today | 30 Mar 2022

A new study found that psychedelic drugs such as LSD may be effective at reducing symptoms of stress-related anxiety and in mental health treatment.

The study’s research team was led by Dr. Gabriella Gobbi, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center (RI-MUHC) in Montreal, Canada.

The study, published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, also involved eight other neuroscientists and a collaboration between RI-MUHC, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Italy, and the Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences center at the University of Padua, Italy.

Dr. Danilo De Gregorio, an assistant professor of pharmacology at San Raffaele University, was the lead author of this research paper. Previous studies by Dr. De Gregorio and Dr. Gobbi to pinpoint the neurobiological mechanisms by which LSD relieves anxiety had been elusive and unclear.

Results from mice study

The researchers administered low doses of LSD to a group of 8-12-week old male mice over seven days; they weighed 25-30 grams. The mice were exposed to chronic restraint stress conditions and then given variable doses of LSD.

Head twitch responses representing the research target protocol were recorded and were commensurate with the varying amounts of LSD administered to the mice. Doses were repeated at specified time intervals to assess their behavioral and neurobiological responses.

The results showed that the intraperitoneal administration of LSD did not produce antidepressant or anti-anxiety effects in non-stressed mice. The administration of the mid-range dose of LSD per the protocol to the stressed mice prevented anxiety-like behaviors induced by stress and cellular changes in the brain induced by stress.

Repeated LSD administration also protected against worsening anxiety-like behaviors following chronic stress exposure, suggesting an anti-anxiety effect of repeated LSD under anxiety-provoking conditions.

The researchers found that although low dose LSD activated only the transmission of serotonin, higher doses, which stimulated the dopamine system, caused psychotic effects.

According to study results, low dose LSD increases the nervous transmission of serotonin, as do members of the drug class known as selective-serotonin-reuptake-inhibitors (SSRIs). These drugs are a class of antidepressants commonly used for stress-induced anxiety and depression.

Studies with humans

One study on healthy human subjects showed that treatment with LSD produced feelings of happiness, trust, empathy, positive social effects, and altruism when used as an adjunctive to psychotherapy.

More studies are needed to show LSD’s efficacy and mechanisms of action in treating depression and anxiety in humans. Earlier studies by Dr. Gobbi and her colleagues explored the adverse side effects of LSD.

Preliminary randomized controlled trials also demonstrated the effectiveness of LSD as an adjunct to psychotherapy in cases of individuals with life threatening illnesses. Participants reported sustained improvements in anxiety and stress for up to 12 months following two LSD-assisted psychotherapy sessions.

Positive effect on brain cell connectivity

Dr. Gobbi’s study discovered that low doses of LSD promoted new dendritic spines in rodents which are nerve branches that transmit electrical signals between nerve cells such as those found in the brain. These nerve branches can become damaged due to chronic stress, and evidence showed that LSD repaired these structures in the mice.

Dr. Gobbi told Medical News Today, “We were surprised about the neuroplastic effects of LSD, in particular the augmentation of spines in stressed mice, which indicates that LSD can facilitate new synapses.”

Dr. Gobbi’s next step will evaluate the mechanisms of action of psychedelic substances psilocybin and ketamine. Future studies will consider ayahuasca and MDMA to treat addiction, depression, PTSD, and anxiety.

Takeaway

When asked how her results could lead to future treatments, Dr. Gobbi explained to MNT, “One small published clinical trial has suggested that LSD may alleviate anxiety in life-threatened patients. These animal data can support the mechanism of action of this clinical effect.”

Dr. Hollander told MNT that recent research has increasingly studied the links between psychedelic medications and depression, anxiety, PTSD, drug addiction, and cancer.

“Psychedelic medications have been shown to be of some benefit in anxiety disorders such as PTSD, OCD,” said Dr. Hollander.

*From the article here :

Psychedelic drug LSD may be effective in anxiety treatment

Psychedelic drugs such as LDS may be effective at reducing stress-induced anxiety and in mental health treatment, a new study suggests.

www.medicalnewstoday.com

 

[mr peabody]

Can LSD treat Anxiety?

by Floris Wolswijk | LUCID | 31 May 2022

Psychedelics for anxiety have been significantly understudied.

While there was significant interest in the 1950s and 60s in the potential for LSD to treat anxiety, and over 20 studies at the time, since the turn of the century there have only been eight completed psychedelic clinical trials investigating the topic. Of these studies, most have looked at end-of-life anxiety. This leaves open a whole field of psychedelics for the betterment of mental health.

A new MindMed sponsored Phase II trial seeks to change the narrative and put anxiety research back on the map.

The MindMed study, led by Matthias Liechti and Friederike Holze, found significantly lower anxiety in 65% of the participants who had received two high doses of LSD (200 µg). Only 9% of those in the control group (both groups had about 20 participants) experienced a similar reduction. The anxiety reduction, measured as at least 30% lower anxiety scores, was still present 16 weeks later.

Considering the great potential, it is valuable to review the clinical trials to date and see what has been investigated and how much remains to be done.

The many faces of anxiety

Anxiety manifests in many different forms. Of these forms covered below, most of the researchers have been working on treating end-of-life anxiety (ELA).

ELA is characterized by excessive worrying, agitation, and restlessness about dying. Studies with psilocybin and MDMA have effectively treated ELA. One or two guided psychedelic sessions help those with ELA face their fears and live out the remaining months or years with more equanimity. A meta-analysis (study of studies) showed reductions in anxiety and depression up to six months later.

The use of psychedelics to treat another form of anxiety, social anxiety disorder (SAD), has also been researched. A preliminary study investigating MDMA for SAD in autistic adults found significant reductions in SAD, in most cases lasting, and even slightly improving, six months after the study.

If we group PTSD under anxiety disorders, many more studies show positive effects of MDMA and other psychedelics in treating long-term anxiety. But that being said, almost no studies have looked at generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). If someone is suffering from GAD they have excessive, exaggerated anxiety or worry about everyday life events for no apparent reason. Estimates put the prevalence of GAD at about the same range as PTSD, which is 3-3.5% of the US population.

Many psychedelic studies measure some form of anxiety. Researchers studying depression often include the STAI – State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. This measure often shows reductions in patient groups and healthy participants alike. Even if not explicitly targeted, anxiety is generally lower after psychedelic-assisted therapy.

This is the limited background against which the recent MindMed study was completed. There are clear signs that psychedelics can work for anxiety disorders, but few studies have put it to the test.

Two-thirds of patients have significant reductions in anxiety after two doses of LSD

The MindMed study is an investigator-initiated trial, meaning that the researchers have designed and led the trial. MindMed funded the research conducted by Liechti, Holze and the rest of the team at the University of Basel.

Commenting on the study results, Liechti is “extremely encouraged by the results, demonstrating the long-lasting and strong reduction in patients suffering from anxiety.” In the trial, a clinical response was seen in 13 out of 20 participants treated with LSD (≥ 30% reduction in STAI-G scores). The response is comparable to other psychedelic studies for depression and anxiety and far above the response in the placebo group, where only two participants showed a clinical response.

No specific therapy protocol was followed in the trial. This doesn’t mean that participants were given a heroic dose of LSD (equivalent to 40mg of psilocybin) and left to their own devices. They were in the experienced hands of Peter Gasser and his colleagues, who have worked with LSD (and MDMA) for decades.

But no specific therapeutic protocol was defined and most participants had their trips without too much interaction. Besides the acute dosing sessions, most participants engaged in more therapy, but the number of preparation and integration sessions is not known.

The lack of a standardized protocol may seem odd but is not too different from what actually happens in other trials. Though MAPS spells out specific therapeutic models, the definitions in their Phase III MDMA-assisted psychotherapy trial are broad enough to encompass anything from psychoanalytical to acceptance and commitment therapy.

While this level of flexibility may be less suitable for a clinical trial, it does reflect how psychedelic-assisted therapy will be provided in real-world situations.

Though the MindMed trial focuses on anxiety, the results also showed a “rapid and lasting reduction in comorbid depressive symptoms.” To Holze and Liechti, these findings are a positive sign for their upcoming Phase II trial of LSD for depression.

Matthew Baggot also shared this sentiment on Twitter, “These results should increase confidence that therapeutic effects are shared by psychedelics as a class.” He also raises the question, “Is LSD a competitive product, or is this just a proof-of-concept?” Here, Baggot is most likely alluding to the very long duration of LSD trips, making it all but unfeasible to use in clinical practice.

Other psychedelics have shown that depression can be significantly decreased even when someone experiences GAD. Most interesting may be the data from the TRANSFORM-2 trial. This 200-person study with esketamine showed that the reduction in depression was not lower for participants who were also suffering from GAD.

The TRANSFORM-2 study shows that a diagnosis of GAD does not prevent one from improving depression scores, whilst the MindMed study shows that both measures move in the right direction at the same time.

Where to go from here – broadening molecules and indications

The MindMed study has opened up new avenues in two areas of psychedelic research. First, it has re-engaged research into GAD by becoming the eighth clinical trial, and the largest to date, to examine psychedelics for anxiety. Second, it has dusted off research on LSD, which has seen one clinical trial for every five with psilocybin.

Speaking of psilocybin, researchers at Monash University in Australia, in partnership with Incannex Healthcare, plan to conduct the world’s first clinical trial investigating the use of psilocybin in the treatment of GAD. Led by Paul Liknaitzky, the researchers aim to recruit 72 participants making it the largest psychedelic trial in Australia.

Liknaitzky, head of Australia’s first psychedelic lab, earlier remarked on the value of the study. “Given the early yet highly promising results from other psilocybin trials for different conditions, this treatment may deliver a substantial step forward in the treatment of anxiety disorders.”

Does this mean we will see LSD for anxiety in Phase III trials? I’m afraid this isn’t likely soon. To take one step back, why even do the research with LSD? For researchers like Liechti and Holze, curiosity may be enough reason. But MindMed is spending money to acquire this data for a reason.

As a spokesperson from MindMed explained, “MindMed will be able to use the data gathered in this trial in future applications to the FDA and other regulatory authorities globally.” And that is not where the value of the data ends. Chief Medical Officer, Daniel Karlin, clarifies further that “These data can be used in support of a range of engagements with healthcare authorities, payers, and providers.”

Instead of classic LSD, MindMed plans to test their proprietary version of LSD, MM-120, in a Phase II clinical trial. While this trial had been put on hold, it received approval from regulators at the start of this year. Beginning this quarter, 200 participants will receive a single administration of 200µg of MM-120 or a placebo. Again, an explicit therapy protocol is not specified.

MindMed may have been the first out of the gate to announce results, but it isn’t the only company looking at using psychedelics to treat anxiety disorders. Cybin hopes to use a compound it has developed, CYB004, a molecule based on DMT, to treat both GAD and SAD.

This April, Cybin announced the results of preclinical work with CYB004. The molecule showed a rapid onset, a duration of action three times longer than DMT, and similar low variability achieved with a single inhalation compared with intravenous DMT.

A spokesperson from Cybin clarifies that CYB004 “enables the patient to stay in the therapeutic state for longer.” Still, the trip is much shorter than a psilocybin session. Speaking to that differentiation, the spokesperson states, “When considering which molecules to focus on what indication, it comes down to the characteristics of the psychedelic and of the indication. For instance, with CYB004, we know that DMT has a rapid onset of effect and is short-acting; therefore, using it as a potential treatment for anxiety fits well with these characteristics.”

Cybin is also pursuing treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD) with CYB003, and have just completed the FDA filing for a Phase I/IIa combined clinical trial. The reason for the different molecule – CYB003 is based on psilocybin – is the different treatment paradigm for MDD. The spokesperson states, “This is a condition that typically requires years of therapy or antidepressant medication, but a CYB003 may be able to induce months of remission from just a few doses.”

The clinical trials for CYB004 for anxiety are expected to start soon, and produce data by the end of 2022.

We can say with certainty that psychedelics can help those suffering from depression. Combining therapy and psychedelic molecules can also help those suffering from end-of-life anxiety and PTSD. So why not use psychedelics in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorders?

The recent MindMed study has opened up the possibility of using psychedelics for anxiety. Studies with other molecules, including a variation on LSD from MindMed, are set to be completed in the next two years. The work of Holze and Liechti has shown that psychedelics for anxiety can work. Now, we need to replicate these findings in more participants.

Can LSD Treat Anxiety? - Lucid News

The potential of LSD to address anxiety is supported by new clinical trial results.

www.lucid.news