Psychedelics

-Michael Pollan visits the resurgence of interest in the psychotherapeutic properties of psychedelic drugs in an essay in The New Yorker.

In 2014, then National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) director, Thomas Insel, speculated that ketamine “might be the most important breakthrough in antidepressant treatment in decades.” A recent review of the research suggests that while ketamine may produce a rapid short-term improvement in depression, the effect is short-lived and the potential for addiction and dependence warrants considerable caution.

New research contends that ketamine can reduce problematic alcohol use but does the data support the claims?

Researchers report that dangerous side effects are not being adequately reported in the trials of ketamine for depression.

Mo Costandi provides a brief history in The Guardian of research activities using psychedelic substances such as LSD for psychiatric and psychotherapeutic purposes. Costandi...

The Multi-Disciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies' Winter 2014 Bulletin is freely available. Among other articles, the issue includes a personal story of a patient,...

The Daily Telegraph reports on a warning published in the Medical Journal of Australia that urges doctors not to “jump the gun in prescribing patients the drug ketamine to treat depression.”

In this piece for TIME, Mandy Oaklander provides a comprehensive review of the current status of and potential future directions for the depression treatment industry. The...

People who have taken a psychedelic drug at least once have less suicidal thinking than the general population.

From Medical Xpress: Researchers have proposed that psychedelic drugs such as LSD and magic mushrooms may help some people with anxiety, depression, and addiction by dissolving...

The journal Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology has published a review of what is known about psychedelic drugs' biochemical effects in the human brain, their...

-Psychiatry Advisor reports on psychiatrist James Rucker's campaign for more research into the therapeutic potentials of psychedelic drugs, and on critics who point to the risks.

From The Globe and Mail: A judge has recently ruled that patients at a mental health facility in Ontario were tortured by doctors over a...

A psychiatrist at the University of Arizona was fired after state Republican Senators criticized her work to university officials, according to the New York...

From Scientific American: Although "normal" technically means average or typical, both researchers and the general public often view normality as a standard we should all...