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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: August 12, 2008 9:15:37 AM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Subject: New Hope with Dope
Clinical trials test potential of hallucinogenic drugs to help
patients with terminal illnesses
· First test of 'psychedelic psychotherapy' since 70s
· Researchers hope effects will improve quality of life
James Randerson
The Guardian, Tuesday August 12 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/aug/12/medicalresearch.drugs
Scientists are exploring the use of psychedelic drugs such as LSD to
treat a range of ailments from depression to cluster headaches and
obsessive compulsive disorder.
The first clinical trial using LSD since the 1970s began in
Switzerland in June. It aims to use "psychedelic psychotherapy" to
help patients with terminal illnesses come to terms with their
imminent mortality and so improve their quality of life.
Another psychedelic substance, psilocybin - the active ingredient in
magic mushrooms, has shown promising results in trials for treating
symptoms of terminal cancer patients. And researchers are using MDMA
(ecstasy) as an experimental treatment for post-traumatic stress
disorder.
In the Swiss trial eight subjects will receive a dose of 200
microgrammes of LSD. This is enough to induce a powerful psychedelic
experience and is comparable to what would be found in an "acid tab"
bought from a street drug dealer. A further four subjects will receive
a dose of 20 microgrammes. Every participant will know they have
received some LSD, but neither the subjects nor the researchers
observing them will know for certain who received the full dose.
During the course of therapy researchers will assess the patients'
anxiety levels, quality of life and pain levels.
Before hallucinogenic drugs became popular with the counter culture,
they were at the forefront of brain science. They were used to help
scientists understand the nature of consciousness and how the brain
works and as treatments for a range of conditions including alcohol
dependence.
Charles Grob, a professor of psychiatry at the Harbor-UCLA Medical
Centre, is in the vanguard of the resurgence of scientific interest in
psychedelics, having recently completed a trial that used psilocybin
to help patients with terminal cancer come to terms with their
illness. "I think there's a perception these compounds hold untapped
potential to help us understand the human mind," he said.
The way hallucinogens such as LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide),
psilocybin and mescaline (the active ingredient in the peyote cactus)
act on the brain is reasonably well understood by scientists. The
drugs stick to chemical receptors on nerve cells that normally bind
the neurotransmitter serotonin, which affects a broad range of brain
activities. But how this leads to the profoundly altered states of
consciousness, perception and mood that typically accompany a "trip"
is not known.
Prof Roland Griffiths at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in
Baltimore Maryland recently published a study of 36 healthy volunteers
who were given psilocybin and then observed in the lab. The
participants' ages ranged from 24 to 64 and none had taken
hallucinogens before. When the group were interviewed again 14 months
later 58% said they rated the experience as being among the five most
personally meaningful of their lives, 67% said it was in their top
five spiritual experiences, and 64% said it had increased their well-
being or life satisfaction.
"The working hypothesis is that if psilocybin or LSD can occasion
these experiences of great personal meaning and spiritual
significance ... then it would allow [patients with terminal
illnesses] hopefully to face their own demise completely differently -
to restructure some of the psychological angst that so often occurs
concurrently with severe disease," said Griffiths. So by expanding
their consciousness during a session on the drug, the patient is able
to comprehend their thoughts and feelings from a new perspective. This
can lead to a release of negative emotions that leaves them in a much
more positive state of mind.
Twelve patients with terminal cancer have already helped Grob to test
this idea and, although the research is not yet published, anecdotal
reports from some subjects are encouraging. Pamela Sakuda (see below)
was diagnosed with stage 4 colorectal cancer in December 2002. Her
husband, Norbert Litzinger, said the psilocybin treatment transformed
her outlook.
"Pamela had lost hope. She wasn't able to make plans for the future.
She wasn't able to engage the day as if she had a future left," he
said. Her "epiphany" during the treatment was the realisation that her
fear about the disease was destroying the remaining time she had left,
he said.
Despite fears that psychedelic drugs can induce psychosis, they are
comparatively safe when administered with the proper precautions and
with trained medical professionals present, according to a manual for
studying their effects, which was recently published in the Journal of
Psychopharmacology.
They do have a powerful effect on a person's perception and
consciousness and cannot be considered "safe", but they are almost
entirely nontoxic, they virtually never lead to addiction and they
only rarely lead to long-lasting psychosis (usually in people with a
family history of mental illness). The main danger is that the person
taking the drug injures him or herself while in a mind-altered state,
for example because they think they can fly. The manual states, for
example, that, "investigators need to be confident that the volunteer
could not exit the window if in a delusional state". Griffiths does
not advocate recreational use.
Since the 1970s, scientific research into the effects hallucinogenic
drugs have on the brain and their potential benefits has become a
pariah field for any scientist who wanted to keep their reputation -
and funding - intact. The psychologist Timothy Leary was the most
famous advocate of the scientific and recreational use of psychedelic
drugs. He conducted experiments at Harvard that were widely criticised
and he was accused of faking data.
"The way I view it is we experienced some kind of broad cultural
trauma back in the 60s and these drugs became demonised in that
context," said Griffiths. "As a culture we just decided clinical
research shouldn't be done with this class of compounds," he said.
"This was partly the federal regulatory authorities, it was partly the
funding agencies and it was partly the academics themselves ... Leary
had so discredited a scientific approach to studying these compounds
that anyone who expressed an interest in doing so was automatically
discredited."
Dr Rick Doblin is president of the Multidisciplinary Association for
Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) in California, a nonprofit organisation
which funds clinical studies into psychedelic drugs, including the
Swiss LSD trial. "These drugs, these experiences are not for the
mystic who wants to sit on the mountain top and meditate. They are not
for the counter-culture rebel. They are for everybody," he said.
-----------------------
Invention: Morphine-cannabis super-painkiller
12:00 11 August 2008
NewScientist.com news service
Justin Mullins
http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/dn14344-invention-morphinecannabis-superpainkiller.html?feedId=tech_rss20
Pain can often be better managed when two types of painkiller are used
together. For example, it has recently become known that cannabinoids
such as THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, enhance the
painkilling effects of opioids such as morphine.
Teaming them up could allow doses to become smaller, reducing the
possibility of addiction. But a simple mixture of the drugs produces
unpredictable results because the body absorbs them at different rates.
A possible solution is to join together THC and morphine to create a
hybrid molecule that is snipped apart by the body, say Joseph Holtman
and Peter Crooks at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in
Lexington, Kentucky.
Their idea is to bind the two drugs together using a linking molecule
such as an ester. When the body snips this linking group, both drugs
are released at the site where they are needed. That should ensure
both drugs will be absorbed at the same rate, making it easier to work
out doses for patients.
Read the full morphine-cannabis supermolecule painkiller patent
application.
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