Psychedelic Research

Here are two human psychedelic studies that are currently recruiting participants healthy psychedelic-experienced volunteers. (Full disclosure: I am involved in conducting both of these studies.) In a separate entry, I list the studies that are seeking people with specific illnesses who can be psychedelic-naive. Most of the details on these other studies were obtained from ClinicalTrials.gov and maps.org
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Dumont and colleagues have published a paper in which they describe the physiological effects of giving MDMA along with alcohol to people. One of the interesting things about this paper is that they measured plasma concentrations of antidiuretic hormone (ADH). (ADH is the hormone that causes the kidneys to conserve water, thus regulating the water balance in the body.)
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Here is an interesting qualitative report of MDA effects that was published in the late 1960s.
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Many users of cannabis believe that some strains are more likely to make people feel anxious than others. Why is this? A new fMRI study shows different effects of THC and another psychoactive component in cannabis that may partly explain this.
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Torsten Passie and colleagues have published a nice review paper on the pharmacology of LSD. Click through to the full article. There have also been a couple MDMA papers of interest in the last few weeks. I’ll post something about them in the next day or two.
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Richard Yensen, author of “Hacia una medicina psiquedélica”, earned his PhD studying the effects of MDA-assisted psychotherapy in neurotic people at Maryland Psychiatric Research Center (MPRC) in the 1970s. Below he remembers MPRC’s director, psychedelic researcher Albert Kurland.
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Pioneering psychedelic researcher Albert A. Kurland passed away on Sunday from cardiac failure. He was 94.
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“At first there are violet and green spots which are not well defined, then come images of carpet patterns, ribbed vaulting, etc. From time to time single dots with the most brilliant colors float across the field of vision. The phenomena are generally not as clear as those in the two preceding experiments. Later on landscapes, halls, architectural scenes (e.g. pillars decorated with flowers) also appear…” –Arthur Heffter, November 23 1897 (quoted by Holmstedt and Liljestrand 1963 via heffter.org)

On this day in 1897, Arthur Heffter ingested 150 mg mescaline sulfate, proving its psychoactivity. In doing so, he became the first person ever to experience a trip from a purified hallucinogen.

A short biographical sketch and quotes from the relevant pages of his lab notebook can be found at the Heffter Research Institute website.