In this clinical MDMA study, Felix Hasler and colleagues gave volunteers MDMA alone and in combination with the beta-adrenoreceptor blocker and 5-HT1A antagonist pindolol. The role of 5-HT1A receptors in the effects of MDMA in people is particularly interesting given Thompson et al.’s research (see below) on the prosocial effects of MDMA in rodents.
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I’ve been at the College on Problems of Drug Dependence annual conference in Puerto Rico all this week. Despite the name, the work isn’t exclusively about drug dependence per se. I think of this meeting as the big conference for people with NIDA funding. There’s been a lot of great work presented here, including a presentation by Roland Griffiths and colleagues on the relationship between psilocybin dose and mystical experience in healthy volunteers. I’ll write a few notes about this and other interesting stuff when I’m on the flight home.
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