This Week in Psychedelics: Psilocybin changes brain connections, DEA to outlaw two more psychedelics, and is microdosing worth the risk?
This Week in Psychedelics: Psilocybin changes brain connections, DEA to outlaw two more psychedelics, and is microdosing worth the risk?
Happy Friday, and welcome back to The Microdose. Here’s the news of the week:
Psilocybin brain connections. Early results from clinical trials suggest psilocybin-assisted therapy show promise in treating depression, but researchers still don’t have a firm grasp on how the drug affects the brain. A new study published in Nature Medicine explores this question by looking at fMRI scans of participants’ brains before and after two rounds of psilocybin therapy.
Researchers at Imperial College London recruited patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder. Around 60 patients were assigned to one of two conditions: over six weeks, one group received two sessions of psilocybin-assisted therapy and a daily placebo pill, while the other received two sessions of therapy with an extremely small dose of psilocybin and a daily dose of the antidepressant escitalopram (a drug sold under the trade name Lexapro). When researchers compared participants’ fMRI data taken before and after treatment, participants who received psilocybin-assisted therapy showed greater connectivity across the brain compared to those who took escitalopram.
Among people with depression, connectivity across the brain “can be described as abnormally constricted, paralleling the narrow, internally focused, ruminative quality of mood and cognition in the disorder,” the authors write. “In contrast, psilocybin seems to increase the brain’s ability to visit a broader state space.”
How long might this increase in connectivity continue? Future studies might investigate whether these results persist beyond 3 weeks post-psilocybin therapy. The study also calls attention to the methodological challenges of studying brain activity; the researchers had to exclude some participants for excessive head motion while in the scanner. (See The Microdose’s interview with Johns Hopkins cognitive neuropsychopharmacologist Manoj Doss for more on fMRI challenges.)
Introducing: The Latest in Oregon. Lots of things are happening in Oregon as the state prepares to implement Measure 109, making psilocybin services legal in the state. (Psilocybin remains illegal federally.)
The state’s Oregon Psilocybin Services will begin accepting applications for licensure on January 2, 2023, and plans to finalize its rules by the end of the year. We’ll now be featuring weekly Oregon news in a recurring section we’re calling The Latest in Oregon.
This week, Oregon Psilocybin Services sent out the first issue of a quarterly newsletter, which included two major milestones:
On June 1, OPS will begin accepting applications for approved training programs, and the Oregon Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (ORELAP) will release criteria for testing labs seeking accreditation.
By June 30, the Oregon Psilocybin Advisory Board will submit their recommendations to OPS.
Virtual public hearings to discuss proposed rules for OPS’s products, testing, and training programs will be held on April 18 and 21, and the open comment period ends April 22.
A free newsletter from the U.C. Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics
The State of Psychedelics. This week, we’re also rolling out a recurring section about psychedelic-related legislation and voter initiatives in U.S. states.
In February, we reported that Oklahoma’s House Bill 3414 passed the house, authorizing research into psilocybin-based therapies, licensing of psilocybin producers, and lowering criminal penalties for possession of psilocybin. Since then, the bill has passed the state senate, but the section on lowering criminal penalties has been removed.
Maryland’s state senate has just passed Senate Bill 709, which establishes a fund to study the effectiveness of “alternative therapies” for patients with PTSD and traumatic brain injuries. The alternative therapies the bill lays out include hyperbaric oxygen therapy and psychedelic therapy using MDMA, psilocybin, and ketamine. The bill now heads to the governor’s desk for a signature.
In March, we reported on Missouri’s House Bill 2850, which would allow people diagnosed with PTSD, depression, or a terminal illness to use psychedelics. This week, St. Louis alt-weekly Riverfront Times reported on the bill. Tony Lovasco, the state rep who introduced the bill, told the publication that the bill would likely need to be revised to move ahead. That might involve removing other psychedelics currently included in the bill, such as DMT, ibogaine, and mescaline, and instead including only psilocybin.
Is microdosing worth the risk? While some users swear by the benefits of microdosing, there’s scant scientific evidence to support the practice. And in some cases, microdosing might be unsafe, writes pharmacist Kelan Thomas in the Harvard Law Petrie-Flom Center blog Bill of Health. That’s because drugs that bind strongly with the 5HT2B receptor can cause damage to heart valves after long-term use; the list of such drugs includes medications for cluster headaches or seizures, as well as MDMA, LSD, and psilocybin. (These drugs are known for binding with the 5HT2A receptor, but also bind with the 5HT2B receptor.) Microdosers might consider taking a few weeks off from time to time, Thomas writes, and encourages researchers and microdose app developers to collect heart echocardiography data to assess risk. The Petrie-Flom center also hosted an event this week on the science, law, and business of microdosing, and livetweeted panelists’ commentary.
DEA to outlaw two more psychedelics. Back in January, we reported on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s proposal to add five previously unregulated psychedelic tryptamines to the list of Schedule I drugs. After pushback from activists, psychedelic companies, and their legal counsel, a judge granted a hearing, to be held next month.
This week, the DEA proposed that another two hallucinogens be added to the list of Schedule I drugs. 2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodoamphetamine, known as DOI, and 2,5-dimethoxy-4-chloroamphetamine, known as DOC, are both psychoactive phenethylamines, which are molecules that belong to the same class of drugs as MDMA. Neither drug is specifically scheduled in the U.S., but they are similar to 2,5-dimethoxy-4-methamphetamine, known as DOM, which is a Schedule I hallucinogen. DOI and DOC are also illegal in other countries including Canada, Austria, Germany, and Israel. In the DEA’s report explaining its proposal, DOI and DOC have potential for abuse, and could have serious adverse effects like seizures and hypertension. And while these two compounds are lesser-known psychedelics, at least one researcher has been studying how DOI might have therapeutic effects for diseases like Alzheimer’s or cancer. Psychedelic documentarian Hamilton Morris and biotech company Panacea Plant Sciences, who both also officially objected to the DEA’s proposed scheduling of the group of five tryptamines, have publicly spoken out against the proposed scheduling of DOI and DOC as well.
Canadian Bioscience company Numinus Wellness is acquiring psychedelic clinic and research company Novamind for $26.2 million, making their first step into the U.S. market.
Freedom To Operate (FTO), a non-profit created to challenge what they see as flawed psychedelic patent claims, previously filed post-grant review requests in response to two patents granted to psychedelics company Compass. FTO has now written directly to Compass’s CEO about one of those patents, asking him to either disclaim it or sign a letter FTO drafted that declares Compass will not enforce the patent. (See VICE’s reporting on FTO’s latest move, and The Microdose’s interview with FTO’s founder Carey Turnbull.)
Harper's Bazaar reports on “mommies who mushroom.” Parents interviewed by the magazine say psychedelics have helped them feel more connected with their children, or more vulnerable and empathetic.
After New York Magazine published disturbing video footage from a MAPS MDMA clinical trial session conducted by two Canadian practitioners, Health Canada will now be reviewing all MDMA trials.
You’re all caught up! Have a great weekend. Stay tuned for a new 5 Questions on Monday.
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I am MUCH more scared of drinking a glass of tap water than I am of taking 5 micrograms of LSD. There are more than a few people who say that drinking tap water is most definitely NOT "worth the risk"...