(Press-News.org)
Intrusive thoughts, involuntary repetition of undesirable gestures and behaviors combined with high anxiety... Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), a disabling condition, affects around 2% of the population, regardless of age. It is a strong vector of isolation since patients disproportionately focus on various obsessions—to the detriment of relationships, work, and leisure.
Treatment mainly consists of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) that allows patients to readjust their thought patterns, combined with antidepressants. Unfortunately, the effects are slow to appear, and 30 to 40% of patients do not respond at all. “In this context, an option proposed in clinical research in the 1970s is now resurfacing: psychedelics, a family of psychotropic drugs”, Anne Buot, a post-doctoral fellow in cognitive neuroscience, explains. “But since these substances are banned in many countries, clinical studies are difficult to set up, and we don't have robust data on their effectiveness yet.”
To organize randomized, double-blind studies—the gold standard in clinical research—researchers need encouraging preliminary data... and they need it fast. Prolonged uncertainty about the efficacy of psychedelics, combined with possible media hype, may encourage recreational abuse—or uncontrolled use by vulnerable patients without medical follow-up. There's also a risk of diverting patients from psychotherapeutic interventions that would work for them.
Spotlight on individual experience
Taking psychedelics induces an altered state of consciousness, leading the user to perceive the world in a radically new way for a few hours. The experience can be overwhelming, creating a sense of rupture with past emotional states and fostering the emergence of new thought patterns.
Previous studies suggest that the acute effects of psychedelics, present from the first dose, contrast with the delayed effects of continuous treatments, such as antidepressants. “However, we don't know whether there is a link between users' subjective experience and actual therapeutic effects”, Anne Buot says.
The synthetic compound LSD and psilocybin—derived from hallucinogenic mushrooms— appear especially promising in OCD. “Among other things, these substances act on certain serotonin receptors," psychiatrist Luc Mallet says. “Unfortunately, even in animals, we don't have sufficient data to predict their effectiveness.”
To increase their knowledge, the researchers retrospectively analyzed the experience of people who had used these substances in the past. The aim? To understand whether they had perceived an improvement in their symptoms after taking LSD or psilocybin, whether this effect was long-lasting, and whether it could be predicted by different factors. The lived experience of patients is invaluable, and in the absence of objective clinical data, it is decisive in assessing the therapeutic potential of psychedelics and guiding research.
The shape of possible efficiency
“We recruited 174 people with OCD symptoms who had taken psychedelics either occasionally or regularly via an online questionnaire. We asked them about their mental health and the treatments they received—in addition to their socio-demographic characteristics”, Anne Buot adds. “Then they were tasked to report on the context in which they had taken these substances, the dose, the nature of their psychedelic experience, and the perceived effects on symptoms.”
Participants reported the dissipation of obsessive thoughts, less need to engage in rituals, reduced anxiety and avoidance behavior, and greater acceptance of OCD. “30% of participants reported that these positive effects lasted for more than three months, which is very encouraging”, Luc Mallet adds. “Finally, we observed that the dose of LSD or psilocybin was positively correlated with the intensity of the psychedelic experience and its pleasantness.”
These results must be interpreted with caution. The subjective assessment of the therapeutic effects of psychedelics is susceptible to numerous biases, including the beliefs of the study participants. “The population we studied generally has a very positive and enthusiastic attitude towards these substances, sometimes independently of their therapeutic effect. In addition, many patients are in situations of therapeutic impasse and expect LSD or psilocybin to improve their lives. This can significantly influence their testimony”, the psychiatrist says.
Towards robust knowledge and the definition of best practices
The transformative symbolism of the psychedelic experience itself reinforces this bias. Some people experience a sense of euphoria, ecstasy, or connection with the universe that contrasts sharply with their ordinary perception of the world and encourages them to see it with fresh eyes. “Understanding the extent to which the very nature of the psychedelic experience—strongly influenced by people's history, culture, and imagination—affects the therapeutic effects will be essential,” Anne Buot concludes. “To do this, we will need complementary approaches, in ethnography and psychology, for example.”
To reap the full benefit of potential new treatments and establish good practices for use, it will be necessary not only to increase the number of rigorous clinical studies but also to understand the biological mechanisms underlying the long-term effects of psychedelics. Researchers believe they may increase neuroplasticity by promoting the remodeling of synaptic connections. But in this area, everything remains to be discovered.
END
Every year, over 15,500 Australians are diagnosed with bowel cancer, and it is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the country. Over 1,700 (one in ten) of those diagnosed are young Australians aged under 50, and this incidence is increasing.
There is an urgent need to discover more effective treatments and improve bowel cancer screening, particularly for early-onset bowel cancer (those aged 25-49 years). Australians born in 1990 onwards have double the risk of developing bowel cancer compared with those born in 1950. These younger bowel cancer patients often have poorer outcomes as they typically present with late-stage ...
Patients with X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency disorder (SCID-X1), sometimes called “bubble boy disease,” are born with a defective gene that prevents them from producing immune cells. Gene therapy from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital restored the immune system in multiple infants with SCID-X1 in 2019 by supplying copies of the corrected gene. Through ongoing efforts to monitor patient safety, St. Jude scientists recently documented where the gene copies integrate into patient DNA, providing a foundation to understand the biology and safety of using lentiviral vectors. The findings were published today in Science Advances.
“We ...
The human brain is a tangled highway of wires emanating from nearly 100 billion neurons, all of which communicate across trillions of junctions called synapses. “Depressingly complex,” Harvard neuroscientist Jeff Lichtman calls it. The only way to understand this highway, says Lichtman, is to create a map.
Lichtman, the Jeremy R. Knowles Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology, has spent several decades generating such maps, and in doing so has pioneered a field known as “connectomics.” ...
A study published Oct. 4 in Gastroenterology further validates that pyrvinium, a drug that has been used for decades for intestinal pinworms, can be repurposed as a preventative treatment for stomach cancer.
Eunyoung Choi, PhD, assistant professor of Surgery, and colleagues have demonstrated in human organoids and mouse models that the drug induces cell death in precancerous lesions. Pyrvinium blockades both the MEK/ERK and STAT3 signaling pathways. In another study she led, which was published last year in Gastroenterology, the researchers demonstrated that pyrvinium blocked regeneration of dysplastic ...
Scientists have caught fast-moving hydrogen atoms – the keys to countless biological and chemical reactions – in action.
A team led by researchers at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University used ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) to record the motion of hydrogen atoms within ammonia molecules. Others had theorized they could track hydrogen atoms with electron diffraction, but until now nobody had done the experiment successfully.
The results, published October 5 in Physical ...
The Grand Canyon’s valleys and millions of years of rock layers spanning Earth’s history have earned it a designation as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. But, according to a new UNLV and University of New Mexico study, its marvels extend to vast cave systems that lie beneath the surface, which just might hold clues to better understand the future of climate change — by studying nature’s past.
A research team led by UNLV paleoclimatologist and Professor Matthew Lachniet that included the University of New Mexico Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences Distinguished Professor Yemane Asmerom and Research Scientist Victor Polyak and other ...
Lugano, Switzerland, 6 October 2023 – Under the promise to “Disseminating innovative research for optimal cancer care” as this year’s tagline reads, the ESMO Congress 2023 will be held in Madrid between 20-24 October 2023 with a virtual component to allow as many people as possible to attend.
From a keynote lecture pinpointing the hallmarks of cancer in the current year through the reinforced commitment towards more academic input in the drug development process for better cancer care, and then further down to the dramatic scenarios brought by the too many situations of crisis in the world which have an unbearable impact ...
The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, known as UTRGV, have signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen research cooperation and establish a collaborative program for undergraduate research and education, further cementing relationships and collaboration between the lab and minority-serving institutions. This partnership builds a pathway for students to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, careers through DOE by complementing ...
“Several ongoing trials hope to further elucidate the role of lurbinectedin in highgrade neuroendocrine neoplasms [...]”
BUFFALO, NY- October 6, 2023 – A new editorial paper was published in Oncoscience (Volume 10) on June 14, 2023, entitled, “Lurbinectedin, a DNA minor groove inhibitor for neuroendocrine neoplasms beyond small cell lung cancer.”
In their new editorial, researchers Deepak Bhamidipati and Vivek Subbiah from the Sarah Cannon Research Institute discuss lurbinectedin as a method to treat neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). NETs encompass a variety ...
Key Takeaways
Researchers have posted the results of a multisystem phase II clinical trial of patients with COVID-19 and respiratory failure
Patients who received inhaled nitric oxide had improved blood oxygen levels and fewer risks of long-term sensory and motor neurologic symptoms
They also experienced a faster reduction of viral load in sputum and blood
BOSTON – Inhaled nitric oxide gas widens blood vessels in the lungs and is used to treat severe cardio-pulmonary conditions in newborns and adults.
A recent multicenter international ...
