Psychedelics as Medicines for Substance Abuse Rehabilitation: Evaluating Treatments with LSD, Peyote, Ibogaine and Ayahuasca

Abstract

Substances known as psychedelics, hallucinogens and entheogens have been employed in ethnomedical traditions for thousands of years, but after promising uses in the 1950's and 1960's they were largely prohibited in medical treatment and human research starting in the 1970's as part of the fallout from the war on drugs. Nonetheless, there are a number of studies which suggest that these substances have potential applications in the treatment of addictions. While these substances are generally classified as Schedule I, alleging no established medical uses and a high drug abuse potential, there is nonetheless evidence indicating they might be safe and effective tools for short term interventions in addictions treatment. Evidence suggests that the psychedelics have a much greater safety profile than the major addictive drugs, having extremely low levels of mortality, and producing little if any physical dependence. This paper reviews studies evaluating the use of LSD, peyote, ibogaine and ayahuasca in the treatment of dependencies and the possible mechanisms underlying the indications of effectiveness. Evidence suggests that these substances help assist recovery from drug dependency through a variety of therapeutic mechanisms, including a notable "after-glow" effect that in part reflects their action on the serotonin neurotransmitter system. Serotonin has been long recognized as central to the psychedelics' well-known phenomenological, physical, emotional and cognitive dynamics. These serotonin-based dynamics are directly relevant to treatment of addiction because of depressed serotonin levels found in addict populations, as well as the role of serotonin as a neuromodulators affecting many other neurotransmitter systems.

The current state of research on ayahuasca: A systematic review of human studies assessing psychiatric symptoms, neuropsychological functioning, and neuroimaging

“…The neural correlates of the subjective and therapeutic effects of AYA and other hallucinogens such as psilocybin and LSD seem to involve agonism at 5-HT 2A receptors expressed in frontal and paralimbic brain areas implicated in emotional processing, interoception, memory, and the sense of "self" (Alonso et al, 2015;Carhart-Harris et al, 2012a, 2012b, 2014De Araujo et al, 2012;Hermle et al, 1992;Kometer et al, 2012;Kraehenmann et al, 2015;Palhano-Fontes et al, 2015;Riba et al, 2006Riba et al, , 2004Riba et al, , 2006Sanches et al, 2016;Schenberg et al, 2015;Vollenweider and Kometer, 2010;Vollenweider et al, 1997). For instance, acute psilocybin administration was associated with enhanced autobiographical recollection (Carhart-Harris et al, 2012b), increased positive mood and attenuated recognition of negative facial expression (Kometer et al, 2012), and reduced amygdala reactivity, which was correlated with increases in positive mood (Kraehenmann et al, 2015).…”

The Odyssey of Dental Anxiety: From Prehistory to the Present. A Narrative Review

“…What is intriguing is their use on the grounds of a valuable intuition, exploiting their therapeutic effects in several disorders (including pain, anxiety, insomnia, PTSD, migraine, nausea and vomiting, menstrual and gastrointestinal upset, drug addiction, and epilepsy), even with no knowledge of their chemical composition. Like the efficacy of many of these traditional remedies, their composition has been established by modern science (Schultes, 1972; Nichols, 1999; Roberts, 1999; Griffiths et al, 2011; MacLean et al, 2011; Winkelman, 2014). …”

d-Lysergic acid diethylamide has major potential as a cognitive enhancer

“…In the 1960s and 1970s, psychedelic substances that are agonists of serotonin receptors were extensively used in psychotherapy because of their potential to cause long-lasting psychological changes (4)(5)(6)(7). Decades of prohibitive regulation prevented research on the cognitive benefits of serotonergic agonists, but in the past years psychedelic research is undergoing a major renaissance (8)(9)(10)(11), particularly in psychiatric conditions. Agonists of serotonin receptors have been shown to have foremost utility for the treatment of depression (12,13) and terminal anxiety (14)(15)(16).…”