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Psychedelic Research

Psychedelic Research

How Hallucinogens Play Their Mind-Bending Games: Scientific American - (Build 20100722150226) Zeroing in on a group of cells in a high layer of the cortex, a team of researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute may finally have found the cause of the swirling textures, blurry visions and signal-crossing synesthesia brought on by hallucinogenic drugs like LSD, peyote and "'shrooms." The group, which published its findings in this week's issue of Neuron, may have settled a long-simmering debate over how psychedelic drugs distort human perception. "There's this huge body of literature about these compounds, and I think this paper begins to nail down how the heck they're working in the brain," says Bryan Roth, a pharmacologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "It's not the end of the story, but I'd say it's the end of the beginning of the story." U.N.C., Chapel Hill's Roth says that the new study's localization of LSD's effect on the pyramidal neurons in level V makes sense.

BrainBlog Addiction: Part I. Benzodiazepines-Side Effects, Abuse Risk and Alternatives - April 1, 2000 Apr 1, 2000 Table of Contents LANCE P. LONGO, M.D., University of Wisconsin Medical School, Milwaukee, WisconsinM.D. BRIAN JOHNSON, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts Am Fam Physician. 2000 Apr 1;61(7):2121-2128. This is Part I of a two-part article on addiction. This article exemplifies the AAFP 2000 Annual Clinical Focus on mental health. Benzodiazepines are widely prescribed for a variety of conditions, particularly anxiety and insomnia. There is little doubt of the therapeutic efficacy of benzodiazepines in reducing anxiety, inducing sleep and quelling panic symptoms. Benzodiazepines are widely prescribed, with four of them—alprazolam (Xanax), clonazepam (Klonopin), diazepam (Valium) and lorazepam (Ativan)—listed among the top 100 most commonly prescribed medications.2 Benzodiazepines generally produce almost immediate effects, and thus may be prescribed for short-term, intermittent, “as-needed” use. Clinical Uses of Benzodiazepines TABLE 1 Clinical Uses of Benzodiazepines

Scientists believe "magic" mushrooms could effectively treat depression After a brief spurt of interest in the late '60s, scientists in the drug development field abandoned research work on illicit drugs like LSD and "magic" mushrooms. But over the past few years a few bold investigators have been stepping back up to the plate, convinced that some outlawed active ingredients could offer new pathways to treating some common ailments. Enter Professor David Nutt, a prominent and controversial researcher in the U.K. who has just published a new paper asserting that psilocybin--the active ingredient in magic mushrooms--could help treat major depression. And he believes that LSD, ecstasy, mephedrone and cannabis are also worthy of legitimate scientific research, advocating that the time has come for the government to lift restrictions placed on the field. "I feel quite passionately that these drugs are profound drugs; they change the brain in a way that no other drugs do. Sign up for our FREE newsletter for more news like this sent to your inbox!

Hallucinogens Have Doctors Tuning In Again - NYTimes.com - (Buil Nothing had any lasting effect until, at the age of 65, he had his first psychedelic experience. He left his home in Vancouver, Wash., to take part in an experiment at Johns Hopkins medical school involving psilocybin, the psychoactive ingredient found in certain mushrooms. Scientists are taking a new look at hallucinogens, which became taboo among regulators after enthusiasts like Timothy Leary promoted them in the 1960s with the slogan “Turn on, tune in, drop out.” Now, using rigorous protocols and safeguards, scientists have won permission to study once again the drugs’ potential for treating mental problems and illuminating the nature of consciousness. After taking the hallucinogen, Dr. “All of a sudden, everything familiar started evaporating,” he recalled. Today, more than a year later, Dr. Researchers from around the world are gathering this week in San Jose, Calif., for the largest conference on psychedelic science held in the United States in four decades. In one of Dr.

Scientists suggest fresh look at psychedelic drugs | Reuters (Build 20100722155716) Why Intelligent People Use More Drugs The human consumption of psychoactive drugs , such as marijuana , cocaine , and heroin, is of even more recent historical origin than the human consumption of alcohol or tobacco, so the Hypothesis would predict that more intelligent people use more drugs more frequently than less intelligent individuals. The use of opium dates back to about 5,000 years ago, and the earliest reference to the pharmacological use of cannabis is in a book written in 2737 BC by the Chinese Emperor Shen Nung. Opium and cannabis are the only “natural” (agricultural) psychoactive drugs. Other psychoactive drugs are “chemical” (pharmacological); they require modern chemistry to manufacture, and are therefore of much more recent origin. Morphine was isolated from opium in 1806, cocaine was first manufactured in 1860, and heroin was discovered in 1874. The following graph shows a similar association between childhood intelligence and the latent factor for the consumption of psychoactive drugs among Americans.

Marijuana Growing Guide Free Library Marijuana Growing Guide Free Library helps everyone learn how to grow marijuana plant hydroponics. Welcome, the spirit is to help medicinal cannabis patients and horticulturalists grow the most potent marijuana plants legally possible. Growing marijuana indoors in your own space, greenhouse or outdoor garden is not overly difficult but attention to detail is needed. Our green team analyses online weed growing sites, phat magazines and communicates with real organic growers. Use the Grow Guide Index to find specifics on how to grow marijuana right away. Growing Marijuana Tips of the Month: Keep enriching your cannabis plants with fresh air even until the end of harvest, it increases growth rate, hastens maturity and increases yield. Marijuana Growing Advancements: Top Quality Growing Equipment: Choose an excellent step by step DVD video to help those who aren’t into reading books and want to know how to grow marijuana. top of document

The 10 Most Seductive Drugs -- And Their Fascinating History | Drugs February 9, 2012 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. Want to get the latest on America's drug & rehab culture? 1) Alcohol: Ancient Sumeria Fans of alcohol are in good company; this is a drug that's been in use since the dawn of human time—if carbon dating of jugs found in Jiahu, China to around 8,000 BC is to be believed. 2) Peyote: Mexico Mescaline—the psychoactive ingredient in the peyote plant that's native to Mexico and the Southwest US—has probably been used in religious ceremonies since 3780–3660 BC, according to carbon dating of dried buttons found in a cave on the Rio Grande in Texas. 3) Marijuana: Siberia Think medical marijuana is a new phenomenon? 4) Opium: Greece Those Sumerians were really into their substances. 5) Coco: Peru Early use of coca leaves resulted from a fortuitous correlation between optimal growing weather and the high altitudes in the South American Andes Mountains.

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THC Prevents MDMA Neurotoxicity in Mice - PubMed Mobile 30 Funny Illustrations about Simple Truths of Life While surfing Internet the I came across the blog of Alex Noriega an illustrator from Barcelona, he has some interesting life lessons that our parents and teachers may have forgotten to tell us and he presented them in the form of some really funny illustrations. In this post I am posting 30 Funny Illustrations about Simple Truths of Life that I have picked from his blog. Hope you all will enjoy this post.

In Eyes, a Clock Calibrated by Wavelengths of Light The workhorse of this system is the light-sensitive hormone melatonin, which is produced by the body every evening and during the night. Melatonin promotes sleep and alerts a variety of biological processes to the approximate hour of the day. Light hitting the retina suppresses the production of melatonin — and there lies the rub. In this modern world, our eyes are flooded with light well after dusk, contrary to our evolutionary programming. “Light works as if it’s a drug, except it’s not a drug at all,” said George Brainard, a neurologist at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and one of the first researchers to study light’s effects on the body’s hormones and circadian rhythms. Any sort of light can suppress melatonin, but recent experiments have raised novel questions about one type in particular: the blue wavelengths produced by many kinds of energy-efficient light bulbs and electronic gadgets. Dr. Artificial light has been around for more than 120 years. Researchers like Dr.

Ironic effects of anti-prejudice messages Posted by Anonymous on July 11, 2011 Organizations and programs have been set up all over the globe in the hopes of urging people to end prejudice. According to a research article, which will be published in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, such programs may actually increase prejudices.Lisa Legault, Jennifer Gutsell and Michael Inzlicht, from the University of Toronto Scarborough, were interested in exploring how one’s everyday environment influences people’s motivation toward prejudice reduction.The authors conducted two experiments which looked at the effect of two different types of motivational intervention — a controlled form (telling people what they should do) and a more personal form (explaining why being non-prejudiced is enjoyable and personally valuable).In experiment one; participants were randomly assigned one of two brochures to read: an autonomy brochure or a controlling brochure. Like this:

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