Tag: psychedelics

Using Psychedelics Is Tied To 25% Lower Likelihood Of ‘Frequent Bad Headaches,’ Study Shows

People who have used so-called “classic psychedelics” such as psilocybin or LSD are less likely to report having frequent bad headaches, a new study concludes.

The results, authors wrote this month in the Journal of Pharmacology, “add to the literature suggesting classic psychedelics as a possible future prophylactic treatment option for primary headache disorders.”

Researchers gathered data from 11,419 records collected from 1999 to 2000 as part of the British Child Development Study 1958, which follows a cohort of people born over the course of a single week in March 1958.

Specifically, they looked at responses to three questions: “Do you often have bad headaches?” “Have you ever tried LSD, also known as acid or trips?” and “Have you ever tried magic mushrooms?”

The team’s analysis showed that “lifetime use of classic psychedelics was associated with 25% lower odds of having frequent bad headaches.”

There are, of course, limitations as to what conclusions can be drawn from the observational nature of the study.

“Although we have proposed a direction of association, we cannot draw any causal inferences about the association between lifetime use of classic psychedelics and frequent bad headaches,” they wrote. “It is possible that the negative association found is a result of people suffering from frequent bad headaches abstaining from the use of classic psychedelics.”

Data from the same survey, for example, showed that low alcohol use was associated with higher likelihood of frequent bad headaches. In that case, authors interpreted the finding by saying it “may be explained by individuals experiencing frequent bad headaches choosing to abstain from alcohol,” noting that alcohol is understood to be a trigger for headaches.

Overall, 16 percent of people in the survey reported frequent bad headaches. Of those, 71 percent were female and 29 percent were male. Lifetime use of classic psychedelics, meanwhile, was reported by 6.5 percent of people with frequent bad headaches and 8.6 percent of those without.

Notably, when the research team divided reports by sex, they noticed a stronger association between psychedelics use and headaches among female respondents.

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Texas Senator Files Bill To Support Research On Psychedelic Therapy For PTSD And Depression

A Texas senator has introduced a bill to require studies on the therapeutic potential of psychedelics in the treatment of serious mental health conditions.

Sen. César Blanco (D) filed the legislation on Friday. It aims to facilitate the studies—which would be conducted by medical schools at two Texas universities—to better understand the possible benefits of psychedelics for those with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression.

Researchers at Baylor University and the University of Texas at Austin would be tasked with researching the existing scientific literature around psychedelics, actions made by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and potential strategies to provide access to the novel medicines.

The study would involve an evaluation of “patient access to current treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and other co-occurring conditions and recommend legislative or other actions necessary to ensure patient access to psychedelic therapies following approval” by FDA, “including considerations of provider availability, affordability, accessibility, training and licensure, and other regulatory requirements.”

Substances within the scope of the review include psilocybin, MDMA and ketamine, according to the bill’s text.

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Nevada Senators Take Up Resolution Calling On Congress To Reschedule Psychedelics And Streamline Research

Nevada senators took up a joint resolution on Tuesday that calls on Congress to reschedule certain psychedelics, provide protections for individuals using the substances in compliance with state law and streamline research.

As the Nevada legislature pushes forward with psychedelics reform, the Senate Legislative Operations and Elections Committee discussed the resolution from Sen. Rochelle Nguyen (D), hearing testimony from experts in the field.

“It is very much a grassroots, bipartisan issue. It is a Nevada issue,” Nguyen said in her opening remarks. “This is such an important issue. And this may seem like it’s an innocuous [resolution] where we’re sending a letter, but it is super important that we as a state send a message to the federal government—send a message to Washington, D.C.—that we need to start helping our community.”

“We have a mental health crisis. I don’t think you go into a committee room where you don’t hear about this,” she said. “This is just another solution to a problem that we have across our state.”

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Psychedelics Have ‘Promising Medical Applications,’ Congressional Watchdog Agency Says, But Research Challenges Remain

A federal agency has published a short report on the medical use of psychedelics, finding that their ability to “change a person’s perceptions and sense of self” can make for “promising medical applications.”

The paper, from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), says there’s a need for further research, but it also notes that because psychedelics such as LSD, MDMA and psilocybin remain Schedule I controlled substances, securing permission to carry out that research can be a challenge.

“To conduct research on these drugs, scientists need to follow several steps,” the report from GAO, which is often referred to as Congress’s “watchdog,” states in a section about ongoing challenges. “These include obtaining permission from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, finding clinical grade drugs to test, and identifying appropriate spaces in which to test and store these drugs.”

“Difficulties associated with conducting large, blind trials of psychedelics have limited researchers’ ability to determine the safety and effectiveness of these drugs,” GAO continues, “which is required for them to gain approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). FDA approval is generally required before prescription drugs can be marketed for sale in the U.S.”

Despite the obstacles, the paper acknowledges that hundreds of clinical trials have investigated psychedelics as a potential treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression.

“Between 2015 and early 2025, over 340 trials on psychedelics began or were completed,” it says. “For example, one study found that psilocybin reduced depression symptoms more than escitalopram, an SSRI.”

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U.S. Embassy Warns Americans Not To Use Traditional Psychedelics In Peru, Including Ayahuasca

The U.S. embassy in Lima, Peru, is warning Americans against a traditional psychedelic known as ayahuasca, cautioning that the mixture “is a psychoactive substance containing dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a strong hallucinogen that is illegal in the United States and many other countries.”

Officials argued that using ayahuasca or kambo—a psychoactive substance derived from some frogs—can cause negative health effects and increase risks of sexual assault, robbery and other hazards.

“These dangerous substances are often marketed to travelers in Peru as ‘ceremonial’ or ‘spiritual cleansers,’” embassy officials wrote in a late January health alert to U.S. citizens, adding: “Facilities or groups offering ayahuasca/kambo are not regulated by the Peruvian government and may not follow health and safety laws or practices.”

As for ayahuasca—a mixture of botanical ingredients that contains DMT—the alert says the substance “can cause several negative health effects, including nausea, vomiting, increased heart rate, and even death.  Some of the long-term effects include psychosis, difficulty sleeping, neurological diseases, and ongoing hallucinations.”

“In 2024, several U.S. citizens died or experienced severe illness, including mental health episodes, following consumption of ayahuasca,” it continues. “These incidents often occur in remote areas near or within the Peruvian Amazon, far away from modern medical facilities. The limited connectivity and limited access to emergency services and hospitals increases the risks.”

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Military Veterans Groups Push Congress To Expedite Psychedelics Research And Support Medical Marijuana Access

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) should continue to explore psychedelics and medical marijuana therapy and expedite access to such alternative treatments if they’re proven to be efficacious, representatives of leading veterans service organizations (VSOs) told members of Congress this week.

One key group testified that the scheduling of substances like cannabis, psilocybin and MDMA as Schedule I drugs is a “major barrier” to therapeutic access.

At joint hearings before the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees on Tuesday and Wednesday, lawmakers took testimony from the VSOs—and one theme that emerged was the need to support research and access for marijuana and psychedelics, particularly as it concerns VA.

Rep. Jack Bergman (R-MI), co-chair of the Congressional Psychedelics Advancing Therapies (PATH) Caucus, asked Disabled American Veterans (DAV) National Commander Daniel Contreras what role he felt VA should play in “advancing the promising field in that area of [psychedelic] medicine through research.”

Contreras said it’s DAV’s position that “we should look at alternatives.” He added that he’s personally familiar with the issue in part because psilocybin has been incorporated into his own wife’s therapy, which underscores for him that “there needs to be some alternative choices.”

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Missouri Lawmakers Consider Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy To Aid Military Veterans With PTSD

In hopes of helping veterans facing mental health issues, Missouri lawmakers are once again pushing legislation that would require the state to conduct a study on using psilocybin—also known as “magic mushrooms”—to treat depression, substance use or as part end-of-life care.

Similar legislation has been filed for the last three years, and in 2023 the House voted overwhelmingly in support of the idea. But it’s never made its way to the Senate.

On Monday, several members of the House Veterans Committee said they were staunchly against the proposal when they first heard about it. However, research the committee has explored over the years has changed their minds.

That includes studies done by psychiatry researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, who were the first in Missouri to give a legal dose of psilocybin in 2019.

They have been using a brain-imaging technique to learn how psilocybin affects certain networks in the brain.

The bill’s sponsor, Republican state Rep. Richard West of Wentzville, said he was skeptical at first, as a former police officer.

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Psychedelic use linked to reduced distress, increased social engagement in autistic adults

A recent study has found that some autistic adults report lasting improvements in their mental health and social lives after using psychedelic drugs. The research, published in the journal Psychopharmacology, revealed that a significant number of autistic individuals attributed reductions in distress and social anxiety, along with increased social engagement, to a single, impactful psychedelic experience. However, the study also highlighted that a minority of participants experienced negative effects, emphasizing the need for caution and further research in this area.

There is a growing interest in the potential of psychedelic drugs to treat various mental health conditions, such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, in the general population. Autism spectrum disorder, a developmental condition characterized by challenges in social interaction and communication, as well as repetitive behaviors, often co-occurs with mental health difficulties. Autistic individuals are known to experience higher rates of anxiety, depression, and loneliness, and often report a lower quality of life compared to non-autistic people.

While psychedelics are being explored as therapies for mental health in broader populations, there is very little scientific understanding of how these substances affect autistic individuals specifically. Some anecdotal accounts suggested that psychedelics might be helpful for autistic people, potentially by improving their understanding of themselves and their emotions, but rigorous research was lacking. The new study aimed to investigate the experiences of autistic adults who have used psychedelics and to understand if they perceived any changes in their mental health and social abilities as a result.

To conduct their investigation, the researchers used an online survey to gather information from adults who identified as autistic. Participants were recruited through advertisements on social media platforms, online forums related to psychedelics and autism, and by collaborating with an organization called the Autistic Psychedelic Community. The advertisements were carefully worded to encourage participation from individuals with both positive and negative psychedelic experiences. To be included in the study, participants had to be at least 18 years old, fluent in English, and either have a formal diagnosis of autism from a healthcare professional or self-identify as autistic. They also needed to have used a psychedelic substance at least once in their lives.

A total of 284 people completed the survey. For their analysis, the researchers focused on 233 participants who reported that their most ‘impactful’ psychedelic experience involved a classic psychedelic drug, such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) or psilocybin (the active compound in magic mushrooms). The other participants who were excluded from the main analysis had reported that their most impactful experience was with substances like MDMA, cannabis, or ketamine.

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Federal Court Rejects Washington Doctor’s Effort To Legally Access Psilocybin For End-Of-Life Patient Care

A federal appellate court has rejected the latest effort by a Washington State doctor who is seeking to legally use psilocybin to treat cancer patients in end-of-life care, ruling that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) provided a reasonable explanation in denying the doctor’s request.

In an opinion filed on Thursday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected arguments from lawyers for Dr. Sunil Aggarwal and his clinic, the Advanced Integrated Medical Science (AIMS) Institute that DEA’s denial of Aggarwal’s efforts was arbitrary and capricious

“DEA’s decision to deny AIMS’s request was neither arbitrary nor capricious,” the court concluded. “We therefore deny AIMS’s petition for review of the DEA’s decision.”

Aggarwal and AIMS have been working since at least 2020 to find a way to legally obtain psilocybin for patients in palliative care, initially seeking to win permission from regulators under state and federal right-to-try laws.

When DEA rebuffed that request, Aggarwal sued. In early 2022, a federal appellate panel dismissed the lawsuit, opining that the court lacked jurisdiction because DEA’s rejection of Aggarwal’s administrative request didn’t constitute a reviewable agency action.

The latest Ninth Circuit ruling results from Aggarwal’s responses to that ruling. In February 2022, the doctor filed a formal petition with DEA to reschedule psilocybin from Schedule I to Schedule II under the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA)—the denial of which is a reviewable action. He also applied for a regulatory waiver to obtain psilocybin.

DEA denied Aggarwal’s petition in September 2022 and rejected the waiver request the next month. The doctor’s Ninth Circuit case challenged both decisions.

“Following the dismissal of its earlier petition, AIMS returned to DEA with a concrete request. AIMS asked EA to exempt Dr. Aggarwal from registration under the CSA, either by finding that Dr. Aggarwal’s proposed use of psilocybin was not covered by the CSA’s registration requirement or by waiving the registration requirement,” Judge Marsha Berzon, a Clinton appointee, wrote for the court in Thursday’s opinion. “DEA declined to take action, and AIMS again petitioned for review. Because DEA’s response was neither arbitrary nor capricious, we deny AIMS’s petition for review.”

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