Ketamine, MDMA, psilocybin and cannabis have in common the fact that they are illicit drugs and have therapeutic properties. As the potential of these substances is the subject of various experiments, the results of which have been promising, SICAD has organized a thematic dossier.

Humans rely on a strange set of natural chemicals. The big question is why plants, mushrooms and microbes, and even some animals, produce chemicals with life-saving properties. My job as an evolutionary biologist studying the ancient battle between plants and herbivores is precisely to answer this question. In doing so, we can gather essential information about the potential of the chemicals that have been forged by evolution.

The results of treatment with ketamine [or ketamine] of patients with resistant depression at the Centro Hospitalar Psiquiátrico de Lisboa show that symptoms were reduced in 70% of cases.

Ketamine can reduce symptoms of post-traumatic stress and depression as quickly as one day after injection. This was the main finding of a new meta-analysis study by C. Michael White's team at the University of Connecticut, recently published in the scientific journal Annals of Pharmacotherapy.

Recently, the American comedian revealed that his treatment for depression includes ketamine, a painkiller that was considered an illegal drug for many years, but in 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved its use in certain treatments for adults with depression.

A recent pilot program showed that ketamine-assisted psychotherapy helped workers significantly improve their mental health.

Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman, a professor at Stanford University of Medicine, talks about how ketamine causes new connections in brain circuits and dissociative states that relieve symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress.

The state of Kentucky joins the growing number of regions that are investing in psychedelics, injecting tens of millions of dollars into research into the therapeutic potential of psychedelics for substance use disorders.