Psychedelic substances

Subject : Science and technology

Section: Health

Concept :

Psychedelic drugs, banned in India under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, are emerging in research as promising ways to treat treatment-resistant depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Psychedelics

Psychedelics are a group of drugs that alter perception, mood, and thought-processing while a person is still clearly conscious.
Psychedelics are non-addictive, non-toxic and compared to illicit drugs, they are less harmful to the end user.
In India, the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act 1985 prohibits the use of psychedelic substances.
Ketamine, a dissociative anaesthetic with psychedelic properties, is used under strict medical supervision, for anaesthesia and treatment-resistant depression.
A psychiatrist named Humphrey Osmond first used the term ‘psychedelic’ in 1957.

How do the drugs work in the body?

An intriguing phenomenon called synaesthesiamay occur, where the sensory modalities cross and the user may ‘hear colour’ or ‘see sounds’.
Psychedelics are neither stimulants nor depressants of brain activity.
Instead, they increase the cross-talk between different brain networks, and this correlates with the subjective effects of psychedelics.

Can such substances cause harm?

Death due to direct toxicity of psychedelics has not been reported.
Synthetic psychedelics have been associated with acute cardiac, central nervous system, and limb ischaemia, as well as serotonin syndrome.
There have also been reports of death attributed directly to synthetic psychedelic use.

Recent breakthroughs:

Recently, the results from a phase II psilocybin trial found that a single 25-mg dose of psilocybin reduced depression scores over three weeks in people with treatment-resistant depression.
In 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) designated the use of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, also known as MDMA, to be the breakthrough therapy in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
In 2018, the FDA had granted breakthrough therapy status to psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression as well.
If larger phase III trials establish their safety and therapeutic efficacy, the FDA and other regulatory bodies may clear these agents for routine clinical use.