Taking the tripping out of psychedelic medicine

Psychedelic drugs can cause lasting effects on the brain. Just a single dose of these mind-altering substances can spur neurons to grow new offshoots called dendritic trees and branches that engage with their neighbours, creating elaborate networks of interconnected brain cells. This rewiring of neural circuitry helps to boost mood, combat depression and increase overall feelings of wellness. It can happen within days, and the benefits can last for months.

Chemical neuroscientist David Olson demonstrated this in 2018. Working on rats, fruit flies and zebrafish, he and his colleagues at the University of California, Davis, found that a variety of psychotropic medicines — including hallucinogenic agents LSD and DMT, as well as stimulants such as MDMA (commonly known as ecstasy) — rapidly produce these changes in brain architecture.

But these drugs come with plenty of downsides. They can cause life-threatening heart problems. Their perception-distorting effects make them ill-suited for individuals who might not respond well to hallucinations or other sensory alterations. And the need to administer the treatments under clinical supervision, often alongside psychotherapy sessions, can drive up costs and limit access for people who might otherwise benefit from the drugs’ ability to rewire the brain.

Hoping to find safer, more scalable alternatives, Olson started looking for compounds that pack the plasticity-inducing punch of true psychedelics but are free from their other-worldly experiences. He turned to Reddit and other online forums, searching for molecules that recreational-drug enthusiasts had already created but deemed to be failures — “psychedelic duds”, as Olson puts it. These agents lacked the hallucinatory powers their creators had been hoping for, but Olson found that many of them could trigger neuronal growth nonetheless.

Continue reading at Nature Outlook.