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☆ How the Psychedelics Medicine Bubble Burst - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-23 | by ( Caty Enders | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The drug company Lykos Therapeutics had spent much of this year expecting to vault to meteoric heights. It had sent an application to the Food and Drug Administration seeking approval to use MDMA to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. It was the capstone to months of increasingly loud concerns being voiced over the quality of Lykos’s clinical trials. Lykos has spent years conducting clinical trials testing whether MDMA-assisted psychotherapy could alleviate the symptoms of PTSD. Its most recent drug trial showed that more than 86 percent of people treated had a measurable reduction in symptom severity.

Persons: ”, Lykos Organizations: Lykos Therapeutics, Food and Drug Administration, Lykos, Merck

☆ Fava beans could boost mood and ease depression, according to a scientist. She shared her 3 favorite ways to eat them.
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-14 | by ( Kim Schewitz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Fava beans, also called broad beans, contain levodopa or l-dopa, a chemical that can be converted into the pleasure hormone dopamine. One in five Americans experienced a mental health condition in 2020, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, and mental health costs the US economy more than $280 billion annually, according to researchers at Columbia Business School and Yale. "For me it's a matter of getting the awareness out that there is something that could improve mental health," she said. AdvertisementHere are her three favorite ways to prepare fava beans. Fava bean stir fryEvery week Mohd-Radzman makes a stir-fry with lots of fava beans.

Persons: —, Nadia Mohd, Radzman, Ian Laker, pita, she's, snacking Organizations: Service, University of Cambridge, Business, Neuroscience, Molecular Psychiatry, Mental Health Administration, Columbia Business School, Yale Locations: Mohd

☆ FDA rejection of MDMA-assisted therapy rattles advocates but doesn’t spell end of psychedelics in medicine, experts say
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-13 | by ( Deidre Mcphillips | Carma Hassan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

The initial application from Lykos presented positive data from two late-stage clinical trials that used MDMA in combination with talk therapy to treat PTSD. The advisers said it was also difficult to parse how much the accompanying talk therapy — an area that the FDA does not regulate — contributed to outcomes. Advocates for the treatment, including some veterans groups, said they were “incredibly disappointed” by the FDA decision. Dozens of clinical trials involving psychedelics are in various stages, and additional scrutiny can help strengthen the findings and build confidence. Psychopharmacology did not allow the study authors to publish a correction with data that excluded findings from one study site, said Allison Feduccia, an author in all three retracted studies.

Persons: Lykos, —, ” Martin Steele, Brett Waters, ”, Rachel Yehuda, “, ‘, Michael Bogenschutz, Yehuda, It’s, Lori Bruce, Psychopharmacology, caressed, “ it’s, Amy Emerson, ” Lykos, Allison Feduccia, Dr, Sanjay Gupta, Brian Barnett, ” Bruce, Nadia Kounang Organizations: CNN, Food and Drug Administration, Lykos Therapeutics, FDA, Veteran Mental Health Leadership Coalition, Hope, Center, Psychedelic Psychotherapy, Mount, Icahn, of Medicine, NYU Langone Center, Psychedelic Medicine, Oxford, NUS, Neuroethics, Interdisciplinary Center, Bioethics, Yale University, ”, Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, Health Canada, Institutional, Board, CNN Health, Cleveland Clinic Locations: Canada, “

☆ Three Studies of MDMA Treatment Retracted by Scientific Journal
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-12 | by ( Andrew Jacobs | More About Andrew Jacobs | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The journal Psychopharmacology has retracted three papers about MDMA-assisted therapy based on what the publication said was unethical conduct at one of the study sites where the research took place. Several of the papers’ authors are affiliated with Lykos Therapeutics, the drug company whose application for MDMA-assisted therapy to treat post-traumatic stress disorder was rejected last week by the Food and Drug Administration. The company said the research in the retracted papers was not part of its application to the F.D.A. has asked Lykos to conduct an additional clinical trial of its MDMA-assisted therapy, which would have been the first psychedelic medicine to win approval by federal regulators. Lykos has said it would appeal the decision.

Persons: Lykos Organizations: Lykos Therapeutics, Food and Drug Administration

☆ The withdrawal risk of quitting antidepressants
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-05 | by ( Kristen Rogers | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Roughly 15% of participants who discontinued antidepressants experienced withdrawal symptoms such as dizziness, headaches, nausea, insomnia and irritability, according to the review published Wednesday in the journal The Lancet Psychiatry. The review is the first publication of a larger project on antidepressant withdrawal symptoms, the authors said. The authors also discovered the medications most often linked with withdrawal symptoms were desvenlafaxine, venlafaxine, imipramine and escitalopram. The rate of withdrawal symptoms in pharma-funded studies was about the same as trials not funded by pharmaceutical companies. The study didn’t provide information on the duration of withdrawal symptoms, but other research suggests they can last for up to two weeks in most cases, Keedwell said.

Persons: ”, Jonathan Henssler, ” Henssler, Sameer Jauhar, Jauhar wasn’t, ” Jauhar, Christiaan Vinkers, weren’t, Tony Kendrick, “, ” Kendrick, Henssler, Jauhar, Oliver Howes, Howes wasn’t, Paul Keedwell, wasn’t, Keedwell, ” Keedwell Organizations: Lifeline, CNN, neurosciences, Charité — University Medicine, King’s College London, Pharmaceutical, pharma, Amsterdam University Medical Center, University of Southampton, Cleveland Clinic, Royal College of Psychiatrists Locations: United Kingdom, Berlin, England

☆ Australia ushers in a new era of psychedelic medicine
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-30 | by ( Katie Hunt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Australia may be the first country to regulate the therapeutic use of MDMA and psilocybin, but it isn’t alone in ushering in a new era of psychedelic medicine. In October 2022, Alberta became the first jurisdiction in Canada to regulate the use of psychedelic drugs. Combining psychotherapy with psychedelic drugs is thought to be necessary for a beneficial outcome. He said that psychedelic drugs resulted in “powerful altered states of consciousness that can be intensely therapeutic, but also intensely destabilizing. “If you have a regulated, insured, safe context, and a good psychotherapeutic relationship, and yes, there’s the potential for great benefit there.”However, Rucker stressed that psychedelic drugs were not “a chemical switch to make everything seem fine.

Persons: ”, haven’t, Colleen Loo, Loo, “, Cole Burston, Celia Morgan, Morgan, James Rucker, “ You’re, ” Morgan, ” Rucker, prescriber, Rucker Organizations: CNN, Goods Administration, US Food and Drug Administration, University of New, Black Dog Institute, The Royal, New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, Oregon Health Authority, Getty, University of Exeter, The New England, of Medicine, of Psychiatry, Neuroscience, King’s College London, Therapeutic Goods Locations: Australia, University of New South Wales, Sydney, RANZCP, Alberta, Canada, AFP, United Kingdom, The, psychopharmacology

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