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Topic: Clusters/Harvard Study appear in New Scientist (Read 329 times) |
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Pinkfloyd
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Clusters/Harvard Study appear in New Scientist
« on: Feb 24th, 2005, 1:10am » |
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Here are some key paragraphs from a long article in this coming Saturday's edition of New Scientist on the resurgence of interest in psychedelics.
Psychedelic medicine: Mind bending, health giving
* 26 February 2005
* From New Scientist Print Edition.
* John Horgan is a freelance science writer based in Garrison, New
York. His latest book, Rational Mysticism (Mariner Books), was
published in paperback last year
JOHN HALPERN clearly remembers what made him change his mind about
psychedelic drugs. It was the early 1990s and the young medical
student at a hospital in Brooklyn, New York, was getting frustrated
that he could not do more to help the alcoholics and addicts in his
care. He sounded off to an older psychiatrist, who mentioned that LSD
and related drugs had once been considered promising treatments for
addiction. "I was so fascinated that I did all this research," Halpern
recalls. "I was reading all these papers from the 60s and going, whoa,
wait a minute! How come nobody's talking about this?"
More than a decade later, Halpern is now an associate director of
substance abuse research at Harvard University's McLean Hospital and
is at the forefront of a revival of research into psychedelic
medicine. He recently received approval from the US Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) to give late-stage cancer patients the
psychedelic drug MDMA, also known as ecstasy. He is also laying the
groundwork for testing LSD as a treatment for dreaded super-migraines
known as cluster headaches.
And Halpern is not alone. Clinical trials of psychedelic drugs are
planned or under way at numerous centres around the world for
conditions ranging from anxiety to alcoholism. It may not be long
before doctors are legally prescribing hallucinogens for the first
time in decades. "There are medicines here that have been overlooked,
that are fundamentally valuable," says Halpern.
For now, however, Halpern isn't planning to pursue addiction therapy.
He is more interested in another medical use for LSD and psilocybin:
treating a debilitating condition known as cluster headaches. These
attacks appear to be caused by swelling of blood vessels in the brain
and are worse than migraines. Sufferers say the pain exceeds that of
passing a kidney stone or giving birth without anaesthetics. They
affect about 3 in every 1000 people sporadically, and 1 in 10,000
chronically. "There's a tremendous potential need for this," says
Halpern, who investigated the problem after being approached by a
patient group.
Many patients get little or no relief from painkillers, but some claim
that small doses of LSD or psilocybin can alleviate the headaches and
even prevent them from occurring. Halpern was intrigued; LSD is
chemically related to ergot, a naturally occurring compound that
constricts blood vessels, and the derivatives ergotamine and
methysergide are commonly prescribed for migraines.
Halpern and his Harvard colleague Andrew Sewell are now gathering
evidence to persuade licensing officials - and themselves - that LSD
and psilocybin merit a clinical trial. Sewell has gathered more than
60 testimonials from cluster headache sufferers who have treated
themselves with LSD or psilocybin.
Read the entire article here:
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/mg18524881.400
The rest is pretty interesting too.
Bobw
(Thanks Tommy)
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TxBasslady
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Re: Clusters/Harvard Study appear in New Scientist
« Reply #1 on: Feb 24th, 2005, 2:05am » |
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Interesting info, Bob
Thanks!!
Jean
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Chillrmn1
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Re: Clusters/Harvard Study appear in New Scientist
« Reply #2 on: Feb 24th, 2005, 5:16am » |
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Hi Bobw,
Thanks for sharing this exciting article. Wouldn't it be great if this proven therapy were to finally become legal? Hope this is the beginning.
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