A Brief Review on the Potential of Psychedelics for Treating Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Depression
International Journal of Molecular Sciences – August 07, 2023
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
A compelling finding suggests psychedelics could significantly alleviate the burden of Alzheimer's disease, a prevalent dementia affecting our aging population. These drug studies indicate their unique mechanism of action, primarily as serotonin receptor agonists, may offer crucial psychiatric benefits. By modulating pathways linked to tryptophan and brain disorders, this medicine could attenuate depressive symptoms often associated with the disease. Reviews of preclinical and clinical findings highlight the potential for novel treatments via chemical synthesis, targeting the disease's psychological pathology.
Abstract
Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common form of senile dementia, is poised to place an even greater societal and healthcare burden as the population ages. With few treatment options for the symptomatic relief of the disease and its unknown etiopathology, more research into AD is urgently needed. Psychedelic drugs target AD-related psychological pathology and symptoms such as depression. Using microdosing, psychedelic drugs may prove to help combat this devastating disease by eliciting psychiatric benefits via acting through various mechanisms of action such as serotonin and dopamine pathways. Herein, we review the studied benefits of a few psychedelic compounds that may show promise in treating AD and attenuating its related depressive symptoms. We used the listed keywords to search through PubMed for relevant preclinical, clinical research, and review articles. The putative mechanism of action (MOA) for psychedelics is that they act mainly as serotonin receptor agonists and induce potential beneficial effects for treating AD and related depression.