Rethinking Therapeutic Strategies for Anorexia Nervosa: Insights From Psychedelic Medicine and Animal Models
Frontiers in Neuroscience – February 04, 2020
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
Anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disease, with current treatments largely ineffective. Psilocybin, a potent hallucinogen, offers new hope. This psychedelic medicine shows promise for addressing cognitive inflexibility and neurotransmitter receptor influence on behavior in AN. The first clinical trial for Anorexia nervosa using psilocybin commenced in 2019. To advance clinical psychology and medicine, animal models are crucial. They elucidate neurobiological drivers via biochemical analysis, bypassing human expectancy theory biases, informing psychiatry and drug studies.
Abstract
Anorexia nervosa (AN) has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disease, yet available pharmacological treatments are largely ineffective due, in part, to an inadequate understanding of the neurobiological drivers that underpin the condition. The recent resurgence of research into the clinical applications of psychedelic medicine for a range of mental disorders has highlighted the potential for classical psychedelics, including psilocybin, to alleviate symptoms of AN that relate to serotonergic signaling and cognitive inflexibility. Clinical trials using psychedelics in treatment-resistant depression have shown promising outcomes, although these studies are unable to circumvent some methodological biases. The first clinical trial to use psilocybin in patients with AN commenced in 2019, necessitating a better understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms through which psychedelics act. Animal models are beneficial in this respect, allowing for detailed scrutiny of brain function and behavior and the potential to study pharmacology without the confounds of expectancy and bias that are impossible to control for in patient populations. We argue that studies investigating the neurobiological effects of psychedelics in animal models, including the activity-based anorexia (ABA) rodent model, are particularly important to inform clinical applications, including the subpopulations of patients that may benefit most from psychedelic medicine.