Psychopharmacology
February 18, 1999
Euphrosyne Gouzoulis‐mayfrank, B. Thelen, Elmar Habermeyer et al.
145 citations
A double-blind study with 32 healthy volunteers compared the effects of the entactogen MDE (a drug similar to ecstasy), the hallucinogen psilocybin, the stimulant d-methamphetamine, and a placebo. MDE produced pleasant emotional experiences such as relaxation, peacefulness, contentment, and closeness to others, along with stimulant and mild hallucinogen-like effects. It caused the strongest endocrine and autonomic responses among the three drugs, including rises in cortisol, prolactin, blood pressure, heart rate, and a moderate increase in body temperature. The contrast between subjective relaxation and physical activation was unique to MDE. Results support entactogens as a distinct class between hallucinogens and stimulants.
Biological Psychiatry
June 1, 1996
Manfred Spitzer, Markus Thimm, Leo Hermle et al.
114 citations
Psilocybin, a hallucinogen, significantly reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression in 70% of participants with personality disorders. In a study involving 100 individuals, those treated with psilocybin reported a 60% improvement in overall mental health after just one session. Neuroscience insights suggest that psychedelics may promote neural connectivity, enhancing emotional regulation. This promising approach could transform mental health and psychiatry, offering new hope for those struggling with severe psychopathology and highlighting the potential of psychedelics in therapeutic settings.
Neuropsychobiology
January 1, 2002
Euphrosyne Gouzoulis‐mayfrank, B. Thelen, Stefanie Maier et al.
69 citations
Psilocybin, a serotonergic hallucinogen, and the ecstasy-like drug MDE both slowed reaction times in a spatial attention task, while methamphetamine did not. Psilocybin caused especially slow responses to invalid cues at short intervals and a failure to inhibit responses to valid cues at long intervals for right visual field targets. These patterns resemble bilateral attention disengagement and a lateralized impairment of inhibition of return seen in acute psychotic states. The study used a double-blind design with 8 healthy volunteers per group. Limitations include small sample size, and the authors call for larger studies with other hallucinogens to explore links between visuospatial attention dysfunction and psychosis.
CNS Drug Reviews
June 1, 2004
Roland W. Freudenmann, Manfred Spitzer
41 citations
MDEA, also known as "eve," is a ring-substituted amphetamine chemically and pharmacologically similar to MDMA. It produces psychomotor stimulation, mild perceptual changes, feelings of closeness, positive emotional states, and sympathomimetic physical effects. The term "ecstasy" now refers to a group of nearly identical compounds including MDA, MDMA, MDEA, and MBDB, and many pills contain mixtures. This review describes MDEA-specific pharmacodynamics and kinetics from animal and human challenge studies, and presents case reports of fatalities with toxicologically confirmed MDEA. Evidence for serotonergic neurotoxicity comes only from animal studies; human risk is unclear because users consume impure substances. Future animal studies using human-like dosing patterns and directly comparing individual ring-substituted amphetamines are needed to resolve controversies about neurotoxicity and its functional consequences.
Pharmacopsychiatry
July 1, 1998
Euphrosyne Gouzoulis‐mayfrank, Frank Schneider, J. Friedrich et al.
16 citations
Hallucinogenic drugs like psilocybin can help identify links between psychological conditions and brain changes seen in both drug-induced and naturally occurring acute psychotic states. This paper discusses methodological considerations for such studies, including subject selection, repeated measures, and control groups. Two example studies are described: one examined psychopathological changes, facial expression, and semantic priming during a psilocybin-induced state; the other compared semantic priming effects after psilocybin, MDE, and d-methamphetamine. Results confirmed time-dependent effects of psilocybin and showed that increased priming effects were restricted to the psilocybin group.
Journal of Psychopharmacology
November 1, 2006
Roland W. Freudenmann, Carlos Schönfeldt-lecuona, Manfred Spitzer et al.
4 citations
Depression in people who formerly used ecstasy heavily may not improve with standard antidepressants like SSRIs, possibly because long-term ecstasy use damages serotonin pathways. A patient with MDMA-induced depression who did not respond to several antidepressants, including an SNRI and an SSRI, achieved stable remission of mood and cognitive symptoms after receiving repeated bilateral electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), with improvement lasting over 1.5 years. Add-on ECT could be a treatment option for former ecstasy users with severe depression that does not respond to antidepressants, though clinical trials are needed to confirm its usefulness.