Addiction Biology
October 2, 2007
Firas Kobeissy, Jennifer A. Jeung, Matthew Warren et al.
47 citations
Acute administration of MDMA (ecstasy) and methamphetamine to adult male rats altered serum levels of appetite-regulating hormones in a dose- and time-dependent manner. MDMA caused transient decreases in leptin and growth hormone and increases in ghrelin, with levels returning to baseline after 24 hours. Both MDMA and methamphetamine produced a steady decrease in neuropeptide-Y. These hormone changes may help explain the reduced eating observed in humans who abuse these drugs.
Brain Sciences
March 20, 2024
Muhammet Celik, Mark S. Gold, Brian Fuehrlein
22 citations
Alcohol use disorder contributes to over 140,000 annual deaths in the United States, over 200 related diseases globally, and 5.1% of the global disease burden, yet remains undertreated with few approved medications. This narrative review describes the current treatment landscape and novel strategies for alcohol withdrawal syndrome and AUD, including psychedelics combined with psychotherapy, noninvasive neural-circuit-based interventions, phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitors, and GLP-1 receptor agonists. Recent studies show promising results for these approaches, but further research is needed to fully understand their effectiveness. The shortage of approved medications and other treatment modalities highlights the urgent need for continued investigation.
JAMA
February 9, 1994
Mark S. Gold
12 citations
A large annual survey of over half a million U.S. junior and senior high school students in 1993 found that hallucinogen use rose slightly from 4.9% to 5.3% compared to the previous year. Among hallucinogen users, 83% reported typically getting high or stoned, a higher proportion than among beer drinkers (24%), marijuana smokers (66%), or cocaine users (74%). The authors suggest many young people view cocaine as very dangerous but see LSD as spiritually uplifting; 55% of seniors believed trying LSD a few times is not harmful.
Psychiatric Annals
March 1, 1994
Mark S. Gold
11 citations
Surveys of high school students indicate that use of LSD and other hallucinogens appears to be increasing.
Brain Sci
September 28, 2025
Sabrina Correa da Costa, Nicholas L. Bormann, Tyler Oesterle et al.
3 citations
Substance use disorders affect over 48.5 million Americans, and available treatments often fail even with adequate adherence. This overview of 16 systematic reviews examined evidence on serotonergic psychedelics and ketamine for treating substance use disorders. Preliminary evidence suggests these compounds may offer advantages over traditional treatments and could eventually become part of next-generation therapies under specific circumstances. However, significant challenges remain: high risk of bias and methodological limitations in existing studies warrant caution, and associated risks are not negligible. The use of psychedelic drugs for substance use disorders remains experimental, and current evidence is insufficient to support clinical practice.
Brain Sci
November 4, 2025
A. Benjamin Srivastava, Mark S. Gold
Research into psychedelic drugs for treating alcohol use disorder (AUD) has revived, but several fundamental limitations restrict the conclusions that can be drawn. These include general issues like functional unblinding and the ambiguous definition of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, as well as AUD-specific challenges such as how the mystical experience relates to the spiritual experience described in Alcoholics Anonymous literature. Current neuroimaging studies are also limited in design and fail to directly examine the cognitive and circuit-level processes likely underlying treatment response. This review bridges historical, conceptual, and mechanistic aspects of this research and offers suggestions for future studies to more clearly specify the role of psychedelics in AUD treatment.