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Hallucinogenic plants might be treatment for alcoholism
(Lee Billings, The Minnesota Daily, May 8, 2003)
During the 1950s and 1960s, university researchers around the country, including some at the University of Minnesota, performed experiments testing the effects of hallucinogenic drugs on humans. . . . The University stopped its research in 1968 after new legislation restricting and prohibiting whole classes of drugs swept through Congress, halting research for decades in areas of psychiatry, neuroscience, biochemistry and other fields. . . . Dennis McKenna, a neurobiologist and University lecturer, has worked to legitimize hallucinogen research and therapy ever since. . . . And with his latest proposal — using exotic hallucinogenic plants to treat alcoholism — McKenna just might succeed. . . . Besides such behavioral changes, the researchers discovered that the brains of long-term ayahuasca users were chemically different from nonusers. Users had more receptors for serotonin, a neurotransmitter which helps regulate moods. The receptors function like vacuum pumps, transporting serotonin back into brain cells. . . . Studies have correlated lowered densities of serotonin receptors with alcoholism, severe depression and violent behavior. . . . “You have a group of people who were basically dysfunctional,” McKenna said. “They’re addicted, they have suicidal problems, they join (the church), they start taking ayahuasca, the biochemical profile is reversed, and the behavioral profile greatly improves.” . . . Dr. Charles Grob, a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the UCLA medical school and collaborator with McKenna in Brazil, said he supports McKenna’s research of the drink’s antiaddictive properties. . . . “Dennis is one of the world’s foremost authorities on the science of ayahuasca, the botanical and pharmacological science,” Grob said. “He’s also a visionary thinker, often a step ahead of the pack in perceiving the potentials that this area has for helping us understand the mind, the brain, illness and helping with development of new treatment models.” . . . “Ayahuasca is actually, of all the different psychedelics, the one that has the best potential for treatment of alcoholism,” Metzner said. Besides expanding consciousness, “which is the whole point of 12-step therapy . . . “It’s like a detox program built right into the experience,” he said.

posted by LoZo 9:25 AM