Hallucinogens repair the liver

[labmatt]

A potentially new (and rather amazing) medicinal use for psychedelic drugs has been discovered, and the findings were reported in a recent edition of Science. For those of you who don't know, the peer-reviewed Science publication is one of the two most prestigious journals in the world

Comments

[labmatt]

Ian:
No hard evidence that this works for toxin/substance abuse, but damaged liver cells are damaged liver cells...

No direct tie in with haemophilia. Good call remembering that platelets are what is responsible for blood clotting... it turns out that it was the serotonin they carry, not the cells themselves, responsible for the effect.

Yes Nature is the other top journal. Normally I would think this to be a very radical shift, but just earlier this month, the top notch medical journal The Lancet had an editorial calling for renewed research into psychedleics.

It's a really short article, so I'll include it below a lj-cut here for you to read. Psychedelic research could be a new trend/direction in scientific research.

[zur_the_weird]

Did you read the interview on New Scientist last week about the use of hallucinogens for psychiatric purposes?

[labmatt]

Psychiatric use has been the historical context of the medicinal investigation of psychedelic drugs -- from early trials in the 50s and 60s using LSD or psylociben to reform criminals and treat alcoholism to the modern Israel and USA(FDA) clinical trials using MDMA for post traumatic stress disorder. It seems logical that drugs which affect the mind can be used to treat diseases of the mind.

The potential for serotonergic psychedelic drugs to have physiological consequences such as liver regeneration is much more profound. As Sam has been suggesting in his other comments, these types of findings provide evidence for direct links between psychological and physiological disease states.

I see a potential medical niche being created that only psychedelics will be able to occupy. Sure psychedelics can be used for pyschiatry, but so can SSRI's, Anxiety drugs, Tranquilizers, etc. On the other hand, psychedelics might be the ONLY type of drug with the ability to explore the connection between mental and physical disease states.

[zur_the_weird]

The serotonin factor also lend some explanation as to why non-depressed people may recover from some illness with greater ease ie)psychoneuroimmunology.

[labmatt]

Sam.. this study only dealt with serotonin OUTSIDE the brain. The liver and the stomach/GI system are both modulated by serotonin, and have receptors for it. Serotonin can't cross the blood brain barrier, so this system is fully distinct/autonomous from the CNS.

[zur_the_weird]

True enough. However symptoms of depression usually include factors that are physiological and not just psychological. ie)GI problems. Are you aware of any studies that have simultaneously compared the activity of neurotransmitters in both the GI and CNS? I'm just curious as to whether there can be and underlying cause to such symptoms.

[labmatt]

Interesting thought. I haven't seen any such study, but then again this isn't exactly my area of specialty. I'd speculate that yes, there is an underlying cause (i.e. low serotonin levels in both GI and CNS).

I wonder if depressed individuals would show more liver damage (due to aging/natural causes) then happy individuals -- if serotonin is driving liver regeneration, then deficiency in the neurotransmitter might be manifesting itself outside the CNS in places such as the liver.