Researchers see value in psychedelic drugs
Psychedelic drugs’ mind-expanding properties might be rooted in their ability to prompt neurons to branch out and create new connections with other brain cells, new research has found.
This discovery might explain why psychedelic drugs appear to be a valuable treatment for a wide range of psychiatric diseases, scientists said.
In test tubes as well as in rats and flies, psychedelic drugs as diverse as LSD, ecstasy, psilocybin and ketamine all share this knack for promoting neural “plasticity,” the ability to forge new connections (called neurites) among brain cells. In particular, the drugs appeared to fuel the growth of dendritic spines and axons, the appendages that brain cells of all sorts use to reach out in the darkness and create connections, or synapses, with other brain cells.
The study, led by the University of California, Davis chemist David E. Olson, was published on Tuesday in the journal Cell Reports.
The discovery of this neurite-promoting property could shed light on why these chemically distinct drugs all appear helpful in treating depression, anxiety, addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD, Olson said.
It also could point the way to the creation of compounds that mimic the plasticity-promoting properties of these drugs without inducing the potentially dangerous hallucinations, out-of-body experiences and full-on euphoria.
“Chemists are very clever and can modify structures to enhance certain properties and take away others,” Olson said.
“We’re attempting to do that with these compounds,” and having a wider variety of compounds to work with makes the prospect of success more likely, he said.
In humans, depression, anxiety disorders and addiction affect many of the same neural circuits. And researchers have consistently found that in people affected by these disorders, the neurons of the prefrontal cortex — the seat of what’s called executive function — have typically lost the dense connections to other brain cells that make a healthy brain hum.
Researchers have long known that ketamine, a sedative that produces a trance-like state and is widely used as a party drug, promotes the growth of neurites in the prefrontal cortex. When infused at low doses into patients with life-threatening depression, ketamine has been shown to be a powerful and fast-acting antidepressant.