The hallucinogenic effect of psychedelics may hold much healing potential, but researchers believe that these compounds could be beneficial for brain disorders without hallucinations.
Following half a century of censorship into the research of psychedelics, compounds such LSD, psilocybin, DMT and more, are now gaining attention for their healing potential in the field of mental health.
While recent studies have shown that they could help fight anxiety and depression, the hallucinogenic effects of psychedelic compounds can make it complicated to use them as treatments.
Neuroscience experts are now looking at ways around this. The FENS 2022 Forum will focus on some of the beneficial effects that psychedelics can have for certain brain disorders while mitigating their mind-altering effects.
The forum will see a number of neuroscience experts discuss the topic, including:
Dr Kim Kuypers from Maastricht University will discuss innovative approaches to psychedelic microdosing.
Dr Scott Thompson from The University of Maryland School of Medicine will discuss the need for more basic research to better understand how psychedelic drugs act on the brain and how they could be modified to produce only desired effects. Thompson and his team have already been able to show that psilocybin can produce its different effects through separate mechanisms.
In mice, they were able to block a specific receptor in the brain responsible for turning on the drug’s psychedelic effects. Using a model of depression, they further showed that “depressed” mice treated with psilocybin benefitted from the treatment since they regained healthy behaviours even while the mechanism responsible for psychedelic effects was blocked.
Dr Lindsay Cameron from Stanford University will speak to how hallucinogenic and therapeutic effects of these types of drugs can be decoupled. This is playing an essential role in the development of non-hallucinogenic versions of psychedelic drugs that could be harnessed solely for their therapeutic value.
Additionally, Rafael Moliner, a graduate student at the University of Helsinki, will discuss the role that psychedelics may have on brain plasticity, an important topic since some brain disorders like depression have been associated with decreased neuroplascity and rigid thought patterns.
The five-day FENS Forum will feature a high-quality scientific programme covering all aspects of neuroscience, from basic to translational research. Attendees will have access to a range of symposia, technical workshops, plenary and special lectures like these as well as poster sessions and more.
FENS and the Société des Neurosciences will be hosting the event from 9 to 13 July 2022 in Paris, France.
To find out more please visit forum.fens.org.
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