|
||
|
Title: Clusters/Harvard Study appear in New Scientist Post by Pinkfloyd on Feb 24th, 2005, 1:10am Here are some key paragraphs from a long article in this coming Saturday's edition of New Scientist on the resurgence of interest in psychedelics. Psychedelic medicine: Mind bending, health giving * 26 February 2005 * From New Scientist Print Edition. * John Horgan is a freelance science writer based in Garrison, New York. His latest book, Rational Mysticism (Mariner Books), was published in paperback last year JOHN HALPERN clearly remembers what made him change his mind about psychedelic drugs. It was the early 1990s and the young medical student at a hospital in Brooklyn, New York, was getting frustrated that he could not do more to help the alcoholics and addicts in his care. He sounded off to an older psychiatrist, who mentioned that LSD and related drugs had once been considered promising treatments for addiction. "I was so fascinated that I did all this research," Halpern recalls. "I was reading all these papers from the 60s and going, whoa, wait a minute! How come nobody's talking about this?" More than a decade later, Halpern is now an associate director of substance abuse research at Harvard University's McLean Hospital and is at the forefront of a revival of research into psychedelic medicine. He recently received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to give late-stage cancer patients the psychedelic drug MDMA, also known as ecstasy. He is also laying the groundwork for testing LSD as a treatment for dreaded super-migraines known as cluster headaches. And Halpern is not alone. Clinical trials of psychedelic drugs are planned or under way at numerous centres around the world for conditions ranging from anxiety to alcoholism. It may not be long before doctors are legally prescribing hallucinogens for the first time in decades. "There are medicines here that have been overlooked, that are fundamentally valuable," says Halpern. For now, however, Halpern isn't planning to pursue addiction therapy. He is more interested in another medical use for LSD and psilocybin: treating a debilitating condition known as cluster headaches. These attacks appear to be caused by swelling of blood vessels in the brain and are worse than migraines. Sufferers say the pain exceeds that of passing a kidney stone or giving birth without anaesthetics. They affect about 3 in every 1000 people sporadically, and 1 in 10,000 chronically. "There's a tremendous potential need for this," says Halpern, who investigated the problem after being approached by a patient group. Many patients get little or no relief from painkillers, but some claim that small doses of LSD or psilocybin can alleviate the headaches and even prevent them from occurring. Halpern was intrigued; LSD is chemically related to ergot, a naturally occurring compound that constricts blood vessels, and the derivatives ergotamine and methysergide are commonly prescribed for migraines. Halpern and his Harvard colleague Andrew Sewell are now gathering evidence to persuade licensing officials - and themselves - that LSD and psilocybin merit a clinical trial. Sewell has gathered more than 60 testimonials from cluster headache sufferers who have treated themselves with LSD or psilocybin. Read the entire article here: http://www.newscientist.com/channel/health/mg18524881.400 The rest is pretty interesting too. Bobw (Thanks Tommy) |
||
|
Title: Re: Clusters/Harvard Study appear in New Scientist Post by TxBasslady on Feb 24th, 2005, 2:05am Interesting info, Bob Thanks!! Jean |
||
|
Title: Re: Clusters/Harvard Study appear in New Scientist Post by Chillrmn1 on Feb 24th, 2005, 5:16am Hi Bobw, Thanks for sharing this exciting article. Wouldn't it be great if this proven therapy were to finally become legal? Hope this is the beginning. |
||
|
Clusterheadaches.com Message Board » Powered by YaBB 1 Gold - SP 1.3.1! YaBB © 2000-2003. All Rights Reserved. |