Annotated Bibliography for PAP Exhibition Proposal
Carhart-Harris, R. L., Leech, R., Williams, T. M., Erritzoe, D., Abbasi, N., Bargiotas, T., Nutt, D. J. (2018, January 02). Implications for psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy: Functional magnetic resonance imaging study with psilocybin: The British Journal of Psychiatry. Retrieved from https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-journal-of-psychiatry/article/implications-for-psychedelicassisted-psychotherapy-functional-magnetic-resonance-imaging-study-with-psilocybin/65960EEBE9984AF5CD24F4E42449FACC
This study investigates implications for psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy using a functional magnetic resonance imaging study with psilocybin. This aims to test the hypothesis that psilocybin facilitates access to personal memories and emotions by comparing subjective and neural responses to positive autobiographical memories under psilocybin and placebo. In this research, 10 healthy participants received two functional magnetic resonance imaging scans, separated by 7 days, during which they viewed autobiographical memory cues then closed their eyes and imagined reexperiencing the event. Robust activations to the memories were seen in limbic and striatal regions in the early phase and the medial prefrontal cortex in the late phase in both conditions, there was additional visual and other sensory cortical activations in participants with psilocybin that were absent under placebo. Evidence that psilocybin enhances autobiographical recollection implies that it may be useful in psychotherapy either as a tool to facilitate the recall of salient memories or to reverse negative cognitive biases.
Cline, Anna. Trinity College Trinity College Digital Repository Senior Theses and Projects. Student Works the Evolving Role of the Exhibition and Its Impact on Art and Culture. , 2012.
This paper discusses the evolving role of the exhibition space and its impact on art and culture. Most successful art exhibitions essentially reflect the interests or concerns of society at a given time or place. Everything from the theme, to the way an exhibition is designed, to the way it is marketed is a reflection of societal interests and expectations. Since psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is in the midst of its reawakening, creating an exhibition space centered around the education of historical uses and reputations of psychedelic drugs could bring relevance that is relatable to a wide audience. The exhibition can be used as a mirror of the human experience with psychedelic drugs, shared with countless individuals who are unaware of its potential.
Doblin, R. E., Christiansen, M., Jerome, L., & Burge, B. (2019, April 2). The Past and Future of Psychedelic Science: An Introduction to This Issue. Retrieved January 25, 2021, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02791072.2019.1606472
Psychedelic plants and fungi have been used in indigenous medicinal traditions for millennia. Albert Hofmann first synthesized LSD in 1938, ingesting it himself 5 years later. Throughout the 1970s and ’80s governmental interventions severely hampered global psychedelic research, despite evidence of the limited medical risks and therapeutic potential. Fast-forward, there are more clinical trials in psychedelics happening today, both for basic effects and therapeutic purposes, than at any time in history. In the United States specifically, the past two years have brought about swift and directed progress in the development and advancement of clinical psychedelic research. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) designated both MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD and psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression as “Breakthrough Therapies”, meaning that these are some of the most promising drugs currently in development.
Karni, Gill. Trip of Compassion. Zafrir Kochanovsky, Miri Ezra, 2019.
Tim Ferriss is an author and hosts a 3x “Best Of” Apple Podcast where he talks about increasing well-being and overcoming adversity. He was sent a link to the film “Trip of Compassion” in 2019, which had been broadcast once on Israeli television, but it wasn’t distributed or available anywhere else. This film affected him so deeply (and immediately) that he flew out to meet the filmmakers and offered to help launch the film digitally worldwide. Filmed at the Beer Yaakov Mental Health Center in Israel, this movie documents MDMA practices proving that if the therapy is well designed, true rebirth and transformation can happen in a matter of weeks and not years which could be groundbreaking for millions of PTSD sufferers. This is also the first feature documentary to show actual therapy session footage (to our knowledge), to which the patients consented because of the incredible results they experienced.
Nielson, Elizabeth M. “The Influence of Therapists’ First-Hand Experience with Psychedelics on Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy Research and Therapist Training in: Journal of Psychedelic Studies Volume 2 Issue 2 (2018).” AKJournals, 1 Dec. 2018. https://akjournals.com/view/journals/2054/2/2/article-p64.xml.
Currently, there is no empirical research on the personal use of psychedelics by current academic researchers and clinicians; its influence is undocumented, unknown, and undertheorized. This paper explores the history of the personal use of psychedelics by clinicians and researchers, the potential impact of personal use on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and research, and the rationale for opening an academic discussion and program of research to investigate the role of personal use. In this, they propose that there are factors unique to psychedelic-assisted therapy such that training for it cannot neatly fit into the framework of modern psychopharmacology training, nor be it fully analogous to psychotherapy training in contemporary psychological and psychiatric settings. They argue that scientific exploration of the influence of therapists’ first-hand experience of psychedelics on psychedelic-assisted therapy outcomes is feasible, timely, and necessary for the future of clinical research.
Novak, S. J. (1997, March 01). LSD before Leary: Sidney Cohen’s Critique of 1950s Psychedelic Drug Research. Retrieved from https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/383628
This article is Sidney Cohen’s critique of 1950s psychedelic drug research. In 1962 Sidney Cohen presented the medical community with its first warning about the dangers of the drug LSD. LSD was originally perceived as a psychotomimetic capable of producing a model psychosis but was later redefined as a psychedelic capable of producing mystical enlightenment. In the 1950s in early investigations of the drug, psychologists were administering it to cure neuroses and alcoholism and to enhance creativity. By 1962 Cohen concern about popularization, nonmedical use, black-market LSD, and patients harmed by the drug led him to warn that the spread of LSD was dangerous. The subsequent government crackdown and regulation of LSD preceded the 1960s drug movement, halting further research and development for over 20 years.
Reiff, C. M., Richman, E. E., Nemeroff, C. B., Carpenter, L. L., Widge, A. S., Rodriguez, C. I., Kalin, N. H., McDonald, W. M., & the Work Group on Biomarkers and Novel Treatments, a Division of the American Psychiatric Association Council of Research (2020). Psychedelics and Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy. The American journal of psychiatry, 177(5), 391–410. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2019.19010035 Psychedelics and Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy: Clinical Implications
The authors provide an evidence-based summary of the literature on the clinical application of psychedelic drugs in psychiatric disorders. Over 1,000 articles were published between 2007 and 2019 relating to the study of PAP, the authors identified 14 articles reporting on well-designed clinical trials investigating the efficacy of LSD, MDMA, psilocybin, and ayahuasca for the treatment of mood and anxiety disorders, trauma, and stress-related disorders, substance-related and addictive disorders as well as in end-of-life care. The most significant database exists for MDMA and psilocybin being for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and treatment-resistant depression but is insufficient for FDA approval of any psychedelic compound for routine clinical use in psychiatric disorders at this time. The research on LSD and ayahuasca is observational, but available evidence suggests that these agents may have therapeutic effects in specific psychiatric disorders. It is believed that continued research on the efficacy of psychedelics for the treatment of psychiatric disorders is warranted and promising.
Schenberg EE (2018) Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy: A Paradigm Shift in Psychiatric Research and Development. Front. Pharmacol. 9:733. doi: 10.3389/fphar.2018.00733
There is an incline of mental disorders, and a decline in novel psychiatric medications; this stall in innovation has also been linked with intense debates on the current diagnostics and explanations for mental disorders, creating a crisis. In this article, Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy (PAP) has shown important practical and theoretical outcomes for the three axes of the crisis: therapeutics, diagnosis, and explanation. Synthetic substances like LSD, MDMA, ketamine, and naturally occurring alkaloids including psilocybin, and ibogaine, have been used in a series of studies as well as Phase 2 clinical trials to help make advancements in this issue. By administering psychoactive drugs just a few times, PAP can prevent addiction and the development of side effects after chronic use of medications. The combination of psychotherapy with psychedelics can be seen as the beginning of an experience with positive long-term mental health consequences, rather than daily neurochemical corrections in brain dysfunctions.
“SoundMind Center.” SoundMind Center, soundmind.center/. Accessed 26 Jan. 2021.
SoundMind is a media and healthcare nonprofit with headquarters in Philadelphia, PA. They create innovative solutions to pressing healthcare needs and have a special focus on neuroscience and mental health, both for clinical groups and the general population. They offer a series of classes and workshops that help clinicians understand the literature and practice of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, meditation, and contemplative practices, and provide access to free health and wellness information to marginalized groups. This clinic would be a place to interview and a great source of information for how they conduct their practice, what the physical spaces look like, and other personal aspects of this experience that you couldn’t access otherwise.
Wheeler, S. W., & Dyer, N. L. (2020). A systematic review of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy for mental health: An evaluation of the current wave of research and suggestions for the future. Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice, 7(3), 279–315. https://doi.org/10.1037/cns0000237
This article consists of a systematic review of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy for mental health and an evaluation of the current wave of research and suggestions for the future. In early mental health research with psychedelics, researchers had favorable results in numerous trials and by the 1960s psychedelic therapy had arrived at the doorstep of mainstream medicine. This first wave of research had flaws, concerns around ethical issues, and was met with political backlash; research and clinical applications were halted and suppressed until the 1990s. Since then, many well-designed, ethically responsible, rigorous studies have contributed to renewed interest in psychedelics and the revitalization of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. This review summarizes the extant literature, discussed the strengths and limitations of the research base, provides suggestions for psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy practice, identifies potential therapeutic mechanisms, and offers suggestions for future research.
