UK NHS clinic is investigating the therapeutic benefits of psilocybin, DMT, LSD, MDMA and ketamine for OCD, depression, anorexia and fibromyalgia

[Hip]

The CIPPRes Clinic (St Charles Hospital, London) are investigating the benefits of various psychedelic drugs — such as psilocybin, DMT, LSD, MDMA and ketamine — for a range of conditions including OCD, depression, anorexia and fibromyalgia.

They are currently treating patients at this clinic, as part of a collaborative research initiative run by the NHS and Imperial College London.

CIPPRes Clinic

Articles:

I Got a Tour of the First Psychedelic Therapy Clinic in Britain

Imperial Centre for Psychedelic Research

 

[hmnr asg]

@Hip the big question, and I think you're more qualified than most to answer, is whether or not these compounds can help cfs ?
I have tried ketamine with no help for cfs (but great help for depression and pain). I have read anecdotal stories on the cfs subreddit that psilocybin doesn't help, but DMT does.
Have not heard anything about LSD but I'm pretty sure the come down for MDMA would crash us really really badly, so that's out for me.

 

[BrightCandle]

I highly doubt this will help in ME/CFS. I can believe psychedelic drugs do help plenty of people with depression and other unexplained (but IMO likely biological) diseases of the brain. ME/CFS presents as a chronic infection that never ends, immune dysregulation with autoimmunity, various innate immune system functions stuck permanently on, waxing and waning of the condition, PEM probably being a vascular injury as Professor Kell has suggested caused by clotting. I just can't see how a neuro impacting chemical could possibly change that situation unless its antiviral/antibacterial or immune boosting/signalling in some way.

This just reeks of Psychosomatic belief about the disease still.

 

[Hip]

I have read anecdotal stories on the cfs subreddit that psilocybin doesn't help, but DMT does.

Yes, I've come across stories on Reddit such as these that during a DMT trip (using ayahuasca), all ME/CFS symptoms disappear. And other stories that claim a permanent cure to ME/CFS after a DMT trip. But I've also read accounts of DMT trips not helping ME/CFS.

I doubt if DMT helps ME/CFS because it deepens one's spiritual development. If it were the spiritual effects which benefit ME/CFS, then you might expect other psychedelics to help ME/CFS too; but it seems it is only DMT which has some anecdotal stories of benefits for ME/CFS.

The fact that DMT sometimes helps ME/CFS, but not other psychedelics, suggests that there may be something about the receptors that DMT specifically interact with which provides the benefit.


This Wikipedia article details the receptor affinities of DMT: it binds to many serotonin receptors: 5-HT1A, 5-HT1B, 5-HT1D, 5-HT2A, 5-HT2B, 5-HT2C, 5-HT6 and 5-HT7. But many psychedelics hit the serotonin receptors.

DMT also binds to these receptors: dopamine D1, alpha1-adrenergic, alpha2-adrenergic, imidazoline 1 and sigma 1.


This paper about the treatment of fatigue mentions the sigma 1 receptor, and its role in mitochondria:

the sigma 1 receptor showed the strongest effect in increasing complex I activity, and a significant effect in increasing complex IV activity.

The sigma 1 receptor plays an important role in regulating mitochondrial apoptosis, proliferation, and neuroprotection, but it also modulates inflammatory and immune responses.

 

[MeMeMe]

@Hip the big question, and I think you're more qualified than most to answer, is whether or not these compounds can help cfs ?
I have tried ketamine with no help for cfs (but great help for depression and pain). I have read anecdotal stories on the cfs subreddit that psilocybin doesn't help, but DMT does.
Have not heard anything about LSD but I'm pretty sure the come down for MDMA would crash us really really badly, so that's out for me.

I recently experimented with this after reading that DMT has potential as a neuro-anti-inflammatory. I had some changa which is DMT on B Caapi leaf, which allows it to be smoked in a more measured way. I went fairly slowly, only taking a few puffs at a time and experienced threshold visual distortions. What I found interesting was that my brain felt prickly, which I don't recall from trying it years prior. The next day I had an awful crash.

On researching why this might be I came across the idea that pwME have higher than normal serotonin (and low dopamine). DMT is a serotonin receptor agonist. So I think I had possibly ramped up already high serotonin levels. Consistent with this, when I had hot showers it would ease and when I sat in front of a heater blowing hot air onto me the same happened. I looked into this and saw that heat reduces serotonin levels. This is true if you go somewhere warm, although in normal people they recalibrate after a week or two. It makes me wonder if the relief that some pwME get from moving to warmer countries is serotonin levels being brought down to a more manageable homeostasis, possibly with the added benefit of less vasoconstriction. Just a theory.

But in short, DMT did not work out for me unfortunately. The next day was hell.

Interestingly, I've also come across accounts of people developing ME after taking LSD and mushrooms, which are also both serotonin receptor agonists. So an episode of excess serotonin may be a trigger for onset.

EDIT: Adding to the research Hip links to, the DMT research I saw also centered on the sigma 1 receptor.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4149582/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4828992/