Researchers are studying psychedelics as a possible treatment for conditions like depression, PTSD and substance use disorders. But they don't know exactly how these drugs work. Getting the answer to this question is especially difficult when people often take psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin for the "trip." This week on Short Wave, we're talking to researchers about how they're trying to untangle the effects of this "trip" from the ways psychedelics might change the human brain ... and why the answer could help direct the future of psychedelic research. Catch the rest of this series on psychedelics and related drugs this week by following us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Have other questions about psychedelics and the brain? Let us know by emailing [email protected]! Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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Hey, short wavers. Chances are you've heard about psychedelics once or twice. And shortwave producer Rachel Carlson has been diving into the science behind them. She's joining me this week to talk all about them. Hey, Rachel.
Hey, Gina. So psychedelics are being studied to treat lots of different kinds of conditions.
Chronic Lyme disease, Alzheimer's disease, anorexia nervosa, chronic back pain, obsessive compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder.
That's Albert Garcia-Romeo. He's a psychologist and psychopharmacologist at Johns Hopkins University. Albert ran a study using a psychedelic called psilocybin. It's the active ingredient in magic mushrooms. And he wanted to see if it could help people who'd previously had Lyme disease.
Because you may not realize it, but Lyme disease often comes with lots of psychological symptoms in addition to all the physical ones. Lori Unruh Snyder is one of Albert's patients in that study. She's an agriculture professor. She got a tick bite. She got Lyme disease. But it took doctors four years to get to that diagnosis.
Wow, that's a long time.
Yeah, and even after she took a course of antibiotics for treatment, she told me she still didn't feel like herself at all.
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