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Randomized clinical trials that involve giving some participants a drug, some a placebo, and comparing the effects of both are considered the gold standard in such studies.
However, such trials are slow and expensive, and tend to involve only a small number of participants. “[It takes] multiple years costs a seven-digit coin, [and] ethical approvals last forever,” says Bzdok.
Instead, his team used natural language processing to evaluate 6,850 written accounts of hallucinogenic drug use. Each account was written by someone who took one of 27 drugs, including ketamine, MDMA, LSD, and psilocin, in a real-world setting rather than as part of a lab-based experiment. Accounts accessed from website. ErowidA member-sponsored drug information organization.
Bzdok’s team then combined this data with known recordings of which receptors in the brain each drug interacted with. Together, these steps allow the team to identify which neurotransmitter receptors are associated with words associated with certain drug experiences.
For example, words associated with mystical experiences such as “space”, “universe”, “consciousness”, “dimension” and “breakthrough” were associated with drugs that bind to specific dopamine, serotonin and opioid receptors.
Bzdok says the approach could provide new starting points for drug development. Bzdok, whose work is published today in the journalism, says that, in theory, drugs designed to target these receptors should reveal certain aspects of their psychedelic drug experience. Science Advances.
Frederick Barrett, a psychedelic neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, isn’t entirely convinced. “People don’t always know [what drug they’re taking]“Doses are not always well-adjusted in the real world, and there is much more variation in real-world experiences than is even possible to fully realize.”
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