Citation

Kraehenmann R. Curr. Neuropharmacol. 2017; 15(7): 1032-1042.

Affiliation

Neuropsychopharmacology and Brain Imaging, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, Psychiatric Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich. Switzerland.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Bentham Science Publishers)

DOI

10.2174/1573413713666170619092629

PMID

28625125

Abstract

A resurgence of neurobiological and clinical research is currently underway into the therapeutic potential of serotonergic or 'classical' psychedelics, such as the prototypical psychedelic drug lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin (4-phosphoryloxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine), and ayahuasca - a betacarboline- and dimethyltryptamine (DMT)-containing Amazonian beverage. However, the mechanisms of therapeutic action are still not fully explained. Given that an altered state of consciousness is a common denominator that characterizes all classical psychedelics and given that both rapid eye movement sleep (REMS) and psychedelics modulate perception, mental imagery, emotion activation, fear memory extinction, and sense of self and body, in the present article, these two states of consciousness are systematically compared, and therapeutically relevant conclusions are drawn based on available evidence.

Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

Language: en

Keywords

dreams; emotion activation; fear memory extinction; mental imagery; perception; psychedelics; sense of self and body; subjective experience