The computer here has dozens of tabs open with texts that would be good to digest calmly. Here are some hasty suggestions, starting with a surprise: the dissociative anesthetic ketamine has been used by athletes to deal with pain, legally, because the medicine does not (yet) appear on the official doping list.
Ketamine, sometimes spelled ketamine, may fit a broader definition of a consciousness-modifying (“psychedelic”) compound. In doses smaller than those used in surgery, it causes a type of trip that brings antidepressant benefits and has been recommended by psychiatrists to treat serious cases, especially when they involve suicidal ideation.
It is an “off-label” use (outside the usual prescription) of a registered medicine, therefore subject to the discretion of doctors. It can be indicated legally, including in Brazil.
Thomas Zandonai, Sofia Venturini and Ornella Corazza published an article in the journal Performance Enhancement and Health on the use of ketamine by high-performance athletes. The substance would be helping with recovery and coping with pain, an unavoidable consequence of intense training.
The authors also claim that psychedelics like psilocybin have helped athletes improve resilience, mood and cognitive flexibility. They warn that the growing use lacks research into the long-term effects and that the practice could come under the radar of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), which has already indexed painkillers such as tramadol.
It’s not just in sports that psilocybin is on the rise. With the regulation of adult use in the USA in states such as Oregon, Colorado and New Mexico, a recurring topic in the media (such as this blog), the psychedelic compound from so-called “magic” mushrooms has been increasingly used, often outside the few authorized services.
Kent Hutchison, Jake Hooper and Hollis Karoly present data on the growing consumption of psilocybin mushrooms in the USA in the journal Jama Psychiatry. Reviewing surveys on drug use in the decade 2014-2024, they found that more than 7 million people aged 19-50 reported having used them in the previous year.
More seriously, there was a variation of up to 20 times in the dosage of psilocybin contained in fungi for sale outside licensed establishments. The association with cannabis is common, which according to researchers can increase adverse effects and has led to an increase in cases in emergency services.
Another thought-provoking study, by Aaron Cherniak and Pehr Granqvist of Sweden, investigated the perennial association of psychedelics with mysticism. Using data from large cohort surveys in the United Kingdom, with 11 thousand people, he cast doubt on the widespread idea that lysergic and quetal trips catapult religiosity or profound changes of belief, such as (de)conversion.
Equally controversial are the effects of microdosing, the practice of using two or three times a week subclinical doses of a psychedelic to improve mood and cognition. A team from the University of Auckland (New Zealand), led by Brazilian Dimitri Daldegan-Bueno (ayahuasca researcher), investigated microdoses of LSD to treat depression and found a 59.5% reduction in the score on the Montgomery-Asberg scale (Madrs).
Speaking of national psychedelic science, there are two other tabs open in the browser. The first brings the doctoral thesis by Daniel Kazahaya, from Unicamp, with the title “From the unconscious to the transcendent: qualitative analysis on the adult use of psychedelic mushrooms and their effects on the meaning of life and personality from a psychoanalytic approach”.
Another is the master’s thesis by Rômulo Henrique Almeida de Miranda, from the Federal University of Rondônia, entitled “Attitudes of psychiatrists and psychologists towards psychedelics and their therapeutic potential”.
Blessed tabs, happy reading.
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