Investigator: Franz Vollenweider, MD
Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland
Contact:
Sponsor: Heffter
Dr. Vollenweider’s team have completed a series of basic research studies into the dose-response effects of psilocybin on physiological and psychological measures, cognition, sensorimotor gating, sequential behaviour, and brain activity in healthy human subjects. Fifty-six individuals were examined after a range of doses of psilocybin. A paper reporting the effects of placebo, very low, low, medium and high doses of psilocybin (45 -315 mcg/kg) in eight individuals has been published on-line in November 2003 and in print in March 2004. The researchers assessed subjective, physiological and neuroendocrine effects of psilocybin, including an assessment of attention and visual perception, and previous investigations have examined the contribution of serotonin and dopamine transmitter sytsems to producing the subjective effects of psilocybin.
- Hasler F, Bourquin D, Brenneisen R, Vollenweider FX. (2002) Renal excretion profiles of psilocin following oral administration of psilocybin: a controlled study in man. J Pharm Biomed Anal. 30: 331-339.
- Hasler F , Grimberg U, Benz MA, Huber T, Vollenweider FX (2004) Acute psychological and physiological effects of psilocybin in healthy humans: a double-blind, placebo-controlled dose-effect study. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 172: 145-156. Published on-line DOI: 10.1007/s00213-003-1640-6
- Umbricht D, Vollenweider FX, Schmid L, Grubel C, Skrabo A, Huber T, Koller R. (2003) Effects of the 5-HT2A agonist psilocybin on mismatch negativity generation and AX-continuous performance task: implications for the neuropharmacology of cognitive deficits in schizophrenia. Neuropsychopharmacology. 28(1):170-181.
- Vollenweider FX, Vollenweider-Scherpenhuyzen MF, Babler A, Vogel H, Hell D. (1998) Psilocybin induces schizophrenia-like psychosis in humans via a serotonin-2 agonist action. Neuroreport 9:3897-3902.
- Vollenweider FX, Vontobel P, Hell D, Leenders KL. (1999) 5-HT modulation of dopamine release in basal ganglia in psilocybin-induced psychosis in man–a PET study with [11C]raclopride. Neuropsychopharmacology 20:424-433.
