Cavarra Mauro, Mason Natasha Leigh, Kuypers Kim P C, Bonnelle Valerie, Smith Will J, Feilding Amanda, Kryskow Pamela, Ramaekers Johannes G
Department of Neuropsychology and Psychopharmacology, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands.
The Beckley Foundation, Oxford, UK.
Eur J Pain. 2024 Jan;28(1):153-165. doi: 10.1002/ejp.2171. Epub 2023 Aug 20.
Chronic pain is a major cause of suffering and disability and is often associated with psychiatric complications. Current treatments carry the risk of severe side effects and may lead to limited or no relief at all in a relevant portion of this patient population. Preliminary evidence suggests that classical psychedelics (e.g. LSD and psilocybin) may have analgesic effects in healthy volunteers, and in certain chronic pain conditions and observational studies reveal that they are used in naturalistic settings as a means to manage pain.
In order to gain insight on the effectiveness of such compounds in chronic pain conditions, we set up a survey addressed to chronic pain patients inquiring about psychedelic use and the relief levels achieved with both conventional treatments, full psychedelic doses and microdoses. We analysed data related to five conditions selected based on diagnostic homogeneity within each of them: fibromyalgia, arthritis, migraine, tension-type headache and sciatica.
Except for sciatica, volunteers reported that psychedelics led to better pain relief compared to conventional medication in all examined conditions. More specifically, full doses performed better than conventional medication. Microdoses led to significantly better relief compared to conventional medication in migraines and achieved comparable relief in the remaining three categories. Implications for future research are discussed.
Full doses and microdoses may hold value in the treatment of some specific chronic pain conditions.
Psychedelic substances are receiving increasing attention from the scientific literature because of evidence showing beneficial effects on several measures related to mental health in clinical samples and healthy volunteers samples. Previous evidence suggests that people suffering from chronic pain are using psychedelics to seek relief and the present paper presents the results of a survey study investigating their use and analgesic effects among individuals suffering from fibromyalgia, arthritis, migraine, tension-type headache and sciatica.
慢性疼痛是痛苦和残疾的主要原因，且常伴有精神并发症。目前的治疗方法存在严重副作用的风险，在相当一部分这类患者群体中可能导致缓解有限或根本无法缓解。初步证据表明，经典致幻剂（如麦角酸二乙酰胺和裸盖菇素）可能对健康志愿者有镇痛作用，并且在某些慢性疼痛情况下，观察性研究表明它们在自然环境中被用作缓解疼痛的手段。
为了深入了解此类化合物在慢性疼痛情况下的有效性，我们针对慢性疼痛患者开展了一项调查，询问他们使用致幻剂的情况以及常规治疗、全剂量致幻剂和微剂量致幻剂所达到的缓解程度。我们分析了与基于每种疾病诊断同质性选择的五种疾病相关的数据：纤维肌痛、关节炎、偏头痛、紧张型头痛和坐骨神经痛。
除坐骨神经痛外，志愿者报告称，在所有检查的疾病中，与传统药物相比，致幻剂能带来更好的疼痛缓解。更具体地说，全剂量比传统药物效果更好。与传统药物相比，微剂量在偏头痛中能带来显著更好的缓解，在其余三类疾病中能达到相当的缓解效果。讨论了对未来研究的启示。
全剂量和微剂量在治疗某些特定慢性疼痛疾病中可能具有价值。
致幻物质正受到科学文献越来越多的关注，因为有证据表明它们对临床样本和健康志愿者样本中与心理健康相关的多项指标有有益影响。先前的证据表明，慢性疼痛患者正在使用致幻剂来寻求缓解，本文展示了一项调查研究的结果，该研究调查了致幻剂在纤维肌痛、关节炎、偏头痛、紧张型头痛和坐骨神经痛患者中的使用情况及其镇痛效果。
