Spotlight: PBS Film-- The Last Ecstatic Days
A film about a young man with brain cancer in search of community, and the hospice doctor who gives up everything to honor his dying wish.
Psychedelic Therapy Research
News
Spotlight: Safety and efficacy of ketamine for the treatment of patients with alcohol use disorder: a systematic review (Rathore, et al, 2025)
"No study reported any serious adverse event or ketamine misuse following ketamine treatment. This review underscored ketamine's potential as an adjunctive treatment for Alcohol Use Disorder."
Spotlight: Early Response to Ketamine for Suicidal Crisis Reduces Suicidal Events at 3 Months (Pastre, et al, 2025)
"This is the first study demonstrating that early SI response to IV ketamine is associated with a reduced risk of suicidal events at 3 months. These findings support ketamine's unique antisuicidal properties beyond its antidepressant effects, highlighting its potential role in suicide prevention."
uruguay
Enfoque Uruguay: Propuesta -- Estrategia Nacional de Drogas 2026-2030. Junta Nacional de Drogas
Programa Piloto de Psicoterapia Asistida con Psicodélicos en el Sistema de Salud Uruguayo | Michael DeMarco, PhD
iv ketamine
Spotlight: "Long-Term Outcomes in Patients With Treatment-Refractory Depression Receiving Intravenous Ketamine and Intranasal Esketamine: An Observational Study" (Singh, et al, 2025)
Observational study provides evidence regarding longer durability of generic IV ketamine compared to intranasal esketamine (Spravato).
Spotlight-- "Beyond Anesthesia: Ketamine's Expanding Role in Chronic Pain and Psychiatric Disorders" (Zaki, 2025)
Más allá de la anestesia: El papel de la ketamina en los trastornos crónicos del dolor y la psiquiátrica
uruguay
Propuesta para la Estrategia Nacional de Drogas 2026–2030
Programa Piloto de Psicoterapia Asistida con Psicodélicos en el Sistema de Salud Uruguayo
Spotlight: The Effects of Psychotherapy on Single and Repeated Ketamine Infusion(s) Therapy for Treatment-Resistant Depression: The Convergence of Molecular and Psychological Treatment (2025)
Ketamine's "therapeutic promise is increasingly understood to involve molecular and neurobiological processes that promote neural plasticity and cognitive flexibility. These changes may create a unique window for psychotherapeutic interventions to take deeper effect."
In Memoriam
Joyce Maureen (McGee) Koppenheffer
December 9, 1947 - July 7, 2025
Rancho Mirage, California - Joyce M. Koppenheffer (née McGee)
Spotlight: Multiday intravenous ketamine infusion therapy for the management of central sensitisation syndrome secondary to chronic chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathic pain (Abdullah & Ong, 2025)
...growing evidence for ketamine as an analgesic agent for chronic pain, with potential considerations to expand its use for other indications.
ketamine
Spotlight: Understanding the Experience of Ketamine-Assisted Therapy and the Importance of Context (Stockwell, et al, 2025) Comprender la experiencia de la terapia asistida por ketamina y la importancia del contexto
"comfort in the setting supported participants to let go and was facilitated by learning about the therapist's personal experiences, a strong therapeutic alliance, and feeling safe...music also influenced the experience, facilitating a spiritual journey guiding the experience."
Spotlight: Affirmations inspired by "The Ethical Slut"
sex therapy
Spotlight: Rethinking Infidelity... a talk for anyone who has ever loved -- Esther Perel (2015)
"we still seem to be lured by the power of the forbidden"
ketamine-assisted psychotherapy
Psychedelics in Palliative Care, Marcia Glass, Ed., Oxford University Press
with contributions by Psychedelic Institute fellows, Michael DeMarco, PhD and Thaís Salles Araujo, MD on ketamine, psilocybin mushrooms in palliative care
Investigación: Ketaminas Efectos antidepresivos Rapid enmaunados Brain-Wide
El despliegue de un análisis de fluctuación cerebral a escala de mesoscale desvela la compleja orquestación neuronal multirregional subyacente a efectos antidepresivos rápidos de la ketamina, un plan para la innovación terapéutica futura...
at home ketamine therapy
Spotlight: Ketamine’s Rapid Antidepressant Effects Mapped Brain-Wide + μ-opioid receptor?
"The deployment of mesoscale brain-wide fluctuation analysis unveils the complex, multiregional neural orchestration underlying ketamine’s rapid antidepressant effects, a blueprint for future therapeutic innovation... insights gained from this research hold transformative promise..."
Spotlight: FKA Twigs & Minnie Driver read letters from the Ask Polly column about the secret fury of nice women
And important backstory from author Heather Havrilesky of https://www.ask-polly.com/
Spotlight: "What Are Thoughts? Exploring the Mystery of the Mind"
"The nature of thought remains one of philosophy’s greatest mysteries, with deep implications for neuroscience and artificial intelligence. Two main theories compete: materialism, which sees thoughts as brain states, and dualism, which holds that thoughts are non-physical entities."