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Review
. 2023 Aug 7;24(15):12513.
doi: 10.3390/ijms241512513.

A Brief Review on the Potential of Psychedelics for Treating Alzheimer's Disease and Related Depression

Alexander Pilozzi  1 , Simmie Foster  1   2 , David Mischoulon  2 , Maurizio Fava  2 , Xudong Huang  1
Affiliations
Review

A Brief Review on the Potential of Psychedelics for Treating Alzheimer's Disease and Related Depression

Alexander Pilozzi et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD), the most common form of senile dementia, is poised to place an even greater societal and healthcare burden as the population ages. With few treatment options for the symptomatic relief of the disease and its unknown etiopathology, more research into AD is urgently needed. Psychedelic drugs target AD-related psychological pathology and symptoms such as depression. Using microdosing, psychedelic drugs may prove to help combat this devastating disease by eliciting psychiatric benefits via acting through various mechanisms of action such as serotonin and dopamine pathways. Herein, we review the studied benefits of a few psychedelic compounds that may show promise in treating AD and attenuating its related depressive symptoms. We used the listed keywords to search through PubMed for relevant preclinical, clinical research, and review articles. The putative mechanism of action (MOA) for psychedelics is that they act mainly as serotonin receptor agonists and induce potential beneficial effects for treating AD and related depression.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; DMT; LSD; dementia; depression; ketamine; mescaline; psilocybin; psychedelics.

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Conflict of interest statement

Mischoulon has received research support from Nordic Naturals and Heckel Medizintechnik GmbH. He has received honoraria for speaking from the Massachusetts General Hospital Psychiatry Academy, Peerpoint Medical Education Institute, LLC, and Harvard blog. He also works with the MGH Clinical Trials Network and Institute (CTNI), which has received research funding from multiple pharmaceutical companies and NIMH. The remaining authors declare no conflicts of interest. The funder had no role in the writing of the manuscript.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The chemical structures of psychedelics used as potential AD therapeutic agents—chemical structures created with ChemDraw.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Psilocybin and its potential effects on AD are primarily exerted through serotonin receptor activity—figure created with Biorender.com (accessed on 19 June 2021).
Figure 3
Figure 3
LSD and its potential effects on AD are primarily exerted through serotonin and dopamine receptor activity—figure created with Biorender.com (accessed on 19 June 2021).
Figure 4
Figure 4
DMT and potential effects on AD are primarily exerted through serotonin and sigma 1-R receptor activity. Figure created with Biorender.com (accessed on 19 June 2021).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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