Psychedelics Could Help Smokers Quit

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Tobacco is used by more than one billion people in the world. So it comes as no surprise that tobacco use disorder is highly prevalent. Tobacco contains nicotine, an addictive drug that quickly boosts an individual’s mood. It also makes an individual want to use it more while also making it hard for them to quit.

Halting the use of tobacco is hard, primarily because of the disorder’s withdrawal symptoms, like irritability and anxiety.

A recently published review of studies on psychedelics and the use of tobacco has concluded that psychedelics may help combat tobacco use disorder. Of all the papers chosen to be reviewed, only 8 met the inclusion criteria, with 4 of them coming from one study.

They explained that investigating the potential of psychedelics as a treatment for nicotine dependence could offer a new therapeutic option to address tobacco use disorder given the significant consequences of tobacco use on society, health and the economy as well as the limited effectiveness of current treatments.

They added that lack of relevant studies was a huge obstacle to deriving conclusions about the potential use of psychedelics like psilocybin in combating addiction to nicotine.

Despite this, the researchers emphasized that their findings warranted further clinical research into the treatment of tobacco use disorders using psychedelics. Their findings were reported in the Discover Mental Health journal.

Now the researchers are looking forward to results from a clinical trial being conducted by investigators at Johns Hopkins University. The trial is investigating the effectiveness of administering psilocybin therapy in conjunction with a smoking cessation program for patients who are nicotine-dependent.

Related research at the institution is also comparing the effectiveness of psilocybin to that of an active placebo in smoking cessation. This comes after the National Institute on Drug Abuse awarded a grant to researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, New York University, and Johns Hopkins University in 2021 to investigate how psilocybin helps individuals control their cigarette addiction.

A different study by researchers at Washington State University determined that CBD could also reduce tobacco cravings, which made it easier for users to quit. The study demonstrated that low CBD doses inhibited an enzyme linked to nicotine processing in the body, thus preventing cravings.

The use of tobacco has also been declining over the last couple of years. An analysis released by Gallup in 2023 determined that more individuals in America were smoking cannabis or consuming marijuana-infused edibles in comparison to the number of individuals who’d smoked cigarettes.

Many firms, such as Compass Pathways PLC (NASDAQ: CMPS), are exploring the therapeutic application of psychedelics in managing a host of other diseases and mental health conditions. With time, what psychedelics can or cannot do will become clearer as these efforts reach their logical conclusions.

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