Psilocybin Effects - Deadly New Opioids - Testosterone Therapy? - Boosting Sleep

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May 6, 2026, 5:48:36 AM (yesterday) May 6

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/05/magic-mushrooms-psychedelic-changes-brain-anatomy-psilocybin

Single dose of magic mushroom psychedelic can cause anatomical brain changes

Ian Sample Science editor

A single dose of psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, can induce anatomical changes in the brain, according to research among people who took the psychedelic compound for the first time.

Scientists spotted apparent changes in the brain’s structure which were still apparent a month after healthy volunteers took the drug. If confirmed, they may help explain the therapeutic effects that psychedelics can have on anxiety, depression and addiction, researchers said.

Evidence for the changes came from specialised scans that measured the diffusion of water along nerve bundles in the brain. They suggested that some nerve tracts had become denser and more robust after the drug was taken. While the findings are preliminary, the scientists said the opposite was seen in ageing and dementia.

“It’s remarkable to see potential anatomical brain changes one month after a single dose of any drug,” said Prof Robin Carhart-Harris, a neurologist at the University of California, San Francisco, and senior author on the study. “We don’t yet know what these changes mean, but we do note that overall, people showed positive psychological changes in this study, including improved wellbeing and mental flexibility.”

Scientists have long sought to understand how psychedelics affect the brain and the work has gained fresh impetus in the wake of trials and studies that suggest the compounds could be used to treat a range of mental health disorders. The drugs are thought to help by boosting flexible thinking and allowing people to escape destructive cognitive ruts.

https://nautil.us/what-happens-in-the-brain-when-psychedelic-virgins-trip-for-the-first-time-1280475

What Happens in the Brain When “Psychedelic Virgins” Trip for the First Time

By Jake Currie

Psychedelics are getting a renewed boost of interest lately. The FDA recently announced they were fast-tracking research investigating psilocybin, the compound that gives magic mushrooms their magic, as a treatment for depression. Now, new research published in Nature Communications is showing just how powerful a single dose of this psychedelic compound can be.

Neuropsychopharmacologists from the University of California, San Francisco recruited 28 physically and mentally healthy people who had never taken psychedelics before and gave them their inaugural magic mushroom trip. But first, they administered a single placebo dose of 1 milligram of the magic mushroom compound. Most of the subjects reported the experience was “no more unusual than an everyday state of consciousness,” which was backed up by EEG readings.

After the preview, it was time for the main event. The research team fitted the participants with EEG electrodes and administered a 25-milligram dose of psilocybin. An hour into their trip, the EEGs showed a surge of entropy (or diverse neural activity), indicating they were processing more complex information.

The next day all of the subjects (except one) rated the experience as the “single most unusual state of consciousness” they’d experienced in their lives (the lone holdout rated it in the top five). During the following few weeks, the newly minted psychonauts reported experiencing more insight as well as an increased sense of well-being. A full month after their first trip, they performed better on assessments of their cognitive flexibility.

“Psilocybin seems to loosen up stereotyped patterns of brain activity and give people the ability to revise entrenched patterns of thought,” study author Taylor Lyons said in a statement. “The fact that these changes track with insight and improved well‑being is especially exciting.”

https://www.thetransmitter.org/sex-differences/gene-activity-in-human-cortex-shows-striking-sex-differences/

Gene activity in human cortex shows striking sex differences

By Lauren Schenkman

More than 3,000 genes are differently expressed in the cerebral cortex of people with XX versus XY sex chromosomes, according to a single-cell transcriptomics study published last month in Science. The differences could help explain why certain neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental conditions affect one group more than the other, or vice versa.

The results present “a pretty dramatic shift in how we’re thinking about sex differences,” says Tomasz Nowakowski, associate professor of neurological surgery, anatomy and psychiatry, and of behavioral sciences, at the University of California, San Francisco. He was not involved in the new work but uncovered gene expression differences in prenatal developing brains last year. Previous research traced sex differences to subcortical structures, where sex hormone receptors are expressed, but “the cortex is not the part of the brain that you typically think of when you think about sex differences,” he says. “I think it’s a landmark.”

Of the thousands of genes flagged in the new study, 133 showed consistent sex differences across all brain cell types in six cortical regions sampled from postmortem brains, donated by 15 men (who all had XY sex chromosomes) and 15 women (who all had XX sex chromosomes), aged 26 to 78 years. Two of these regions—the fusiform gyrus and the inferior lateral temporo-occipital cortex—have more gray-matter volume in men, previous MRI studies suggest; two others, the caudal insula and intraparietal sulcus, have more gray matter in women; and the final two regions, the angular gyrus and the retrosplenial cortex, show no sex bias in gray-matter volume.

Intriguingly, 119 of the 133 genes are autosomal, meaning men and women should have, at least in theory, an equal dose. That makes them “ground zero for molecular sex differences in the brain,” says study investigator Armin Raznahan, chief of the Section on Developmental Neurogenomics at the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/04/health/what-are-orphines.html

What to Know About Orphines, a New Class of Deadly Opioids

By Jan Hoffman

Since last fall, new and deadly synthetic opioids called orphines have begun appearing in street drugs in the United States. They are far more potent than fentanyl but cannot be detected by standard toxicology tests.

Orphines are still much less common than fentanyl, but they are proliferating quickly. As of last month, they have been found in 14 states, mostly in the South and the Midwest. Law enforcement officials and public health officials are trying to assess the gravity and endurance of the threat they pose.

Here are answers to some basic questions.
What are orphines?

They are a class of opioids that was created in the 1960s by Paul Janssen, a Belgian doctor and pharmacologist, whose teams investigated rapid, safe pain relievers for surgery. As part of that effort, they also developed fentanyl.

Dr. Janssen and others discovered that orphines had life-threatening side effects such as acute respiratory depression and were highly addictive. Within a few years, the research on them was halted.

Researchers characterize orphines as 10 times more powerful than fentanyl, even in quantities no greater than a few sand-size grains. They can be lethal with stunning speed, with victims slumping over abruptly, respiration shutting down, chest walls rigid. Sometimes the classic signature of overdose, “the foam cone” — froth from the nostrils and mouth — does not even have time to bubble up.

Still, it is possible for people overdosing on orphines to be revived with naloxone, the opioid reversal medication. But numerous doses may be required, many more than the one or two doses typically needed for fentanyl.
© 2026 The New York Times Company

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https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01408-9

Testosterone therapy is trending. Who really needs it, and why?

Mariana Lenharo

Is testosterone the next miracle drug? That seemed to be the consensus of an expert panel convened by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December. It argued for major changes in policy that would expand access to the hormone for people with a range of conditions. Committee members called testosterone replacement “a cornerstone of preventive health” and “a multibillion-dollar preventive-care opportunity”.

Testosterone is already available in the United States for people who have low levels of the hormone owing to a known medical issue, such as testicular damage. But evidence is growing that more men — and women — might benefit from the hormone, which is delivered through injections, patches, subcutaneous implants or gels. (This article uses ‘men’ and ‘women’ to reflect the language used by the panels and studies cited, while recognizing that trans, non-binary and intersex people are also affected by this issue.)

The panel’s recommendations intensify a debate that has been brewing about who might benefit from the treatment. Some clinicians say that most men with low testosterone, especially young ones with no medical issue contributing to the problem, don’t need supplemental treatment at all and should be able to raise their testosterone levels by adopting a healthier lifestyle and losing weight. Others argue that men with low testosterone who have symptoms such as low libido, fatigue and irritability could gain from the therapy.

More-enthusiastic proponents, including many members of the FDA panel at the December meeting, take a third view: that all cis men should be tested, and those with low testosterone levels should be treated even if they have no symptoms. “You could make a very strong argument that having a normal testosterone level is important for health and prevention of illness,” says Abraham Morgentaler, a urologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, who took part in the December panel.

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https://www.npr.org/2026/05/02/nx-s1-5807074/americans-sleep-better-hours-insomnia

Americans aren't sleeping enough. Here's what could help

Pien Huang

Adults should be getting at least seven hours of sleep each night, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

"Below that, there's clear evidence that you're going to feel lethargic during the day," says James Rowley, a pulmonologist and the program director of the Sleep Medicine Fellowship at Rush University Medical Center, as well as a past president of the AASM board of directors.

Rowley also says not getting enough sleep is linked with cardiometabolic disorders like diabetes and obesity, as well as cardiovascular problems.

But many in the U.S. are not sleeping enough. A new data brief, published this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), finds that 30.5% of U.S. adults surveyed in 2024 are getting less than the recommended amount.

The results have not changed much since 2020, when CDC researchers found that just under 30% of U.S. women and men were sleeping less than seven hours a night.

Some people are working multiple jobs or shifts that cut into their sleeping time. But others are just doomscrolling, says Rowley, who was not involved in the paper.

"Many patients tell me they go to bed with their cellphone, laptop or tablet," he says. "Patients tell me they see one YouTube video and before they know, it's an hour later." Some people are gaming, and others are watching TV late into the night.

For many, that time could be better spent sleeping — an activity in which the brain repairs and restores itself. "A lot of people could go to bed earlier if they chose to," Rowley says.