The space into which we slid volunteers for their scans was a very narrow shiny metallic tube. I knew many people suffered their first panic attack during an MRI scan because of the cramped quarters into whichone has to fit for the procedure. I now saw why.
Worst of all was the noise. The machine contains a massive coil that swings back and forth, much like a washing machine, only ten times as fast and hundreds of times as loud. The “BANG-BANG-BANG-BANGBANG- BANG-BANG” of the coil reminded me of a jackhammer. Anyone in the scanner, or the room, had to wear earplugs. Even so, the tumult setone’s teeth on edge.
Nevertheless, some of our research subjects were unbelievably robust. They liked DMT, they wanted to help with the experiments, and they were interested in knowing what the scans would show. I was alone with them in he MRI room while four or five other researchers sat on the opposite side of a thick “soundproof window, in front of the instrument panels, adjusting dials, flipping switches, and keeping in contact through the intercom system. The scan began; I injected the DMT and stayed in the room throughout the session, checking blood pressure and providing moral support. Duringthe trip, my colleagues took scans every few minutes.
Taken from : DMT The Spirit Molecule - Rick Strassman MD.
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Finally, I took advantage of some state-of-the-art brain-imaging research taking place at the University of New Mexico. This was “functional magnetic resonance imaging,” a modified MRI head scan that measures brain metabolism, rather than just its structure. For example, we might be able to show that the brain areas involved in vision were using more sugarafter a visual DMT experience.
To an even greater extent than the EEG equipment, the MRI equipment absolutely dominated the setting. This scanner, support equipment, and staff required their own building on the other side of campus. Thesewere the only DMT studies ever performed outside the Research Center.
The MRI machine generates intensely high energy magnetic fields, and there can be no metal anywhere in the room, or in the person’s body. Otherwise, that metal gets instantly and irresistibly pulled into the machine. To accommodate the scanner, the room is cavernous, and it is kept quite cool because this reduces the power necessary to maintain the magnetic fields.
Taken from : DMT The Spirit Molecule - Rick Strassman MD.
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Another pilot project was to assess if the phase of the menstrual cycle in women affected the DMT response. Many women report cyclical variations in their sensitivity to psychedelics. In addition, animal studies clearly indicated that sex hormones influenced responses to psychedelic and otherserotonin-active drugs.
We divided the cycle into early, middle, and late in one woman, Willow, who usually had quite deep and insightful DMT experiences. In this sole volunteer, no obvious differences in psychological effects emerged. Since we didn’t have funding to pursue this fascinating line of DMT research,we brought in no more volunteers for it.
We also turned some high technology onto the DMT state. Three menreceived 0.4 mg/kg DMT doses at the Research Center while we recorded their brain waves using an EEC, or electroencephalogram. We hoped this would show us which brain areas were more or less active during the DMT intoxication.
These were difficult studies, as the EEC machine was extraordinarily bulky and noisy and required constant adjustments. As well, there were eighteen electrodes firmly attached to volunteers’ scalps, glued in place by some of the strongest-smelling contact cement I have ever encountered. While all three subjects had “full” responses to DMT, the setting was terribly unpleasant. I recruited no more volunteers than these three, wanting first to be sure the data were so impressive as to justify the discomfort. The results were not especially striking, and we ran no moreEEG experiments.
Taken from : DMT The Spirit Molecule - Rick Strassman MD.
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At this juncture, it was becoming difficult to bring in first-time research subjects, or to induce experienced ones to return. Who wanted to take a drug that would suppress the effects of DMT? I could draw people in to this study by emphasizing that they would get two unadulterated high doses: one on the first screening day, and the other in combination with placebo-cyproheptadine. However, I heard myself sounding apologetic for this project, a bit like a used-car salesman.
I initiated several other experiments that received university and FDA approval. However, they did not receive enough funding to perform fullscaleinvestigations.
One of these, the naltrexone study, continued with mechanism-ofaction experiments designed to determine brain receptors regulating DMT effects. In this case, naltrexone blocks opiate receptors, and for that purpose it is helpful in treating heroin addiction. Animal data showed some interaction between opiates and psychedelics, and naltrexone might helpus find out more about that relationship in humans.
We began preliminary work in three volunteers for this project. However, one fellow felt so bad on naltrexone alone that he dropped out after his first session. In the other two men, we saw little effect one way or theother, and so we went no further.
Taken from : DMT The Spirit Molecule - Rick Strassman MD.
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Eleven volunteers participated in the pindolol study, several of whom were veterans of the dose-response and tolerance ones. This protocol yielded less dramatic examples of inner work than did the tolerance study,although there were remarkably powerful single experiences.
The next serotonin receptor blockade study used cyproheptadine, an antihistamine drug with additional anti-serotonin properties. In this case, cyproheptadine prevents drugs from attaching to the serotonin “2″ site, the receptor researchers believe is the most important in controlling how psychedelics work.
This protocol was identical in design to that of the pindolol study in that volunteers received cyproheptadine several hours before DMT. Eight volunteers completed this study. Most were new recruits. There appeared to be some suppression of effects, so we gave the high dose, 0.4 mg/kg, with and without the serotonin blocker. Because cyproheptadine clearly did not magnify DMT’s effects, we hoped that using this large dose would give us the best chance of establishing a significant level of DMT suppression. However, the sedating properties of the drug were so pronounced that they complicated interpretation of the data. It was difficult to tell how much was specific DMT blockade, and how muchwas general tranquilization.
Taken from : DMT The Spirit Molecule - Rick Strassman MD.
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This study showed that there was no tolerance to the psychological effects of repeated DMT injections. The experience was as intensely psychedelic the fourth time as it was the first. Because of this, and as I had hoped, subjects were much more able to process and do something with the repeated high dose than with a single isolated experience. Many of the most moving tales from DMT volunteers in the following chaptersderive from this study.2
After demonstrating what DMT did, the biomedical model requires determining how those effects occur. These are mechanism-of-action studies. As our research was pharmacologically based, these follow-up experiments would attempt to establish which brain receptors mediated DMT’seffects.
The first of these was the pindolol project. Pindolol is a drug used in medical practice to lower high blood pressure. It does this by blocking certain adrenaline receptors. Another property of pindolol is that it obstructs one particular type of serotonin receptor in the brain, the serotonin “1A” site. Since DMT attaches firmly to 1A receptors in animal brains, this site might be involved in DMT’s effects. If, for example, blocking the 1A site with pindolol made for a “less emotional” experience relative to DMT alone, we would propose that the 1A site regulated the emotional responses brought on by DMT. As it turned out, pindolol markedly enhancedthe psychological and blood pressure effects of DMT.
Taken from : DMT The Spirit Molecule - Rick Strassman MD.
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After two months of trial and error, I determined that the best regime was four injections of 0.3 mg/kg DMT given at 30-minute intervals. This dose, while highly psychedelic, was just below our highest, 0.4 mg/kg. One man, Gal, was able to manage four 0.4 mg/kg injections at half-hour intervals. However, his wife, Linda, was completely spent after three doses and refused the fourth and final one during this preliminary work. Remembering the harrowing nature of giving too much DMT to Philip and Nils, I backed offwithout argument and settled for one notch less. Better safe than sorry.
We enrolled thirteen volunteers in the tolerance study, many of whom had already participated in the dose -response project. New research subjects went through the same screening and received their non-blind lowand high doses.
While the tolerance experiment was double-blind and saline- placebocontrolled, the “blind” became apparent within a few seconds of the first injection. It was either a big dose of DMT or saline. And, if it was DMT, there would be three more big trips before the morning was over.
We drew blood samples similar to those for the dose-response project and gave a shortened version of the rating scale that took only about five minutes to fill out. The timing was split-second but worked perfectly. Volunteers began talking at about 10 to 15 minutes, and then filled out the rating scale. We’d have a chance to process their trip and get ready for the next one over the ensuing 5 to 10 minutes. If it were four injections ofsaltwater, we spent the morning in more casual conversation.
Taken from : DMT The Spirit Molecule - Rick Strassman MD.
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Another less clearly articulated reason for performing this study right after the dose-response one was that it was a “pure” DMT study. Protocols following up the tolerance project would start investigating mechanisms of action by modifying brain serotonin and other receptors using various drugs in combination with DMT. Something in me knew that these studies, which attempted to replicate animal laboratory experiments in humans, would be difficult. In retrospect, I think that I wanted to delay getting on with those types of projects as long as possible.
I proposed that DMT’s short duration was the reason previous studies failed to demonstrate tolerance. LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline tolerance experiments all used once-daily doses. However, their effects last 6 to 12 hours, while those of DMT were much shorter. This suggested the need to give DMT at much shorter intervals, every 30 to 60 minutes, in order to demonstrate reduced responses over time.
The other option was a continuous intravenous infusion, a “drip” of DMT into volunteers’ veins. However, I liked the idea of people “coming down” after each injection so we could hear what had happened. With a continuous drip, communication would be problematic.
Taken from : DMT The Spirit Molecule - Rick Strassman MD.
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