by PETER DOCKRILL A teenager who accidentally ingested 10 times the normal recreational dose of LSD. A 26-year-old who overdosed on the same drug, not knowing she was pregnant. A woman who took 550 LSD doses all at once, mistaking it for another drug entirely. These exceptional and alarming stories of massive LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) overdoses that happened to real people are all detailed in a new study, seeking to understand the medical effects of extremely high dosages of psychedelics in recreational settings. Why do scientists want to know these things? In recent years, renewed interest in the use of … Continue reading A Woman Accidentally Took 550 Times The Normal LSD Dose, Case Report Details

By Emily Reynolds Emotions have a powerful part to play in both our behavioural choices and our health. Experiencing a range of positive emotions has been associated with lower levels of inflammation, for example, and emotional control has even been linked to higher performance in sportspeople. Negative emotions, too, can have a serious impact on behaviour: research has investigated the emotional triggers of self-harm, for instance. Now new research from Charles Dorison and colleagues at Harvard University, published in PNAS, has looked at the role of negative emotions in addiction. Though some theories say negative mood in general is associated with problematic substance use, the study … Continue reading Can’t Quit Smoking? It Might Be To Do With How Sad You Are