Extended State DMT: A Pilot Study Exploring Worlds Unknown

Today, we will be discussing a really cool DMT study that was published this year. We covered some basics of DMT in our previous article, be sure to check that out.

DMT is a potent and short-acting psychedelic and research shows that it has significant therapeutic effects. Though DMT acts in a similar way as other classical psychedelics like psilocybin or LSD, today’s article is about none of that. Instead, we will be discussing how scientists figured out how to prolong this short-acting psychedelic safely and why that is important.

 

The Study

A calm, decorated hospital room at the Imperial College London Research Facility was the home of this pilot study examining the effects of extended periods of DMT infusion on the body and mind designed to change the length of a DMT experience. Normally, an experience from a couple of minutes to a half hour from one “large” dose. In this study researchers  gave participants a large dose + continuous infusion.

Why IV (Intravenous) Administration?

A pioneer in clinical research on the effects of DMT is Dr. Rick Straussman, who conducted DEA-approved IV DMT sessions at the University of New Mexico from 1990 to 1995. This study, similar to Dr. Straussman’s work, was not aimed at any particular disease type; it assessed in healthy subjects the stability and tolerance of varied doses via this unique method of continuous IV administration.

IV administration has many benefits for this study as it bypasses the enzyme MAO (monoamine oxidase), which normally breaks down DMT in the gut. IV also allows for more precise doses. It has been previously reported that DMT has no subjective tolerance, with repeated doses participants remained able to maintain the intensity of the drug effect without losing sensitivity.

Study Details

Participants were all healthy, seven males and four females participated. Subjects were required to have prior experience with a psychedelic drug (possibly as a tactic to mitigate anxiety levels for those unfamiliar with the altered realms provoked by psychedelics, which could invoke exacerbated levels of stress). People enrolled were also asked not to consume any illicit drugs for 2 weeks before the study and to consume no alcohol for 48 hours prior.

The study consisted of 30 minutes of DMT immersion with 4 dosing regimes.

• 6mg + 0.6mg/min

• 10mg + 1.1mg/min

• 14mg + 1.5mg/min

• 18mg + 1.9mg/min

 

Results

Intensity  – After an initial peak that is common for DMT, the subjective effects of intensity remained relatively stable throughout the continuous infusion. There was a plateau in subjective effects even though DMT circulating continued to increase.

Heart Rate and Anxiety levels – Participants’ anxiety and heart rate maintained consistent and low ratings during the injection, with a brief peak during the initial injection. There was no relationship found between dose and anxiety levels.

Changes in Perception– Reports of other dimensions, visual imagery, and immersion were all reported to follow subjective intensity scores which was dose-dependent.

Source: Figure 3

The figure above shows the ratings of immersion, entity encounters, ego  dissolution, and visual imagery after the experience subsided. Subjects were given a scale of 0 (meaning ‘none/not at all’) to 10 (meaning ‘an extreme amount/extremely’) and asked to assess the state over the duration of effects.

This figure demonstrates how subjective experience of the acute drug effects changes not only over time but also with dose.

 

Implications

This study is the first of its kind to be done and it demonstrated the previous models were correct, DMT can be well tolerated both physiologically and physiologically for extended periods.

Additionally, researchers found that two individuals could have 2 different plasma concentrations from the same dose. This point of variability between dose-concentration response and effects is important to focus on. The experience one has on a psychedelic drug differs greatly between individuals within the same dose. It is established that “set and setting” play a role in this difference, but this extends beyond where a user is during the time of the drug experience. Prior experience with non-ordinary states, receptivity to alternate states due to early life experiences, unresolved trauma, etc. all can play a role in the intensity of a given individual’s experiences.

All drugs impact each individual slightly differently based on their unique biochemistry. With more dose studies such as this researchers can begin to understand which particular aspects of an individual’s psychological and physiologically affect their psychedelic experience. As the researchers pointed out, this information could be used in the future to refine future clinical dosing practices to be attuned to each individual.

There are admitted limitations in this first study. The sample size was quite small, only eleven participants which could make findings hard to generalize across a wider population.

Overall, this study is, “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Regardless of how one rationalizes the ‘entity encounters’ and ‘alternate dimensions’ users experience under the influence of DMT,  it is still quite amazing that a healthy human can elicit these states by just taking one compound.

This study and others like it beget a new dawn of exploring what is possible with the human mind, and how it relates to the way we all experience life on a day-to-day basis. Now with science, we are starting an era where we may be able to precisely dose for a specific outcome.

 

Reference:

Luan LX, Eckernäs E, Ashton M, et al. Psychological and physiological effects of extended DMT. Journal of Psychopharmacology. 2023;0(0). doi:10.1177/02698811231196877