Direct-to-Consumer Hospital Advertising and Domestic Medical Travel in the United States.

Expanding hospitals' geographic market area has been proposed as a means to increase competition and reduce healthcare costs. However, most patients in the United States receive care locally and are unlikely to seek out distant hospitals, effectively limiting competition to local markets. We hypothesize that mass media advertising can help overcome patients' reluctance to travel for elective medical care.

New World Tryptamine Hallucinogens and the Neuroscience of Ayahuasca.

New World indigenous peoples are noted for their sophisticated use of psychedelic plants in shamanic and ethnomedical practices. The use of psychedelic plant preparations among New World tribes is far more prevalent than in the Old World. Yet, although these preparations are botanically diverse, almost all are chemically similar in that their active principles are tryptamine derivatives, either DMT or related constituents.

Evaluation of in vivo solid phase microextraction for minimally invasive analysis of nonvolatile phytochemicals in Amazonian plants.

Introduction: Although solid phase microextraction (SPME) has been used extensively for fingerprinting volatile compounds emitted by plants, there are very few such reports for direct insertion SPME. In this research, direct contact of SPME probes with the interstitial fluid of plants was investigated as a method for phytochemical analysis.

Objective: Medicinal plants from the Amazon have been the source of numerous drugs used in western medicine.

New World Tryptamine Hallucinogens and the Neuroscience of Ayahuasca.

New World indigenous peoples are noted for their sophisticated use of psychedelic plants in shamanic and ethnomedical practices. The use of psychedelic plant preparations among New World tribes is far more prevalent than in the Old World. Yet, although these preparations are botanically diverse, almost all are chemically similar in that their active principles are tryptamine derivatives, either DMT or related constituents.

A possibly sigma-1 receptor mediated role of dimethyltryptamine in tissue protection, regeneration, and immunity.

N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is classified as a naturally occurring serotonergic hallucinogen of plant origin. It has also been found in animal tissues and regarded as an endogenous trace amine transmitter. The vast majority of research on DMT has targeted its psychotropic/psychedelic properties with less focus on its effects beyond the nervous system.

Stress and burnout in nurse anesthesia.

This study was designed to determine the current level of stress and its physical manifestations in Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) and student registered nurse anesthetists. It also looked at coping mechanisms individuals commonly employ to combat the effects of stress. The study used data collected between February and May 2008 using a Stress and Burnout Survey on an online survey tool (SurveyMonkey).

Receptor screening technologies in the evaluation of Amazonian ethnomedicines with potential applications to cognitive deficits.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Amazonian peoples utilize a variety of psychoactive plants that may contain novel biologically active compounds. Efforts to investigate such remedies in terms of neuropharmacology have been limited.

Aim Of This Study: This study identified Amazonian ethnomedicines with potential for the treatment of cognitive deficits in schizophrenia and dementias, and characterized their interactions with CNS neurotransmitter receptors in vitro.

Ayahuasca and human destiny.

In this essay, the author shares his personal reflections gleaned from a lifetime of research with ayahuasca, and speculates on the societal, political, planetary, and evolutionary implications of humanity's aeons-old symbiosis with this shamanic plant. The thesis is developed that at this critical historical juncture, ayahuasca has developed a strategy to broadcast its message to a wider world--a reflection of the urgent need to avert global ecological catastrophe. While ayahuasca has much to teach us, the critical question is, will humanity hear it, and heed it, in time?

Clinical investigations of the therapeutic potential of ayahuasca: rationale and regulatory challenges.

Ayahuasca is a hallucinogenic beverage that is prominent in the ethnomedicine and shamanism of indigenous Amazonian tribes. Its unique pharmacology depends on the oral activity of the hallucinogen, N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), which results from inhibition of monoamine oxidase (MAO) by beta-carboline alkaloids. MAO is the enzyme that normally degrades DMT in the liver and gut.