The Role of Plasticity in Chronic Pain

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I went through two weeks of ketamine infusion several years ago. I had chronic back pain in my mid-thoracic back from a longstanding injury. It turns out one of the other primary indications is chronic pain, so there's a lot to recommend psilocybin over ketamine at psychedelic dosing. But it matches very well with what you were saying about the potential overlap of plasticity and not just for indications like depression but also for something like chronic pain.

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Nora D. Volkow, MD, is Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at the National Institutes of Health. NIDA is the world’s largest funder of scientific research on the health aspects of drug use and addiction. Dr. Volkow's work has been instrumental in demonstrating that drug addiction is a brain disorder. As a research psychiatrist, Dr. Volkow pioneered the use of brain imaging to investigate how substance use affects brain functions. In particular, her studies have documented how changes in the dopamine system affect the functions of brain regions involved with reward and self-control in addiction. She has also made important contributions to the neurobiology of obesity, ADHD, and aging.

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[06:09] Cadaver homework.

[09:07] The Trotsky connection.

[17:07] How Nora’s father viewed the role of science.

[20:59] Julian Villarreal.

[27:38] A perspective of perseverance.

[33:48] Instilling perseverance in younger scientists.

[35:08] Dancing with Demerol.

[40:05] The current state of addiction in the US.

[44:28] The War on Drugs.

[49:42] Increasing societal confidence in therapeutic psychedelics.

[55:38] Advice for researchers seeking more federal funding.