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Video Episode  👈

We deep dive into psychedelics as treatment for chronic pain with Dr. Alex Bekker, Professor and Chairman of Anaesthesiology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.

We explore what chronic pain is, how it differs from acute pain, and its connection to maladaptive neuroplasticity. Dr. Bekker unpacks why current treatments often fail and how psychedelics—the classical psychedelics as well as ketamine—may effectively treat otherwise treatment-resistant conditions, as well as some practical advice for chronic pain sufferers.

Enjoy!

🌀 Website and Episode Show Notes

FULL TOPICS BREAKDOWN BELOW

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Episode Breakdown

• (0:00) Opening
• (4:22) Interview begins
• (5:00) The difference between acute pain (nociceptive) and chronic pain
• (8:24) Chronic pain as neuropathic sensitization (peripheral and central sensitization)
• (11:25) Chronic pain involved disrupted nociceptive neural-inhibitory pathways
• (12:36) Chronic pain and neural-inflammatory signals
• (14:44) Chronic pain as maladaptive neuroplasticity
• (16:56) DMN and chronic pain (maladaptive neuroplasticity)
• (19:57) Chronic pain is multifactorial (pain is biopsychosocial, not just biological)
• (23:02) Treatments of chronic pain (and why they don't work)
• (34:45) Biological treatments are not enough
• (37:45) Social factors that reinforce chronic pain
• (40:09) Patreon Thanks
• (43:12) The mechanisms by which psychedelics may help with chronic pain
• (54:29) The role of psychotherapy in psychedelic for chronic pain
• (57:44) Psychedelics help us re-learn (and reopen critical learning periods)
• (1:06:31) Ketamine for the treatment of chronic pain
• (1:14:33) Psychedelic helping to correct our "addition" to pain through increasing our sense of connection
• (1:20:51) CLIP potential for psychedelic in chronic pain
• (1:23:44) Psychedelics for fibromyalgia
• (1:26:05) Psychedelic for cancer-related chronic pain
• (1:27:27) Psychedelics for Cluster headaches
• (1:27:32) CARD clusters
• (1:30:23) Psychedelic for phantom limb pain
• (1:31:16) What make James excited and hopeful with psychedelic medicine
• (1:34:00) Advice to those suffering for chronic pain (psychedelics and otherwise)
• (1:37:58) Follow-up info and socials for Dr. Bekker
• (1:39:39) Closing