Expert urges greater monitoring of side-effect of drug used to treat depression, psychosis and schizophrenia Patients who are prescribed a common antipsychotic used to treat depression, bipolar disorder, psychosis and schizophrenia need to be told there is a risk they could develop a gambling addiction, an expert has warned. The National Problem Gambling Clinic has observed growing numbers of patients who have developed a gambling addiction after starting to take aripiprazole. Some patients have lost huge sums of money as a result and seen their relationships fall apart ..read more

The UK levelling up secretary has defended Rishi Sunak's focus on banning the sale of laughing gas, saying the proposals would stop parks being turned into drug-taking arenas. The ban is part of the government’s antisocial behaviour plans to be unveiled on Monday. 'If you walk through any urban park you will see these little silver canisters which are the evidence of people regarding public spaces as arenas for drug taking,' he told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme. He accepted that ministers had been advised against a ban, but said they had taken a different view Michael Gov ..read more

Exclusive: Surgeons raise concerns that people using jabs are unaware of risks of redundant skin From unbearable side-effects to cravings curbed: readers on weight-loss jabs A surge in the number of people using slimming jabs to lose weight could lead to a rise in patients travelling abroad for tummy tucks or other surgery to remove excess skin, surgeons have said. Drugs such as liraglutide and semaglutide, which could help people reduce their weight by more than 10%, have been approved for use on the NHS for certain groups of people with obesity, although supplies of the latter under the bran ..read more

Recent deaths linked to drugs made in India underline the need for a global framework for quality control and swift cross-border action when things go wrong In the last six months, there have been four global alerts from the World Health Organization (WHO) for “Made in India” medicine where patients have either died, been blinded or suffered adverse incidents. Two alerts, one in October and the other in January, were for adulterated cough syrups manufactured by two different Indian companies. These syrups are suspected to have caused the deaths of up to 71 children in the Gambia and 18 childre ..read more

Study gives most advanced picture yet of DMT compound’s effect on advanced functions such as imagination The brew is so potent that practitioners report not only powerful hallucinations, but near-death experiences, contact with higher-dimensional beings, and life-transforming voyages through alternative realities. Often before throwing up, or having trouble at the other end. Now, scientists have gleaned deep insights of their own by monitoring the brain on DMT, or dimethyltryptamine, the psychedelic compound found in Psychotria viridis, the flowering shrub that is mashed up and boiled in the A ..read more

Jennifer Rees chronicles the long-term impact of chemotherapy, while Ken Foote tells of the hallucinogenic effect of the drugs Hilary Osborne’s piece (When it comes to cancer drug side-effects, it’s about what you’ll tolerate to stay alive, 17 March) rang many bells with me. Since autumn 2021, I have been treated for a second time for acute myeloid leukaemia, having experienced an unusual return of the disease after more than 20 years without symptoms. Although my chemotherapy was a milder regime than before, adjusted to my now being in my late 70s, I had more severe side-effects, particularly ..read more

Is the vogue for the Amazonian drink a beneficial driver of tourism – or a form of capitalist exploitation? This film lacks the rigour to find out Often mocked by standup comedians and sitcom writers – a sure sign of its ubiquity – ayahuasca, the hallucinogenic tea, has brought an influx of western travellers going on healing retreats to the forests of Peru. Focusing on its medicinal properties, Marc Silver’s documentary aims to dispel certain misconceptions about the psychedelic brew. Among Indigenous people, rituals involving ayahuasca have been practised for millennia. Made from vines and o ..read more

It-girl-turned-campaigner Paris Hilton speaks up about her stolen childhood, years of trauma, and taking down the ‘troubled teen industry’ (1m41s), Steve Rose investigates the mysterious case of the missing Academy Awards (30m35s), and the great serotonin debate: do depression treatments work by boosting the happy hormone? (43m14s ..read more

No matter how bad I feel, I have to remind myself that the treatment is working to reduce my tumour Nausea, diarrhoea, joint pain, fatigue, hair loss – the list of side-effects for most cancer drugs reads like symptoms of many illnesses in their own right. Before I had this disease, I would have considered making a GP appointment if I’d been suffering just some of the problems that I later came to just write off as simply the downside of being cured. The problem with all the side-effects the drugs have caused is that as they pile up, you can lose sight of why you are taking them. It’s not as i ..read more

They look like cosmic chapels, luxury spas and uber-cool art galleries. One even boasts a 250-year-old ceiling from a Burmese monastery. Our writer joins the ‘cannaseurs’ in a bong-filled world that could be the future of Britain ‘Do you know what terpenes are?” says our glamorous host, pointing to four glass domes spotlit on a table, each containing mysterious lumps of black rock. The surrounding walls of this small room in Los Angeles are lined with mirrors, topped with neon arches that glow lilac, pink and purple, their reflections forming a trippy maze of arcades extending into infinity. I ..read more