Mohan Nair, MD

03/04/2026

New Perspectives on End-of-Life Care 🔗 A recent article from National Geographic: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/health/article/psychedelic-drugs-terminal-cancer-palliative-care

Emerging research is showing that certain psychedelic medicines like psilocybin, may offer real emotional and psychological relief for people facing terminal illness. Rather than treating the disease itself, these therapies have helped reduce anxiety, depression, and existential distress in patients with advanced cancer, allowing many to reconnect with loved ones and find a deeper sense of meaning in their final months.

This is not about curing cancer, it’s about supporting the whole person, addressing the emotional pain that traditional medicine often can’t reach. As researchers continue to explore and challenge regulatory barriers, this work may open new pathways in palliative care and improve quality of life for those approaching the end of their journey.

Certain psychoactive substances can improve the mental health of terminally ill cancer patients—but few patients can currently access them.

02/20/2026

The future of psychedelics sits at a crossroads.�

On one side: a growing community seeking access to therapies that have already shown benefit.�

On the other: an emerging industry focused on developing costly alternatives to existing compounds.�

The question remains: who ultimately shapes access, and at what cost?

01/06/2026

Neuropsychiatry / behavioral neurology is the study of emotional and behavioral disorders in which disturbed brain functions are either scientifically established or strongly suggested. Prior to the 80s, the term neuropsychiatry was limited to conditions with identified etiologies, i.e., the depression or mania following a stroke, delirium/dementia associated with hepatic encephalopathy, or the paranoid/religious psychosis of a temporal lobe epileptic?

However, with the rapid advances in the neurosciences, the more serious psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, Tourette’s, ADHD, bipolar disorder, and autism are undeniably recognized as brain disorders. Considerable skepticism is raised in the courts when brain disorders are used to explain away horrific acts or serious antisocial behaviors. Mental health professionals may identify brain damage as a causal mechanism in wrongful behavior without an adequate scientific basis. This may be the result of honest differences in opinion, advocacy, or in some instances (unfortunately) the willingness to provide a desired opinion for the referring party.

👉 Read more on this week's blog:

Neuropsychiatry / behavioral neurology is the study of emotional and behavioral disorders in which disturbed brain functions are either scientifically

12/31/2025

There is growing awareness that the Glasgow Coma Scale is an inadequate tool for classifying traumatic brain injury as mild, moderate, or severe. A major concern with this classification - particularly in mild traumatic brain injury, is the failure to recognize persistent, and at times progressive, neurological and metabolic changes that are often present despite an initial “mild” designation.

This recent article in The Lancet provides an updated perspective on how advances in clinical neuroimaging and blood–brain biomarkers may lead to more accurate diagnosis and improved treatment strategies for traumatic brain injury.

🔗 Read the full article here: https://api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server/api/core/bitstreams/5317795f-0606-4e66-96f1-2b681ab5b200/content

🧠 WWW.MOHANNAIRMD.COM

12/29/2025

As a Harvard-trained physician, with a background in brain injury medicine, pain medicine, addiction medicine and psychiatry, I’ve spent the last 15 years focused on what I believe are the four dark horsemen afflicting humanity:

🧠 Brain injuries
⚡ Chronic pain
🧠 Severe psychological trauma & PTSD
🔗 Addiction

These conditions represent one of the greatest threats to human well-being today. They fuel chronic suffering, disability, incarceration, and homelessness, impacting millions of Americans, both veterans and civilians.

For over a decade, I’ve worked with ketamine-assisted treatment, which has led me to explore the broader potential of psychedelics as transdiagnostic therapeutic agents - tools that may help address the root causes shared across these complex conditions.

It’s time for deeper conversations, rigorous science, and compassionate care models that meet the scale of the problem.

🧠 www.mohannairmd.com

12/23/2025

If you’re curious about the growing role of psychedelics in healthcare, Psychedelic Capitalism by Jamie Brownlee and Kevin Walby, published by Columbia University Press, is a strong place to begin.

🎥 Watch the full discussion on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u9LpIAC7p8&t=6s

12/19/2025

Psychedelic Capitalism from Columbia University Press provides a critical analysis of the exploding medical psychedelic terrain. Authors Brownlee and Walby illuminate where the corporate-capture trip is headed—through hasty medicalization, commercialization, psychedelic tourism, Big Tech, Big Pharma, and aggressive intellectual-property practices. It gives insight into the handshake politics of Big Pharma, government regulatory bodies, and politics that infest the U.S. healthcare “industry.”

👉 Learn more about Psychedelic Capitalism here: https://cup.columbia.edu/book/psychedelic-capitalism/9781773637310/

As I have noted in my book Making Sense of Suffering – Psychedelic Medicine for Pain Management, a soulless health care “industry” dedicated solely to profiteering and not to people sucks up billions of dollars in private profits from public money, while 80 million Americans go with no health care or substandard health care in the most expensively budgeted health care system in the world.

📖 Making Sense of Suffering – Psychedelic Medicine for Pain Management - Available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C8KZPK64

Drawing from the collective wisdom and diverse backgrounds of individuals passionate about psychedelics as medicine, the reader is provided cutting-edge up to date research data. This includes the basic science of psychedelics as it may apply to pain related conditions. Specific information is...

12/12/2025

A powerful dive into how Terence McKenna’s first brush with DMT at 19 shattered everything he thought he knew — and turned him into a psychedelic “edge runner.” In this new piece, we follow how that single trip rewired his worldview and set him on a lifelong quest to transform a molecule into a cultural sacrament.

👉 Curious where “the secret the world can’t tell” leads? Read more:

After a mind-bending trip at nineteen, Terence McKenna, or “America’s shaman,” spent his adult life transforming a molecule into a cultural sacrament.

12/11/2025

Time to legalize psychedelics? A compelling campus debate is unpacking one of today’s most provocative questions: should we fast-track psychedelic access for its potential therapeutic benefits — especially for issues like veteran su***de — or slow down to make sure safety and rigorous science come first? Experts from law, medicine, ethics, and lived experience weigh in on both sides of the issue.

What is missing in the discussion are the elephants in the room. There is growing evidence that existing psychedelics may have transdiagnostic therapeutic applications, providing a novel strategy to help countless Americans who suffer from intractable depression, PTSD, chronic pain, and addictions. There is some evidence that psychedelics may help with neurological conditions such as stroke, parkinsons, and dementia. Shouldn't this public health issue be driving the creation of a Manhattan Project style government NIH sponsored program to study psychedelics? Should it be left to big pharma (or small pharma with big pharma dreams) for whom legalization of existing psychedelics would not be profitable and their hopes are for a “safer and better" (or maybe not) psychedelics that can be provided at huge costs? If Johnson & Johnson’s genius in taking a 70-year-old drug, ketamine, that costs pennies and market Spravto for $1,000 a pop is any clue, we have a sense of where this could all be going.

🔗 Dive into the full discussion: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2025/12/time-to-legalize-psychedelics/

👇 Comment and share your thoughts below

Campus debate weighs therapeutic need vs. safety questions

12/09/2025

DMT, a potent psychedelic that exists in our body may help prevent strokes.

👉 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adx5958

Marcell J. László, Judit P. Vigh, Anna E. Kocsis, Gergő Porkoláb, Zsófia Hoyk, Tamás Polgár, Fruzsina R. Walter, Attila Szabó, Srdjan Djurovic, Béla Merkely, Alán Alpár, Ede Frecska, Zoltán Nagy, Mária A. Deli, Sándor Nardai. N , N -dimethyltryptamine mitigates experimental stroke by stabilizing the blood-brain barrier and reducing neuroinflammation. Science Advances, 2025; 11 (33) DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adx5958

The protective effects of N,N-dimethyltryptamine on the blood-brain barrier and microglia can be helpful in stroke therapy.

11/28/2025

Gain great insight into combined pain mechanisms! 💡 This article, co-authored by leading pain specialist Dr. Luis Garcia-Larrea, explores this complex process. Learn more about the fascinating science behind mixed pain.

Link to article: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2025.1659490/full

Varrassi G, Farì G, Narvaez Tamayo MA, Gomez MP, Guerrero Liñeiro AM, Pereira CL, Samy Aziz E, Gharibo C, Kaye AD, Garcia-Larrea L, Moka E, Król A, Volk T, Al-Alwany AA and Leoni MLG (2025) Mixed pain: clinical practice recommendations. Front. Med. 12:1659490. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1659490

11/24/2025

Myth vs. Reality in Pediatric Skull Fractures! 💡 Did you know that not every skull fracture in a child necessitates hospitalization? Research indicates that linear skull fractures, especially when no other neurological issues (headaches, nausea, vomiting, balance problems) are present, might not be as dire as commonly assumed.

It's crucial to always get a professional medical opinion!