As psychedelic use increases and integrates with mainstream medicine, understanding the prevalence and nature of postpsychedelic adverse outcomes is critical. We investigated extended difficulties after psychedelic use via the Global Psychedelic Survey (GPS) 2025, which is a multilingual online survey of people who have used psychedelics. Data on the prevalence, characteristics, and...
BACKGROUND. Annual tobacco-related deaths are estimated at 480,000 in the US and 8 million worldwide, dwarfing mortality for all other drugs of abuse. Most smoking cessation interventions result in modest long-term success rates. A pilot study in 15 treatment-resistant smokers found psilocybin with cognitive behavioral therapy resulted in 80% point-prevalence abstinence rates at 6 months....
Health-related behaviors are essential determinants of health and well-being, yet unhealthy patterns persist globally. Psychedelics may represent an innovative tool for facilitating positive behavior change. This study investigated retrospective health-related behavior changes attributed to past psychedelic experiences. An online survey was completed by 271 adults who reported on the...
How is it that psychedelics so profoundly impact brain and mind? According to the model of "Relaxed Beliefs Under Psychedelics" (REBUS), 5-HT2a agonism is thought to help relax prior expectations, thus making room for new perspectives and patterns. Here, we introduce an alternative (but largely compatible) perspective, proposing that REBUS effects may primarily correspond to a particular (but...
Here we consider psychedelics with respect to their mechanisms of action, use, and implications for our understandings of brain and mind. This review is somewhat nontraditional in its scope, with discussions of both basic facts as well as theoretical speculations. We chose this approach given the unique historical context we find ourselves in at present. While we have decades of investigations...
I highly recommend Philosophy of Psychedelics by Chris Letheby (2021) to both the public and academics who want to dig deeper into the modern therapeutic science of psychedelics. In this piece, I will draw attention to key topics covered in the book that I judge as particularly compelling and likely to influence psychedelic therapy and our understanding of it going forward. Clearly, the...
Aims: A variety of pharmacotherapies have been used to assist the psychotherapy process as “adjunctive therapies.” These drugs are used in an acute, targeted fashion, such that they are explicitly delivered in the context of psychotherapy for anxiety, mood and substance-dependence disorders (SUDs). Our narrative review highlights the potential of medically-assisted psychotherapy by outlining...