The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
September 1, 2026
C Poppe, D Repantis
Abstract Background MDMA-assisted therapy (MDMA-AT) has shown promise for treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), leveraging unique affective effects such as enhanced trust, empathy, and social connectedness. Despite preliminary efficacy, ethical challenges in clinical trials may directly affect regulatory approval and future clinical implementation. Aims & Objectives The...
Journal of Affective Disorders
August 1, 2026
Guy M. Goodwin, Scott T Aaronson, Oscar Alvarez et al.
2 citations
The contribution of patient support to psilocybin's antidepressant effects remains uncertain. Relationships between therapeutic alliance (Scale to Assess Therapeutic Relationship-Patient version; STAR-P), psychedelic experience (Five-Dimensional Altered States of Consciousness Questionnaire and Emotional Breakthrough Inventory; 5D-ASC and EBI) and clinical outcomes (Montgomery-Åsberg Depression...
Suchttherapie
August 1, 2026
Yann David Kippe, C. Poppe, Dimitris Repantis et al.
Zusammenfassung Klassische Halluzinogene („Psychedelika“) wie Lysergsäurediethylamid (LSD), Psilocybin, N,N-Dimethyltryptamin (DMT) und 5-Methoxydimethyltryptamin (5-MeO-DMT) werden zurzeit wieder als potenzielle Behandlungsoptionen bei Substanzgebrauchsstörungen untersucht. Psychedelika entfalten ihre Wirkung über eine Aktivierung von serotonergen 5HT-2a Rezeptoren im zentralen Nervensystem,...
JME Practical Bioethics
July 1, 2026
Christopher Poppe, Chiara Caporuscio, Dimitris Repantis
Psychedelic treatments hold significant therapeutic promise for various psychiatric conditions. However, their unique therapeutic setting with psychedelic substance dosing sessions presents a particular ethical issue concerning patient autonomy. This article explores the ethics of limiting personal autonomy and freedom of movement during dosing sessions due to concerns for physical safety....
Psychedelics
June 28, 2026
Joost J. Breeksema, Ulf Bremberg, Jens H van Dalfsen et al.
The research, understanding, and implementation of psychedelic therapies is characterised by a layered complexity that arises from the dynamic interactions between pharmacological and extra-pharmacological factors, and the embeddedness of psychedelics within broader societal, legal, and regulatory systems ill-equipped to accommodate them. This complexity is compounded by an epistemic...
Psychopharmacology
June 10, 2026
Julian Kirsch, Christopher Poppe, Anne Beck et al.
BACKGROUND: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) remains a major global health concern, with high morbidity and mortality and limited long-term treatment success. Psychedelic therapy has re-emerged as a potential novel intervention for AUD, yet little is known about how affected individuals perceive such treatments. METHODS: This mixed-method study explored attitudes and perceptions of psychedelic...
Brain and Behavior
June 1, 2026
Christopher Poppe, Liisa Lyck, Laura Bechtold et al.
1 citation
Expectations strongly shape participant experiences in clinical trials, contributing to placebo effects that complicate interpretation of outcomes. While quantitative tools exist to measure expectations, their subjective and multidimensional nature, especially for individuals with treatment-resistant depression (TRD), remains underexplored. This study aimed to explore the motivations and...
Nervenheilkunde
February 1, 2026
Dimitris Repantis, Michael Koslowski, Felix Betzler et al.
Zusammenfassung Psychedelika wie Psilocybin und LSD durchlaufen eine bemerkenswerte Geschichte, die von frühen psychiatrischen Anwendungen über den Freizeitgebrauch und die Prohibition in den 70er Jahre bis zur aktuellen Wiederentdeckung in klinischen Studien reicht. MDMA wird seit etwa 15 Jahren für die Behandlung der posttraumatischen Belastungsstörung evaluiert. In der Behandlung werden...
Psychological Medicine
2026
Ricarda Evens, Abdo Uyar, Emily Gosslau et al.
BACKGROUND: While clinical research on psychedelics often reports mild and transient side effects, broader survey studies indicate that a subset of users experiences lasting adverse mental health effects. This study investigated whether some of these meet diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). METHODS: = 243) was conducted with individuals reporting distressing...
J Affect Disord
October 10, 2025
Guy M. Goodwin, Scott T Aaronson, Oscar Alvarez et al.
correction
Corrigendum to "The role of the psychedelic experience in psilocybin treatment for treatment-resistant depression" [Journal of Affective Disorders, Volume 372 (2025), Pages 523-532].
Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology
September 1, 2025
Suresh Muthukumaraswamy, Matthew J. Baggott, Eduardo Ekman Schenberg et al.
8 citations
Psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) has typically been evaluated using conventional randomised controlled trials (RCTs), which assess treatment efficacy under highly controlled conditions. However, PAT constitutes a complex intervention, integrating pharmacological, psychotherapeutic and contextual elements that interact dynamically with patient experiences and healthcare settings. Conventional...
JAMA Psychiatry
August 1, 2025
Christopher Poppe, Jan Christoph Bublitz, Dimitris Repantis
This Viewpoint describes the benefits of providing psychedelic treatment to persons with psychiatric conditions as life-preserving care before physician-assisted death.
Nature Medicine
June 3, 2025
Chloé Pronovost-Morgan, Kyle T. Greenway, Leor Roseman et al.
26 citations
Psychedelic substances exhibit complex interactions with the 'set and setting' of use, that is, the mental state of the user and the environment in which a psychedelic experience takes place. Despite these contextual variables' known importance, psychedelic research has lacked methodological rigor in reporting extra-pharmacological factors. This study aimed to generate consensus-based...
Neuroethics
April 1, 2025
Christopher Poppe, Daniel Villiger, Dimitris Repantis et al.
9 citations
Abstract In the present paper, we analyze the ethical issues in training for psychedelic therapy and discuss mitigation strategies for these issues. Specifically, after describing models of psychedelic training, we describe four problems of psychedelic training: (1) the imperative for comprehensive training due to vulnerability of participants, (2) psychedelic but not psychotherapeutic...
Journal of Affective Disorders
March 1, 2025
Guy M. Goodwin, Scott T Aaronson, Oscar Alvarez et al.
35 citations
To determine the relationships between psilocybin dose, psychedelic experiences, and therapeutic outcome in treatment-resistant depression. For treatment-resistant depression, 233 participants received a single dose of 25, 10, or 1 mg of COMP360 psilocybin (a proprietary, pharmaceutical-grade synthesized psilocybin formulation, developed by the sponsor, Compass Pathfinder Ltd.) with...
Psychological Medicine
2025
Chiara Caporuscio, Christopher Poppe, Astrid Gieselmann et al.
9 citations
Abstract Based on promising preliminary results from clinical trials, it seems likely that psychedelic substances (classic serotonergic psychedelics, such as psilocybin, and entactogens, such as MDMA) will be introduced into psychiatry as psychedelic-assisted therapy. This also raises a range of ethical questions that urgently need to be addressed before widespread roll-out in society. This...
Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences
November 8, 2024
Christopher Poppe, Dimitris Repantis
9 citations
In this chapter, we provide an overview of ethical aspects of psychedelic-assisted treatments in the areas of clinical ethics, research ethics, and at the intersection of psychedelic medicine and society. In contrast to earlier psychedelic research, nowadays medical ethics have been firmly established as a discipline regulating patient-physician relationships which highlight the importance of...
Die Psychotherapie
February 9, 2024
Dimitris Repantis, Michael Koslowski, Sascha Benjamin Fink
4 citations
Zusammenfassung Hintergrund In den letzten Jahren wurde die klinische Forschung zu Psychedelika-gestützter Therapie psychischer Störungen wieder aufgenommen, mit einer stetig steigenden Zahl von Studien und Publikationen. Dabei sind viele ethische Fragen aufgekommen, die noch nicht ausreichend untersucht und beantwortet wurden. Ziel Dieser Beitrag gibt einen Überblick zum Stand der klinischen...
Journal of Affective Disorders
February 3, 2023
Guy M. Goodwin, Scott T Aaronson, Oscar Alvarez et al.
168 citations
Three weeks after dosing, psilocybin 25 mg and, to a lesser degree, 10 mg improved measures of patient-reported depression severity, anxiety, affect, and functioning. These results extend the primary findings from the largest randomised clinical trial of psilocybin for TRD to examine other outcomes that are of importance to patients.
The New England journal of medicine
November 3, 2022
Guy M. Goodwin, Scott T Aaronson, Oscar Alvarez et al.
1,095 citations
Psilocybin is being studied for use in treatment-resistant depression. In this phase 2 double-blind trial, we randomly assigned adults with treatment-resistant depression to receive a single dose of a proprietary, synthetic formulation of psilocybin at a dose of 25 mg, 10 mg, or 1 mg (control), along with psychological support. The primary end point was the change from baseline to week 3 in the...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
October 26, 2022
Tor-Morten Kvam, Ivar W Goksøyr, Lowan H. Stewart et al.
11 citations
Background Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a world-leading cause of disability. The available treatments are not effective in all patients, and there is a significant need for more effective treatment options. Here we present the protocol for an investigator-initiated and publicly funded trial of MDMA-assisted therapy (MDMA-AT) for MDD. This single-site, open-label study investigates the...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
August 2, 2021
Nicolas Langlitz, Erika Dyck, Milan Scheidegger et al.
35 citations
The revival of psychedelic research coincided and more recently conjoined with psychopharmacological research on how drugs affect moral judgments and behaviors. This article makes the case for a moral psychopharmacology of psychedelics that examines whether psychedelics serve as non-specific amplifiers that enable subjects to (re-)connect with their values, or whether they promote specific...