Frontiers in Pain Research
March 18, 2025
Jenna McAfee, Avinash Hosanagar, Vijay Tarnal et al.
18 citations
In a small open-label pilot trial, five people with fibromyalgia received two doses of psilocybin (15 mg and 25 mg) along with psychotherapy. The treatment was well-tolerated: there were temporary increases in blood pressure or heart rate during dosing that returned to normal, no serious adverse events, and four of five participants had short-lived headaches. One month after the second dose, participants reported large reductions in pain severity, pain interference, and sleep disturbance. One participant rated their symptoms as very much improved, two as much improved, and two as minimally improved. Recruitment stopped early due to generalizability concerns and changing FDA guidance, but the results suggest psilocybin-assisted therapy is safe for fibromyalgia and warrants larger trials.
Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England)
May 1, 2025
Niloufar Pouyan, Jacob S. Aday, Steven E. Harte et al.
1 citation
People with treatment-resistant conditions often see their illness as part of their identity. The pictorial representation of illness and self measure (PRISM) gauges this self-condition enmeshment. In a survey of 297 individuals who used psychedelics therapeutically on their own, most reported symptom improvement: 95.4% with depression, 98.36% with posttraumatic stress disorder, and 94.87% with anxiety. PRISM scores dropped significantly after the most salient psychedelic experience, indicating reduced identification with the condition. The decrease in PRISM scores correlated with symptom improvement across all conditions. PRISM appears useful for tracking how psychedelics affect self-perception across diagnoses, though limitations include convenience sampling, potential positive bias, and retrospective reporting.
November 4, 2024
Jacob S. Aday, Jenna McAfee, Deirdre A. Conroy et al.
preprint
In a small open-label proof-of-concept trial, five adults with fibromyalgia received two doses of psilocybin (15 mg and 25 mg) two weeks apart, along with psychotherapy sessions. No serious adverse events occurred; transient blood pressure or heart rate elevations during dosing resolved by the end of treatment, and four of five participants had temporary headaches. One month after the second dose, participants reported clinically meaningful improvements in pain severity, pain interference, and sleep disturbance. One participant rated their symptoms as very much improved, two as much improved, and two as minimally improved. Improvements were also seen in fibromyalgia symptoms, anxiety, and fatigue. The findings suggest psilocybin-assisted therapy is well-tolerated and warrants larger randomized controlled trials.
Research Square
January 12, 2026
Niloufar Pouyan, Chelsea M Kaplan, Tony E. Larkin et al.
Subanesthetic nitrous oxide (N2O) alters visual experience by reconfiguring large-scale brain networks rather than changing early visual processing. In a placebo-controlled fMRI study with 13 healthy adults, participants viewed a flashing checkerboard and rated visual intensity and unpleasantness. Increased unpleasantness under N2O was linked to reduced connectivity between the right anterior insula and the anterior cingulate cortex and lateral occipital cortex. Network analyses revealed reduced modularity and a collapse of hierarchical organization, with sensorimotor connectivity redistributed toward salience and associative networks. These findings suggest that altered visual experience under N2O arises from disrupted salience integration and increased cross-network communication.