Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology
May 25, 2026
Sheida Shadani, Kaspar McCoy, Lina Ong et al.
With the resurgence of psychedelic research and growing evidence of their therapeutic potential, there is an urgent need to understand how these compounds act across biological sexes. Despite widespread interest in their use for conditions marked by social impairments, including depression, anxiety, and anorexia nervosa, the influence of sex as a biological variable on the prosocial effects of...
bioRxiv
May 18, 2026
Kyna Conn, Ngok Wong, Serenay Sunnetci et al.
Abstract Psilocybin has emerged as a promising therapeutic agent for psychiatric disorders characterised by cognitive rigidity and disrupted reward processing, including anorexia nervosa. While its pro-cognitive effects have been mechanistically probed almost exclusively through serotonin receptor subtype antagonism, the downstream contributions of dopaminergic systems to these outcomes remain...
Translational Psychiatry
April 14, 2026
Ryan J. Keenan, Rifa T Haque, Xiangjun Jin et al.
Prolonged obesity induces enduring structural changes within neural circuits that contribute to maintaining the body at an elevated/obese body weight. These circuits regulate various mechanisms which can inhibit extreme or persistent weight loss. Therefore, a potential therapeutic strategy to facilitate weight loss is to promote structural plasticity within the brain. Psychedelic compounds,...
Psychedelics.
February 3, 2026
Sheida Shadani, Erika Greaves, Zane B. Andrews et al.
Psychedelics, particularly psilocybin, have shown therapeutic potential across several psychiatric conditions, including depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and anorexia nervosa (AN). These disorders often share social deficits that may be effectively alleviated by psychedelics considering their use has been linked with emotional empathy and enhanced social cognition. However,...
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
December 22, 2025
Sheida Shadani, Kaspar McCoy, Lina Ong et al.
Abstract With the resurgence of psychedelic research and the growing interest in their therapeutic potential, there is an urgent need to understand how these compounds act across biological sexes. Despite widespread interest in their use for conditions marked by social impairments, including depression, anxiety, and anorexia nervosa, the influence of sex as a biological variable (SABV) on the...
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
October 15, 2025
Sheida Shadani, Erika Greaves, Zane B. Andrews et al.
preprint
Abstract Psychedelics, particularly psilocybin, have shown therapeutic potential across several psychiatric conditions, including depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and anorexia nervosa (AN). These disorders often share social deficits that may be effectively alleviated by psychedelics considering their use has been linked with emotional empathy and enhanced social cognition....
The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology
August 1, 2025
Nicolo Fabila, Nimshitha Pavathuparambil Abdul Manaph, V Rudkowsky et al.
Abstract Background Binge eating disorder (BED) is the most prevalent eating disorder, often associated with metabolic syndrome and other mental health comorbidities. Despite its impact, current treatment options remain limited. BED is associated with compulsive intake of foods typically high in fat and sugar, as well as neuroplastic changes in brain regions such as the nucleus accumbens,...
Physiology & Behavior
May 20, 2025
Kaspar McCoy, Felicia Reed, Kyna‐anne Conn et al.
4 citations
Psilocybin, a serotonergic psychedelic, has emerged as a promising treatment for a range of mental health conditions, including anorexia nervosa. Recent insights from animal models and human imaging studies suggest psilocybin enhances cognitive flexibility and modifies reward processing - two core processes disrupted in anorexia nervosa. Both cognitive flexibility and reward processing are...
March 31, 2025
Ryan J. Keenan, Rezaul Haque, Xianbo Jin et al.
Abstract Prolonged obesity induces enduring structural changes within neural circuits that contribute to maintaining the body at an elevated/obese body weight. These circuits regulate various mechanisms which can inhibit extreme or persistent weight loss. Therefore, a potential therapeutic strategy to facilitate weight loss is to promote structural plasticity within the brain. Psychedelic...
Translational Psychiatry
September 30, 2024
Elizabeth L. Fisher, Ryan Smith, Kyna Conn et al.
14 citations
Psilocybin has shown promise as a novel pharmacological intervention for treatment of depression, where post-acute effects of psilocybin treatment have been associated with increased positive mood and decreased pessimism. Although psilocybin is proving to be effective in clinical trials for treatment of psychiatric disorders, the information processing mechanisms affected by psilocybin are not...
Endocrinology
July 1, 2024
Sheida Shadani, Kyna Conn, Zane B. Andrews et al.
49 citations
The resurgence of interest in psychedelics as treatments for psychiatric disorders necessitates a better understanding of potential sex differences in response to these substances. Sex as a biological variable (SABV) has been historically neglected in medical research, posing limits to our understanding of treatment efficacy. Human studies have provided insights into the efficacy of...
Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing)
July 1, 2024
Claire J. Foldi, Paul Liknaitzky, Martin L Williams et al.
Anorexia nervosa (AN) has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disease, yet available pharmacological treatments are largely ineffective due, in part, to an inadequate understanding of the neurobiological drivers that underpin the condition. The recent resurgence of research into the clinical applications of psychedelic medicine for a range of mental disorders has highlighted the...
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
May 17, 2024
Elizabeth L. Fisher, Ryan Smith, Andrew W. Corcoran et al.
2 citations
preprint
Abstract Psilocybin has shown promise as a novel pharmacological intervention for treatment of depression, where post-acute effects of psilocybin treatment have been associated with increased positive mood and decreased pessimism. Although psilocybin is proving to be effective in clinical trials for treatment of psychiatric disorders, the information processing mechanisms affected by psilocybin...
Molecular Psychiatry
April 27, 2024
Kyna Conn, L K Milton, K Huang et al.
44 citations
Abstract Psilocybin has shown promise for alleviating symptoms of depression and is currently in clinical trials for the treatment of anorexia nervosa (AN), a condition that is characterised by persistent cognitive inflexibility. Considering that enhanced cognitive flexibility after psilocybin treatment is reported to occur in individuals with depression, it is plausible that psilocybin could...
Trends in Pharmacological Sciences
February 1, 2024
Felicia Reed, Claire J. Foldi
22 citations
The psychedelic compound psilocybin has recently emerged as a therapeutic intervention for various mental health conditions. Psilocybin is a potent agonist of serotonin (5-HT) receptors (5-HTRs), which are expressed in the brain and throughout peripheral tissues, with particularly high expression in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. However, no studies have investigated the possibility that...
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
December 13, 2023
Kyna‐anne Conn, Lk Milton, Kaixin Huang et al.
6 citations
preprint
Abstract Psilocybin has shown promise for alleviating symptoms of depression and is currently in clinical trials for the treatment of anorexia nervosa (AN), a condition that is characterised by persistent cognitive inflexibility. Considering that enhanced cognitive flexibility after psilocybin treatment is reported to occur in individuals with depression, it is plausible that psilocybin could...
October 9, 2022
Claire J. Foldi
Giving lab rats illicit psychedelic drugs may help scientists uncover how it can be used to treat anorexia in humans. Psychedelics, including psilocybin — the psychoactive compound produced by ‘magic mushrooms’ — show promise in treating the eating disorder anorexia nervosa. But they don’t work for everyone. Anorexia nervosa is a mental health disorder that […]
Frontiers in Neuroscience
February 4, 2020
Claire J. Foldi, Paul Liknaitzky, M.l. Williams et al.
52 citations
Anorexia nervosa (AN) has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disease, yet available pharmacological treatments are largely ineffective due, in part, to an inadequate understanding of the neurobiological drivers that underpin the condition. The recent resurgence of research into the clinical applications of psychedelic medicine for a range of mental disorders has highlighted the...