A scoping review of 77 pre-clinical studies (1962–2021) examined psilocybin's behavioral effects in non-human animals. Most studies used rodents. Psilocybin shows a strong safety profile with no biological toxicity, even at high doses. Effects include acute arousal, dose-dependent sedation, reduced fear conditioning at low doses, reduced aggression, improved valence, acute working memory disruption, reversal of chronic stress deficits, and improved learning when combined with repeated environmental exposure after drug effects resolve. Only 55.8% of studies reported housing conditions, and 22.1% failed to report sample size, indicating wide variation in study quality and design.
A scoping review of 77 pre-clinical studies (1962–2021) found that psilocybin has a strong safety profile with no evidence of biological toxicity, even at very high doses. Most studies (64) used rodents, and 51 studies administered psilocybin, 30 psilocin, and 4 whole mushroom extracts. Effects included acute arousal, dose-dependent sedation, reduced fear conditioning at low doses, reduced aggression, improved valence, acute disruption of working memory, rescuing of deficits from chronic stress, and improved learning when combined with repeated environmental exposure after drug effects resolved. Study quality varied: only 43 studies reported housing conditions, and 17 failed to report sample size.