PLoS One
June 18, 2026
Elisa Liberati, Hv Curran, Peter Fonagy et al.
INTRODUCTION: Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)-assisted psychotherapy (MDMA-AP) is a potentially transformative intervention for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Despite encouraging Phase III trial results, the psychological mechanisms underpinning MDMA's therapeutic effects remain insufficiently understood. Existing research on MDMA has emphasised neurobiological processes but has...
Psychopharmacology (Berl)
November 8, 2017
R. L. Carhart-Harris, Mark Bolstridge, C. M. J. Day et al.
978 citations
RATIONALE: Recent clinical trials are reporting marked improvements in mental health outcomes with psychedelic drug-assisted psychotherapy. OBJECTIVES: Here, we report on safety and efficacy outcomes for up to 6 months in an open-label trial of psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression. METHODS: Twenty patients (six females) with (mostly) severe, unipolar, treatment-resistant major...
Psychopharmacology
October 30, 2017
J. B. Stroud, Tom P. Freeman, Robert Leech et al.
102 citations
RATIONALE: Depressed patients robustly exhibit affective biases in emotional processing which are altered by SSRIs and predict clinical outcome. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study is to investigate whether psilocybin, recently shown to rapidly improve mood in treatment-resistant depression (TRD), alters patients' emotional processing biases. METHODS: Seventeen patients with...
Translational Psychiatry
February 16, 2016
C J A Morgan, Tom P. Freeman, J Powell et al.
Smoking cannabis daily doubles an individual's risk of developing a psychotic disorder, yet indicators of specific vulnerability have proved largely elusive. Genetic variation is one potential risk modifier. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the AKT1 and catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) genes have been implicated in the interaction between cannabis, psychosis and cognition, but no studies...
Biological Psychiatry
January 10, 2014
Robin Carhart-Harris, Kevin Murphy, Robert Leech et al.
182 citations
The MTLs appear to be specifically implicated in the mechanism of action of MDMA, but further work is required to elucidate how the drug's characteristic subjective effects arise from its modulation of spontaneous brain activity.
Psychological Medicine
February 1, 2012
C. J. A. Morgan, C. Gardener, G. Schafer et al.
Background Cannabis varies considerably in levels of its two major constituent cannabinoids – (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). Recently, we found evidence that those who smoked cannabis containing detectable levels of CBD had fewer psychotic-like symptoms than those whose cannabis had no CBD. The present study aimed, first, to replicate those findings and, second, to...
Psychological Medicine
June 1, 2009
O. Mason, C. J. A. Morgan, S. K. Dhiman et al.
BackgroundEpidemiological evidence suggests a link between cannabis use and psychosis. A variety of factors have been proposed to mediate an individual's vulnerability to the harmful effects of the drug, one of which is their psychosis proneness. We hypothesized that highly psychosis-prone individuals would report more marked psychotic experiences under the acute influence of cannabis.MethodA...