Sex Differences in Acute Responses to Psychedelics: Evidence for Greater Subjective Intensity and Impairment in Female Participants
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) July 13, 2026 Natasha L. Mason, Eline Chm Haijen-Bongers, Kim P. C. Kuypers et al.
Serotonergic psychedelics are advancing as psychiatric treatments, yet acute responses vary between individuals and the contribution of sex, a fundamental biological variable, remains largely unexamined. We pooled two double-blind, placebo-controlled studies in healthy volunteers (N = 72; 31 male, 41 female) comparing psilocybin 15 mg, 2C-B 20 mg, and LSD 50 μg. Linear mixed models tested sex...