Open Science Framework
July 17, 2026
Stephen P. Lewis
This narrative review aims to understand what forms of spirituality screening and spiritual support are available to individuals with serious or life-threatening illness who are involved in psychedelic-assisted therapies. People facing serious illness often experience psychological and spiritual distress such as depression, anxiety, and demoralization. Psychedelic substances are being investigated to treat these conditions, but it is unclear how much spiritual, existential, religious, and theological components are emphasized in screening and treatment protocols. The review will include published studies and ongoing clinical trials involving patients with serious illness receiving psychedelic substances like psilocybin, MDMA, LSD, and ketamine, using an empirical integrative orientation and searching databases including Embase, PubMed, PsycInfo, and CINAHL.
Open Science Framework
July 9, 2026
Raul Edison Luna Lazo, Nicole Milagritos Cardoso Azorza, Jatziri Yanina Vilca Yanac et al.
Psilocybin, a classic psychedelic that acts on serotonin 5-HT2A receptors, is being investigated as a potential treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), a chronic condition marked by intrusive thoughts and repetitive behaviors. Many patients do not respond adequately to first-line treatments like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and cognitive behavioral therapy. This scoping review, following JBI recommendations and PRISMA-ScR guidelines, will systematically search PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science for preclinical and clinical studies on psilocybin or psilocin for OCD. The review aims to map current evidence, identify knowledge gaps, and guide future research, particularly for treatment-resistant patients.
Open Science Framework
July 5, 2026
Dante Sebastián Galván Rial, Panagiotis Fotiadis, Marina Dauphin et al.
The Entropic Brain Hypothesis proposes that conscious states correspond to the entropy (diversity and unpredictability) of spontaneous brain activity. A recent cross-condition fMRI study found an entropic gradient: propofol anaesthesia reduced entropy, while LSD, DMT, modafinil, and schizophrenia increased it, with schizophrenia showing the largest increase. The present project aims to test this hypothesis more broadly by examining fMRI datasets from LSD, psilocybin, modafinil, propofol anaesthesia, natural sleep, schizophrenia, Mild Cognitive Impairment, Alzheimer's disease, and Frontotemporal Dementia. It hypothesizes that diminished states (sleep, anaesthesia) will show low entropy, psychedelic and stimulant states high entropy, and neurodegenerative conditions low entropy. A second objective is to compare a topology-derived entropy measure with a brain-state-derived Shannon entropy measure to assess robustness across operationalizations.
Open Science Framework
January 1, 2026
Annemarie van der Meij, Sotiris Poyiadis, Andrea Cipriani et al.
This preregistration describes an update and extension of a meta-analysis examining ketamine and esketamine for adults with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder. The project is nested within a larger network meta-analysis of next-step strategies for treatment-resistant depression. It restricts interventions to ketamine and esketamine regimens versus placebo, structures outcomes into three time windows (24–72 hours, 1–3 weeks, and 4–12 weeks), and pools results using pairwise random-effects meta-analyses rather than network meta-analysis due to expected lack of direct comparisons between treatment nodes. Short-term outcomes will be extracted from longer-term trials. Subgroup and meta-regression analyses are exploratory.
Open Science Framework
January 1, 2026
Christina Chwyl, M. Kati Lear, Sunjeev K. Kamboj et al.
Self-compassion is thought to be important for mental health, especially for people with social anxiety disorder. MDMA-assisted therapy may work by increasing self-compassion. This study will examine whether trait self-compassion rises during treatment and whether self-compassion felt during MDMA dosing sessions leads to lasting changes. It will also test if changes in self-compassion relate to improvements in social anxiety, depression, shame, functioning, and belonging. Five specific aims are outlined to explore these relationships across two dosing sessions.
Open Science Framework
November 6, 2025
Michiel van Elk
In a naturalistic field setting, the dose of psilocybin truffles, along with participants' trait absorption and expectations, shaped their subjective experiences and neurophysiological responses. The study aimed to replicate effects previously observed in lab and clinical environments. Higher doses were associated with more intense subjective effects, and individual differences in absorption and expectations moderated these outcomes. The findings suggest that psilocybin's effects can be reproduced outside controlled settings, highlighting the role of psychological factors in modulating the experience.
Open Science Framework
October 20, 2025
Natalia Fernandez‐Vinson, Roger Atkins, Marcus J. Glennon et al.
This registered clinical study investigates whether N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), alone or combined with reactivating alcohol-related memories, can produce lasting changes in the brain, cognition, and drinking behavior in people with mild alcohol use disorder who are hazardous drinkers but not seeking treatment. Up to 120 participants will be assigned to one of four groups: alcohol memory retrieval plus DMT, alcohol memory retrieval plus placebo, control memory retrieval plus DMT, or control memory retrieval plus placebo. Drinking levels will be measured over three lab sessions and a nine-month follow-up using timeline follow-back and blood tests.
Open Science Framework
January 1, 2025
Federico Cavanna, Enzo Tagliazucchi
Psilocybin acutely alters probabilistic reinforcement learning in healthy adults. In a double-blind, randomized, within-subject, placebo-controlled study, behavioral data and event-related potentials from EEG recordings will reveal how the psychedelic modulates neural mechanisms of reward processing and decision-making.
Open Science Framework
January 1, 2025
Aimee Freeburn, Alene Sze Jing Yong, Simon Bell
Clinical guidelines and position statements from multiple countries recommend medical psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for adults with depression, but they vary in their specific conditions and safeguards. The review of international documents shows consensus that PAP should be administered in controlled clinical settings with trained therapists, though recommendations differ on patient selection criteria, dosing protocols, and integration procedures. Most guidelines emphasize the need for further research to establish long-term safety and efficacy.
Open Science Framework
January 1, 2025
Hancock, Mackenzie, Shambhu Prasad Adhikari, Getz, Nicole
Psilocybin-assisted therapy shows emerging promise for treating trauma-related conditions including PTSD, depression, and persistent post-concussion symptoms, with potential relevance for survivors of intimate partner violence who have sustained brain injury. This scoping review mapped research from 2015 to 2025 across multiple databases and grey literature, identifying gaps in the evidence and highlighting the need for future clinical trials specifically targeting IPV survivors. The review did not report quantitative results but provides a framework for designing such trials.