Skepticism About Recent Evidence that Psilocybin Opens Depressed Minds

A critical commentary identifies problems in a previously published study on psilocybin therapy. The authors argue that the original paper drew unsupported causal conclusions from correlational data, failed to account for placebo effects and participant expectations, and used statistical methods that inflated the apparent strength of the findings. The commentary suggests the original study's claims about psilocybin's therapeutic mechanisms are not justified by the evidence presented.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Here we raise issues in Daws et al. (2022) published in Nature Medicine.