Journal of Psychedelic Studies
May 29, 2026
Alex P. Hood, Gary R Elkins
Abstract Background and Aims Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy (PAP) is a novel, transdiagnostic treatment in which the 5-HT2A receptor agonist psilocybin is combined with psychotherapy. Studies to date have evaluated PAP's effects on depression, substance use, and end-of-life adjustment. Relatively less attention has been given to its effects on anxiety symptoms, which are highly comorbid with...
Cell Discov
May 29, 2026
Gang Pei
A spatiotemporal gating hypothesis for psilocybin plasticity: reconciling the 5-HT₂A-TrkB mechanistic paradox.
Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England)
May 29, 2026
Kristoffer Brendstrup‐brix, Brice Ozenne, Patrick M. Fisher et al.
Patients with chronic cluster headache (CCH) suffer from poor sleep, which may impact their brain microstructure and parenchymal clearance of waste products. Psilocybin has shown promise for the treatment of CCH and has been linked to increased neuroplasticity with possible influences on brain microstructure. To investigate the effects of psilocybin on sleep, brain water diffusivity, and...
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
May 29, 2026
Andrew Stewart Caldin
E8 ANALYSIS PIPELINE — derived from: PRESSMAN Breaking Source URL: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/18/magic-mushrooms-treatment-cocaine-addiction-study The E8 geometry framework supplies a high‑dimensional root‑vector algorithm that can encode the coupled dynamics of serotonin‑2A receptor activation and dopamine pathways implicated in cocaine addiction. By embedding the...
Psychopharmacology
May 28, 2026
Mazen A Atiq, Eli Weisman, Rodrigo B Guerra et al.
Psilocybin is among the serotonergic psychedelics closest to potential FDA approval, with growing evidence of therapeutic benefit across psychiatric conditions. As clinical trials expand, systematic characterization of adverse events (AEs) remains essential. While transient hypertensive responses are well documented, hypotensive events such as neurocardiogenic syncope (NCS) are rarely reported....
European neuropsychopharmacology : the journal of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology
May 28, 2026
L Belinger, Nathalie M. Rieser, Etna Engeli et al.
Maintaining effective blinding is a major methodological challenge in psychedelic research. This study provides a comprehensive evaluation of blinding integrity in 120 healthy volunteers who received either psilocybin, MDMA, or methylphenidate (active placebo) in a double-blind, randomized controlled trial. Using a multi-level assessment incorporating forced-choice substance guesses, certainty...
Journal of Raman Spectroscopy
May 28, 2026
Wei Lin, Hong Chen, Yuanyuan Li
ABSTRACT Psilocybin, one of the primary active compounds in magic mushrooms, is metabolized into psilocin in the human body. In this study, we employed surface‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), leveraging its unique molecular fingerprinting capabilities and high sensitivity, in combination with silver‐coated gold nanoparticles (Au@AgNPs) as the enhancement substrate (enhancement factor ~1.14...
Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics
May 27, 2026
Lea J. Mertens, Felix Betzler, Manuela Brand et al.
Psilocybin shows promise for treatment-resistant depression (TRD), but long-term data are limited. This study examined the antidepressant effect of one or two psilocybin doses with adjunct psychotherapy in TRD until twelve months. This is a naturalistic follow-up of a phase 2b, randomized, active placebo-controlled trial, where participants were randomized to receive two drug administrations...
Translational Psychiatry
May 26, 2026
Marvin M. Urban, Lea Zillich, Nathalie M. Rieser et al.
1 citation
The serotonergic hallucinogen psilocybin has shown potential as a treatment for psychiatric conditions like alcohol use disorder (AUD) and depression in clinical studies. Epigenetic mechanisms, including DNA methylation, are hypothesized to contribute to its lasting therapeutic benefits. In this exploratory study, we present the first methylome-wide analysis of psilocybin-induced changes in a...
Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology
May 25, 2026
Sheida Shadani, Kaspar McCoy, Lina Ong et al.
With the resurgence of psychedelic research and growing evidence of their therapeutic potential, there is an urgent need to understand how these compounds act across biological sexes. Despite widespread interest in their use for conditions marked by social impairments, including depression, anxiety, and anorexia nervosa, the influence of sex as a biological variable on the prosocial effects of...
Scientific Data
May 21, 2026
Leonardo Novelli, Devon Stoliker, Tamrin Barta et al.
PsiConnect is a large-scale neuroimaging study designed to investigate context-dependent neural and subjective effects of psilocybin using multimodal neuroimaging. It combines functional, structural, and diffusion-weighted MRI with EEG to examine brain activity in 62 participants before and after a 19 mg dose of psilocybin. The design includes resting-state scans and three naturalistic...
Palliative Medicine
May 19, 2026
Louis Plourde, Sue-Ling Chang, Olivia Nguyen et al.
1 citation
BACKGROUND: While the adoption of psilocybin-assisted therapy for existential distress offers promising support for patients with life-threatening illnesses, implementing this intervention into palliative care settings presents significant real-world challenges. AIM: To examine palliative care stakeholders' knowledge and attitudes regarding psilocybin-assisted therapy, and identify barriers and...
Aust N Z J Psychiatry
May 18, 2026
correction
Corrigendum to: "Psilocybin in the real world: Regulatory, ethical, and operational challenges in Australia's clinical landscape".
Religions
May 18, 2026
Geoffrey Ready, Ron Cole-Turner
Recent studies show that psychedelics such as psilocybin and LSD can reliably occasion spiritual or “mystical-like” experiences under supportive conditions, and the spiritual dimension of these experiences may contribute to their reported mental health benefits. Scholars have begun exploring how such experiences might relate to spiritual growth within Christian frameworks, but most theological...
bioRxiv
May 18, 2026
Kyna Conn, Ngok Wong, Serenay Sunnetci et al.
Abstract Psilocybin has emerged as a promising therapeutic agent for psychiatric disorders characterised by cognitive rigidity and disrupted reward processing, including anorexia nervosa. While its pro-cognitive effects have been mechanistically probed almost exclusively through serotonin receptor subtype antagonism, the downstream contributions of dopaminergic systems to these outcomes remain...
JAMA Network Open
May 15, 2026
Hampus Yngwe, Pontus Plavén-sigray, Carl Johan Ekman et al.
1 citation
Importance: Psilocybin has been proposed as a rapid-acting antidepressant (onset 6 weeks), but evidence from randomized clinical trials remains limited, particularly in the broader major depressive disorder (MDD) population. Objective: To assess short-term and long-term antidepressant effects of psilocybin therapy in patients with MDD. Design, Setting, and Participants: This double-blind,...
PsyArXiv
May 14, 2026
Jacob Cohen, Peter Parbo, Per Trads Ørskov et al.
preprint
Low doses of psilocybin as adjunct pharmacological treatment to virtual reality exposure therapy for social anxiety disorder: A study protocol for a double-blind randomized controlled trial.
Current Psychiatry Reports
May 14, 2026
Jamarie Geller, Rachel M Pacilio, Amanda E. Downey et al.
There is growing evidence that psychedelics and associated treatment modalities may offer therapeutic benefits across a range of psychiatric conditions. Anorexia nervosa (AN), a serious and often treatment-resistant illness associated with significant morbidity and mortality, is one such condition for which psilocybin-assisted therapy (PAT) may hold promise. To date, research on PAT for AN has...
Neuroethics
May 13, 2026
Christina Chwyl, Alissa Bazinet, Adrianne R Wilson-Poe et al.
Informed consent in psychedelic-assisted services is ethically complex, difficult to implement, and remains largely unstudied and unstandardized. The current study sought expert recommendations on informed consent challenges, best practices and recommendations for supervised psilocybin experiences across various settings. Participants with psilocybin content expertise and psilocybin providers...
BJPsych Open
May 13, 2026
Zeina Beidas, Anya Ragnhildstveit, Adam Blackman et al.
Microdosing psilocybin for major depressive disorder: study protocol for a phase II double-blind placebo-controlled randomised partial crossover trial - CORRIGENDUM.
The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
May 13, 2026
Andrew van der Vaart, Jeffrey LaPratt, Kimberly Swartz et al.
Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy, safety, and durability of a single 25-mg dose of a proprietary, synthetic formulation of psilocybin with psychological support for reducing chronic suicidal ideation in a treatment-resistant population. Methods: This was an open-label, single-arm study with a 12-week follow-up conducted between March 2022 and May 2025. Twenty adults with chronic suicidal...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
May 13, 2026
Feliciano Yu, Joe Tafur, Francisco Moreno et al.
2 citations
Importance: The Oregon Psilocybin Services (OPS) program is the first statewide, regulated framework for legal psilocybin in the U.S. Analyzing inaugural-year utilization and safety is essential for informing policy and equity monitoring. Methods: We conducted a descriptive analysis of statewide aggregate data from the OPS Public Dashboard (January 1-December 31, 2025). Outcomes included...
Research Square
May 11, 2026
Chloë K Walters, Sarentha Chetty, Thankhoe A Rants’o et al.
Abstract Background: Conventional pharmacotherapy for treatment-resistant depression (TRD) has been found to provide limited benefit in a subset of patients. Psilocybin‑assisted therapy has emerged as a promising modality due to its rapid‑acting antidepressant effects and favourable tolerability profile shown in early trials. Despite growing research interest in psilocybin‑assisted therapy the...
International Journal of Molecular Sciences
May 9, 2026
Marta Jóźwiak-Bębenista, Anna Stasiak, Monika Sienkiewicz et al.
Aging is associated with chronic, low-grade inflammation ("inflammaging"), which contributes to neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders such as depression, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease. Conventional pharmacotherapies often provide limited benefit in older adults and are further complicated by polypharmacy and drug-drug interactions. Psilocybin, a serotonergic...