Neuropsychopharmacol Rep September 1, 2026 Daisuke Ibi, Rika Takaba, Keisuke Yoshida et al.
Contribution of the Serotonin 5-HT2A Receptor to the Therapeutic Effect of Psilocin on Social Behavior Deficits in Mice Repeatedly Exposed to Social Defeat Stress.
Journal of Affective Disorders August 1, 2026 Taro Kishi, Kenji Sakuma, Masakazu Hatano et al.
This systematic review and meta-analysis of six randomized controlled trials aimed to investigate the temporal changes in the efficacy and safety of psilocybin treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD). Separate meta-analyses were conducted for standard-dose psilocybin (25 mg/session, or 20-30 mg/70 kg/session) and low-dose psilocybin (10 mg/session or 15.05 mg/70 kg/session) subgroups....
Journal of Affective Disorders August 1, 2026 Guy M. Goodwin, Scott T Aaronson, Oscar Alvarez et al. 2 citations
The contribution of patient support to psilocybin's antidepressant effects remains uncertain. Relationships between therapeutic alliance (Scale to Assess Therapeutic Relationship-Patient version; STAR-P), psychedelic experience (Five-Dimensional Altered States of Consciousness Questionnaire and Emotional Breakthrough Inventory; 5D-ASC and EBI) and clinical outcomes (Montgomery-Åsberg Depression...
Hearing research August 1, 2026 Shuhan Lu, Zhixin Zhang, Xinmiao Xue et al.
Subjective tinnitus is a common auditory disorder characterised by the subjective perception of noise in the absence of external sound sources. Its prevalence has been rising annually due to noise exposure, medication misuse, and population ageing. Current tinnitus treatments employ antidepressants, anticonvulsants, and vasodilators, yet most demonstrate limited efficacy with significant side...
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) July 20, 2026 Neil K. Savalia, Ling-Xiao Shao, Cory A. Knox et al.
SUMMARY How psychedelics act on cortical dendrites to produce long-lasting structural plasticity remains poorly understood. Here, we characterize the effects of psilocybin on dendritic calcium dynamics in pyramidal tract neurons of the mouse medial frontal cortex. Psilocybin transiently increases calcium event rates in apical dendritic tufts over a time course that parallels the drug’s...
Frontiers in Public Health July 20, 2026 Vivian Wl Tsang, Pamela Kryskow, Crosbie Watler et al.
Background Psilocybin-assisted therapy is continuing to show significant positive effects for palliative cancer patients, both in reducing symptoms and improving one’s sense of hope and meaning. Most research has focused on individual therapy models, limiting access and overlooking potential community-based benefits. Methods This qualitative study describes the results of patients experiencing...
medRxiv July 19, 2026 Naama Levy‐Cooperman, Edward M. Sellers, Paul Glue et al.
Psilocybin shows therapeutic promise for several psychiatric disorders, but the acute perceptual and cognitive alterations produced by conventional doses (10-25 mg) require in-clinic supervision, which limits scalability. Whether the therapeutically relevant pharmacology of psilocybin can be separated from its hallucinogenic activity remains unresolved. To address this gap, we conducted a Phase...
Psychedelics July 18, 2026 Sergio Pérez Rosal, Sonya C. Faber
Background In natural product psilocybin retreats, "dose" is commonly defined by grams of dried mushrooms, despite substantial batch-to-batch variability in psilocybin content. This limits safety predictability and undermines reproducibility and between-study comparability. We report an observational field evaluation of an existing, ICH Q2(R1)-validated rapid colorimetric/photometric assay...
Neuropsychopharmacology July 18, 2026 James J Gattuso, Ahmed Kamal, Jennyfer M. Payet et al.
Abstract Psilocybin is a serotonergic psychedelic drug with emerging therapeutic applications, yet its actions under glutamatergic dysfunction, and relevance to schizophrenia and associated psychiatric disorders, remain unclear. We examined the acute and long-lasting effects of psilocybin (1 mg/kg, intraperitoneal) on behavioral and neural outcomes in the metabotropic glutamate receptor 5...
Journal of Affective Disorders June 4, 2026 Carlton M Kelly, Mathieu Fradet, Catherine Bostian et al.
Psilocybin has demonstrated promise for improving depressive symptoms in treatment-resistant depression, but its effects on anxiety, quality of life, functioning, and posttraumatic stress symptoms are less well studied. This study reports exploratory findings from an open-label trial in Veterans with TRD. Participants received a single 25-mg dose of psilocybin administered with psychological...
The New England journal of medicine November 3, 2022 Guy M. Goodwin, Scott T Aaronson, Oscar Alvarez et al. 1,095 citations
Psilocybin is being studied for use in treatment-resistant depression. In this phase 2 double-blind trial, we randomly assigned adults with treatment-resistant depression to receive a single dose of a proprietary, synthetic formulation of psilocybin at a dose of 25 mg, 10 mg, or 1 mg (control), along with psychological support. The primary end point was the change from baseline to week 3 in the...
New England Journal of Medicine April 14, 2021 Robin Carhart-Harris, Bruna Giribaldi, Rosalind Watts et al. 1,372 citations
On the basis of the change in depression scores on the QIDS-SR-16 at week 6, this trial did not show a significant difference in antidepressant effects between psilocybin and escitalopram in a selected group of patients. Secondary outcomes generally favored psilocybin over escitalopram, but the analyses of these outcomes lacked correction for multiple comparisons. Larger and longer trials are...
JAMA Psychiatry November 4, 2020 Mary P Cosimano, Alan K. Davis, Frederick S. Barrett et al. 1,269 citations
Importance: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a substantial public health burden, but current treatments have limited effectiveness and adherence. Recent evidence suggests that 1 or 2 administrations of psilocybin with psychological support produces antidepressant effects in patients with cancer and in those with treatment-resistant depression. Objective: To investigate the effect of...
Pharmacological Reviews June 20, 2019 R.L. Carhart-Harris, K.J. Friston 1,163 citations
This paper formulates the action of psychedelics by integrating the free-energy principle and entropic brain hypothesis. We call this formulation relaxed beliefs under psychedelics (REBUS) and the anarchic brain, founded on the principle that-via their entropic effect on spontaneous cortical activity-psychedelics work to relax the precision of high-level priors or beliefs, thereby liberating...
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...
Journal of Psychopharmacology November 30, 2016 Stephen Ross, Anthony P. Bossis, Jeffrey Guss et al. 1,699 citations
Background: Clinically significant anxiety and depression are common in patients with cancer, and are associated with poor psychiatric and medical outcomes. Historical and recent research suggests a role for psilocybin to treat cancer-related anxiety and depression. Methods: In this double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial, 29 patients with cancer-related anxiety and depression were...
Journal of Psychopharmacology November 30, 2016 Annie Umbricht, Mary P Cosimano, Roland R. Griffiths et al. 2,174 citations
Cancer patients often develop chronic, clinically significant symptoms of depression and anxiety. Previous studies suggest that psilocybin may decrease depression and anxiety in cancer patients. The effects of psilocybin were studied in 51 cancer patients with life-threatening diagnoses and symptoms of depression and/or anxiety. This randomized, double-blind, cross-over trial investigated the...
Lancet Psychiatry May 17, 2016 Robin Carhart-Harris, Mark Bolstridge, James Rucker et al. 1,546 citations
BACKGROUND: Psilocybin is a serotonin receptor agonist that occurs naturally in some mushroom species. Recent studies have assessed the therapeutic potential of psilocybin for various conditions, including end-of-life anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and smoking and alcohol dependence, with promising preliminary results. Here, we aimed to investigate the feasibility, safety, and efficacy...
Journal of Psychopharmacology January 13, 2015 Michael P. Bogenschutz, Alyssa A. Forcehimes, Jessica Pommy et al. 1,164 citations
Several lines of evidence suggest that classic (5HT2A agonist) hallucinogens have clinically relevant effects in alcohol and drug addiction. Although recent studies have investigated the effects of psilocybin in various populations, there have been no studies on the efficacy of psilocybin for alcohol dependence. We conducted a single-group proof-of-concept study to quantify acute effects of...
Journal of Psychopharmacology September 11, 2014 Mary P Cosimano, Matthew W. Johnson, Albert Garcia‐romeu et al. 910 citations
Despite suggestive early findings on the therapeutic use of hallucinogens in the treatment of substance use disorders, rigorous follow-up has not been conducted. To determine the safety and feasibility of psilocybin as an adjunct to tobacco smoking cessation treatment we conducted an open-label pilot study administering moderate (20 mg/70 kg) and high (30 mg/70 kg) doses of psilocybin within a...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences January 23, 2012 Alessandro Colasanti, Robin J. Tyacke, Robert Leech et al. 1,191 citations
Psychedelic drugs have a long history of use in healing ceremonies, but despite renewed interest in their therapeutic potential, we continue to know very little about how they work in the brain. Here we used psilocybin, a classic psychedelic found in magic mushrooms, and a task-free functional MRI (fMRI) protocol designed to capture the transition from normal waking consciousness to the...
Psychopharmacology December 1, 2011 Roland R. Griffiths, Matthew W Johnson, William A Richards et al. 938 citations
This dose-effect study extends previous observations showing that psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having persisting positive effects on attitudes, mood, and behavior. This double-blind study evaluated psilocybin (0, 5, 10, 20, 30 mg/70 kg, p.o.) administered under supportive conditions. Participants were 18 adults (17 hallucinogen-naïve). Five 8-h sessions were conducted...
Archives of General Psychiatry September 7, 2010 Gurpreet S Chopra, Marycie Hagerty, Charles S. Grob et al. 1,220 citations
CONTEXT: Researchers conducted extensive investigations of hallucinogens in the 1950s and 1960s. By the early 1970s, however, political and cultural pressures forced the cessation of all projects. This investigation reexamines a potentially promising clinical application of hallucinogens in the treatment of anxiety reactive to advanced-stage cancer. OBJECTIVE: To explore the safety and efficacy...
Psychopharmacology July 7, 2006 Roland R. Griffiths, William A. Richards, U. Mccann et al. 1,684 citations
RationaleAlthough psilocybin has been used for centuries for religious purposes, little is known scientifically about its acute and persisting effects.ObjectivesThis double-blind study evaluated the acute and longer-term psychological effects of a high dose of psilocybin relative to a comparison compound administered under comfortable, supportive conditions.Materials and methodsThe participants...