Importance: Psychedelic drugs possess acute psychoactive effects that can compromise blinding integrity in randomized clinical trials (RCTs). Functional unblinding, when participants or raters correctly identify treatment allocation based on subjective effects, may bias outcomes through expectancy effects, challenging the validity of efficacy estimates and regulatory acceptance. Objective: To...
This paper examines how lifestyle sport practitioners experience forms of transcendence, altered perception, and connection with nature, and considers whether these experiences can be meaningfully interpreted through concepts associated with shamanic practice. Drawing on Roger Caillois’ taxonomy, it explores how elements of ritual, ecstasy, and symbolic imagination appear within contemporary...
Este artículo presenta una revisión narrativa sobre las variables extrafarmacológicas que influyen en la terapia asistida con psicodélicos (TAPs). A partir del análisis de literatura reciente, se destaca la importancia de la persona (set) y el ambiente (setting) en la modulación de los efectos subjetivos y terapéuticos de sustancias como la psilocibina o el MDMA. El objetivo principal fue...
Altered states of consciousness (ASC) represent a universal human capacity for accessing and transforming the subconscious mind, employed across cultures and millennia through diverse contemplative, somatic, pharmacological, ritual, and technological modalities. This comprehensive review synthesizes evidence from over 25 distinct disciplines spanning five clusters: (A) contemplative and...
A large body of work has investigated the effect of various pharmacological compounds on aversive memory formation, retrieval, and modification in humans. A broad overview across signalling pathways and memory models is currently lacking. Here, we systematically review publications that tested the impact of acute pharmacological interventions on aversive memory in healthy humans, following...
Recreational psychedelic use is increasing, yet data on adverse events remains limited. This study characterized emergency department (ED) visits associated with recreational psychedelic use at UC San Diego Medical Center. We conducted a retrospective chart review of ED encounters (2010–2023). Cases were identified using ICD-10 hallucinogen-related codes and confirmed through manual review....
The use of psychedelics in the treatment of psychopathologies has been expanding, highlighting Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy (PAP) as a promising resource in mental health care. This systematic review investigates. This systematic review investigates whether and how cognitive-behavioral therapies are integrated with psychedelic substances—both classical and atypical—for the treatment of...
Background/Objectives: Chemsex is defined as the intentional use of psychoactive substances to enhance or prolong sexual activity, predominantly observed among men who have sex with men. It has emerged as a notable behavioral and public health concern due to its association with high-risk sexual practices, psychiatric morbidity, and somatic complications. Despite increasing recognition, global...
Many terms have been invented to describe different types of hallucinogenic drugs, sometimes based on an analogy with the symptoms of schizophrenia, such as “psychotomimetic” and “phrenotropic.” “Psychedelics” refers to drugs that act as agonists at serotonin 5-HT2A receptors in the brain; they include psilocybin, 5-methoxydimethyltryptamine, and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (tryptamine derivatives),...
INTRODUCTION: After decades of regulatory marginalization, psychedelic compounds have reemerged as promising therapeutic tools in psychiatry, driven by unmet clinical needs in treatment-resistant mental disorders and by growing evidence of rapid and sustained effects on mood, cognition, and behavior. AREAS COVERED: This narrative review critically examined the current clinical and regulatory...