Persons with schizophrenia are excluded from psychedelic-assisted therapy due to concerns about the risk of triggering or worsening psychosis. However, there is limited meta-analytic data on the risk of psychedelic-induced psychosis in individuals with pre-existing psychotic disorders. We conducted a systematic review, meta-analysis, and overview of reviews to assess the incidence of...
Cancer MedicineMarch 1, 2025Erika Belitzky, Lis Victoria Ravani Carvalho, Melissa Taylor et al.5 citations
ABSTRACT Purpose To evaluate the current level of evidence for the use of psychedelics for the management of cancer pain and associated psychological distress. Content Pain is a common symptom of cancer and treatment. However, there are high rates of undertreatment of cancer pain due to the complex underlying biology of the condition, and potentially due to a decrease in opioid prescribing in...
Psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) is an emerging treatment approach that often combines pharmacotherapeutic dosing sessions with more traditional psychotherapy. Despite limited formal regulatory approval, treatment seekers can currently access PAT through a variety of avenues, including ketamine treatment centers and “supported adult use” psilocybin centers in the U.S., drug tourism,...
Hallucinogenic substances such as psilocybin, LSD or ecstasy are now the subject of several hundred clinical trials around the world to test their ability to restore our mental health. Psilocybin (active ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms), LSD (derived from compounds from ergot), dimethyltryptamine (or DMT, part of the composition of ayahuasca), mescaline (derived from peyote), but also...
Psychedelics are well known for their ability to produce profoundly altered states of consciousness. But, more importantly, the effects of psychedelics can influence neurobehavioral changes that last well after these acute subjective effects end. This phenomenon is currently being leveraged in the development of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapies for the treatment of multiple neuropsychiatric...
PolymatheiaFebruary 16, 2025Ernesto Grillo Rabello, Giuliana de Paula Oliveira, Lucas Conforti Protti et al.1 citation
The encounter of clinical psychology with psychedelic compounds, plants, and mushrooms opens up new possibilities for psychotherapy practices. In the Schizoanalysis of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, conceptual and experimental tools are found that not only assist in thinking about the psychedelic experience but also enrich clinical practice. The concept of the Body without Organs, which...
"There has been a renewed and growing interest in psychedelic drugs in the 21st century. Drawing on social-phenomenology, cognitive sociology, and ‘set and setting’ theory, I delineate how individuals use socially defined frameworks of understanding to attribute meaning to psychedelic experiences. These frameworks refer to the ‘ready-made’ schemes that structure subjective experience of...
Why do people seek a connection to something beyond the social dimensions of the world? Ecstatic experiences are often labelled religious, spiritual, mystical or even sacred. However, ecstasy is not just extraordinary; for many people throughout the world it is an ordinary part of daily life. The Handbook highlights the diverse individuals who have experienced ecstasy in the past and present...
This paper is about the search for the "truth serum" (i.e., a drug that prevents an individual from lying), which the US intelligence agencies, especially the Central Intelligence Agency (the CIA) and its forerunners, carried out from 1941 (when the Office of the Coordinator of Information [COI] was founded) until 1973 (when the CIA director Richard M. Helms ordered all the MKULTRA-related...
Background: The Altered States of Consciousness Scale (3/5D-ASC or 11-ASC) is widely used to assess non-ordinary states of consciousness, particularly for psychedelic research. However, its original dimensional model (3D-ASC within 5D-ASC) and later 11-subscale structure (11-ASC) have a hierarchically incompatible higher/lower-order structure. Although the 11-ASC offers superior model fit, the...