Psychopharmacology
April 30, 2021
Michiel van Elk, George Fejer, Pascal Lempe et al.
53 citations
Abstract There is an increased societal trend to engage in microdosing, in which small sub-hallucinogenic amounts of psychedelics are consumed on a regular basis. Following subjective reports that microdosing enhances the experience of nature and art, in the present study we set out to study the effects of psilocybin microdosing on feelings of awe and art perception. In this preregistered...
Drugs Education Prevention and Policy
April 30, 2021
Johannes Thrul, Albert Garcia‐romeu
78 citations
Growing research on potential therapeutic applications of highly restricted Schedule I hallucinogens, including the ‘classic psychedelic’ psilocybin, and the entactogen 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphet...
Electronic Journal of General Medicine
April 27, 2021
Hisham Alshaikhli, Redhwan Ahmed Al-Naggar, Gwen Erlam
14 citations
Introduction: Psilocybin mushroom use is well documented in spiritual and religious ceremonies globally. This drug is now the most popular in Europe and the USA. \nObjective: The objective of this study is to explore the experiences and effects of psilocybin on patients with depression and anxiety. \nMethod: A qualitative study was conducted interviewing ten participants currently taking...
April 26, 2021
In patients with major depression, psilocybin was superior to a delayed-treatment control group with an effect size over 2 (relative effect sizes: 0.2 small, 0.5 medium, 1.0 large; antidepressants, on average, are 0.3). Who were these patients? Are they like yours?
Trials
April 23, 2021
Robin J Murphy, Rachael Sumner, William Evans et al.
23 citations
BACKGROUND: Regular ingestion of sub-hallucinogenic doses of psychedelics, referred to as "microdosing", has gained increasing popularity and attention in the press and in online forums, with reported benefits across multiple cognitive and emotional domains. Rigorously controlled studies to date, however, have been limited in scope and have failed to produce results comparable to those reported...
Journal of Humanistic Psychology
April 23, 2021
Andrew Penn, Janis Phelps, William E Rosa et al.
37 citations
Psychedelic therapies intentionally combine a caring/healing environment, psychotherapy, and psychedelic medicine as a powerful means of treating intractable conditions of depression and posttraumatic stress disorder. This article utilizes the nursing theory of human caring science, as articulated by Jean Watson, to describe the essential and fundamental human caring qualities in psychedelic...
Frontiers in Psychiatry
April 21, 2021
James Rucker, Allan H. Young
40 citations
Psilocybin has a long history of non-medical use and some seem to infer from this that it has therapeutic utility. Early phase clinical trials with psilocybin are encouraging, but suggest only that larger, multicentre trials are required. These are ongoing but will take many years to complete. Meanwhile, retreat centers offering paid experiences with psilocybin truffles have opened in some...
Brazilian Journal of Health Review
April 19, 2021
Giovanni Pereira Pio, Aline Moreira Vitorino, Naira Braga Aidar et al.
2 citations
Introdução: A depressão é um transtorno psiquiátrico caracterizado por episódios agudos ou recorrentes de humor deprimido e perda de interesse ou prazer, levando a prejuízos funcionais ao paciente. A psilocibina é uma droga psicodélica com propriedades alucinógenas e serotoninérgicas derivada de cogumelos do gênero Psilocybe. Estudos recentes demonstram potenciais efeitos terapêuticos dessa...
Journal of Psychedelic Studies
April 16, 2021
Anna Lutkajtis
13 citations
Abstract This article reports on the experiences of four healthy individuals who attended a legal psilocybin truffle retreat in the Netherlands. The study employed a qualitative phenomenological approach, using semi-structured interviews to gain an understanding of participants' psilocybin experiences and their after-effects. The experiential themes that emerged from these case studies closely...
Journal of Psychedelic Studies
April 16, 2021
Henrik Børsting Jacobsen, Audun Stubhaug, Bjørn Holmøy et al.
10 citations
Abstract Background Psilocybin is emerging as a promising therapeutic agent for a wide range of psychiatric conditions, and clinical trials on psilocybin-assisted treatment are forthcoming in Scandinavian countries. However, little is known about attitudes towards this psychedelic compound among the general public in Nordic countries. This might represent a confound, and reduce the validity of...
Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature
April 15, 2021
Dave Nichols
BACKGROUND: Psilocybin may have antidepressant properties, but direct comparisons between psilocybin and established treatments for depression are lacking.METHODS: In a phase 2, double-blind, randomized, controlled trial involving patients with long-standing, moderate-to-severe major depressive disorder, we compared psilocybin with escitalopram, a selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitor, over a...
New England Journal of Medicine
April 14, 2021
Jeffrey A. Lieberman
18 citations
In The Doors of Perception, Aldous Huxley described his trial of mescaline as "the most extraordinary and significant experience available to human beings this side of the Beatific Vision." His exegesis was preceded by the synthesis of the hallucinogen lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) by Sandoz chemist Albert Hoffman in 1938 and was followed by Hoffman's extraction of psilocybin from Psilocybe...
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...
Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology
April 13, 2021
Juliana Mendes Rocha, Giordano Novak Rossi, Flávia de Lima Osório et al.
46 citations
Abstract Background The recognition of emotions in facial expressions (REFE) is a core aspect of social cognition. Previous studies with the serotonergic hallucinogens lysergic acid diethylamide and psilocybin showed that these drugs reduced the recognition of negative (fear) faces in healthy volunteers. This trial assessed the acute and prolonged effects of a single dose of ayahuasca on the...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
April 13, 2021
Natalie Hesselgrave, Timothy A. Troppoli, Andreas B. Wulff et al.
380 citations
Significance Psychedelic compounds, such as psilocybin, have beneficial actions in several psychiatric diseases. They also produce strong alterations of consciousness, which may be a barrier to their widespread use. We found that psilocybin has fast-acting antidepressant-like properties in mice. Using multiple assays of hedonic behavior and an antagonist of prohallucinatory 5-HT2A receptors, we...
Translational Psychiatry
April 8, 2021
Natasha L. Mason, Kim P. C. Kuypers, Johannes T. Reckweg et al.
132 citations
Abstract Creativity is an essential cognitive ability linked to all areas of our everyday functioning. Thus, finding a way to enhance it is of broad interest. A large number of anecdotal reports suggest that the consumption of psychedelic drugs can enhance creative thinking; however, scientific evidence is lacking. Following a double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group design, we...
medRxiv
April 7, 2021
David E. Gard, Mollie Pleet, Ellen Bradley et al.
preprint
Abstract Objective: Given the treatment limitations of depression in bipolar disorder, we evaluated the known risks of using psilocybin (and similar substances) in this population, including a systematic assessment of published case histories, to assess the risk of psilocybin as a treatment of depression in bipolar disorder. Data Sources: A comprehensive search of case studies published through...
International Review of Psychiatry
April 3, 2021
Catherine Bird, Nadav L. Modlin, James J. H. Rucker
78 citations
This review examines the role of trauma in psychiatric morbidity and analogous psychoneurobiological changes. Trauma is a necessary criterion for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), however, trauma history is highly correlated with a variety of psychiatric conditions. Some evidence suggests that Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is the most common psychiatric condition that arises following...
Psychiatric News
April 1, 2021
Charles S. Grob
After decades of quiescence, psychedelics are back and making quite a ruckus. In the 1950s and 1960s, a flurry of cutting-edge psychedelic research engendered real enthusiasm among clinicians, suggesting potential treatment efficacy for a range of serious refractory disorders. But a cultural and political backlash led to the imposition of draconian laws, effectively sidelining psychedelic...
European Psychiatry
April 1, 2021
Jackelyne Gabrielle Jesus de Miranda, Mario Barbosa, I. Figueiredo et al.
Introduction Classic psychedelics have been administered in sacramental contexts since ancient times. They were of prominent interest within psychiatry and neuroscience in the 1950s to 1960s, but the association between classic psychedelics and the emerging counterculture put an end to their research. Modern research with classic psychedelics has reinitiated interest in the treatment of both...