Empathy plays a crucial role in interpersonal relationships and mental health. It is decreased in a variety of psychiatric disorders including major depression. Psilocybin, a promising candidate for treating depression, has been shown to acutely increase emotional empathy in healthy volunteers. However, no study has investigated this effect and its relevance for symptom improvement in a...
Psilocybin shows promise for treating neuropsychiatric disorders. However, insight into its acute effects on cognition is lacking. Given the significant role of executive functions in daily life and treatment efficacy, it is crucial to evaluate how psilocybin influences these cognitive domains. This meta-analysis aims to quantify the acute effects of psilocybin on executive functions and...
Opioid-related overdose deaths have reached record high levels, and novel treatments for opioid use disorder (OUD) are needed. The three United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved medications for OUD function primarily at the mu-opioid receptor. While these remain the gold-standard treatment for OUD, they have shortcomings and treatment options separate from the opioid receptor...
Psilocybin is a serotonergic psychedelic with therapeutic potential for treating mental illnesses1-4. At the cellular level, psychedelics induce structural neural plasticity5,6, exemplified by the drug-evoked growth and remodelling of dendritic spines in cortical pyramidal cells7-9. A key question is how these cellular modifications map onto cell-type-specific circuits to produce the...
Although long known for their psychoactive effects, psychedelic drugs have only recently been investigated for medicinal use. Psilocybin has attracted the greatest interest with studies suggesting that it may be a useful agent in psychiatry and in palliative care. Clinical trials that included psilocybin were searched in PubMed, Embase, and ClinicalTrials.gov, demonstrating that adult...
Psilocybin, a serotonergic psychedelic, may have therapeutic benefits for Substance Use Disorders (SUDs), but its overall efficacy and safety remain uncertain. This systematic review assessed the safety and efficacy of psilocybin for SUDs through a systematic database search conducted via OVID on May 22, 2024, and summarized 26 ongoing clinical trials registered on clinicaltrials.gov. Among 16...
The psychedelic drug psilocybin demonstrates rapid and long-lasting efficacy across neuropsychiatric disorders that are characterized by behavioral inflexibility. However, its impact on the neural activity underlying sustained changes in behavioral flexibility has not been characterized. To test whether psilocybin enhances behavioral flexibility by altering activity in cortical neural...
Abstract Ketamine has transformed depression treatment by providing therapeutic relief within a single day, unlike monoaminergic antidepressants that require weeks to take effect. Here, we conducted whole-brain screening in mice to compare drug-evoked c-fos expression—acting as a marker of brain activity leading to protein synthesis-dependent forms of plasticity—following treatment with...
medRxivMay 29, 2025Paul B. Fitzgerald, Sara Webb, Nigel Christopher Denning et al.2 citations
preprint
Abstract Objective Despite many decades of experimental studies and clinical trials involving a variety of psychedelic agents, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of the effects of these substances on psychological experiences. As such, we designed and conducted a study to comprehensively characterise the effects of both psilocybin and 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) on a range...
This study examined patient perspectives on psilocybin therapy, specifically their acceptance and views on the therapeutic benefits of both hallucinogenic and non-hallucinogenic forms. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among psychiatric patients aged 18-65 at a community mental health center, assessing their attitudes, knowledge, and acceptance of psilocybin therapy. In total, 62.4% of the...
Recent evidence suggests that psychedelics can induce rapid and long-lasting antidepressant effects. The generally acknowledged explanation for these traits is the phenomenon of neuroplasticity, although the exact underlying molecular mechanisms remain unclear. This study investigates the effects of psilocin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) on synaptogenesis...
Brain SciencesMay 26, 2025Charles Palmer, Ally T Ferber, Brian D Greenwald4 citations
Background: This narrative review explores psilocybin’s potential use as a therapeutic agent in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Methods: We engaged in a search of PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Cochrane’s databases for information on the effects of psilocybin. We also reviewed articles where psilocybin was used in patients with TBI. Articles from 2000–2025 were included. Results: A...
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a leading cause of disability that affects over 300 million people globally. Despite multiple antidepressant trials, approximately one-third of MDD patients remain symptomatic, progressing to treatment-resistant depression (TRD). This persistence possibly is due to the multifaceted etiology of TRD, encompassing biological, psychological, and environmental...
PT may hold promise not only in the treatment of eating disorders but also trauma-related disorders, including PTSD and dissociative amnesia. Potential mechanisms of psilocybin's facilitation of remembering and processing traumatic material is reviewed.
Abstract Background The psychedelic psilocybin has been posited as efficacious for the treatment of depression. However, the potential link between the intensity of acute psychedelic effects and long-term therapeutic outcomes remains undiscovered. Moreover, the impact of classical antidepressant drugs that modulate serotonergic activity on psilocybin’s effects is a clinically relevant concern....
Current antidepressants have shown certain limitations in the treatment of unipolar depression. Their long onset of action, interactions, and side effects are obstacles to achieving lasting remission of this prevalent, often chronic or recurrent, pathology. Faced with this clinical necessity, research efforts have intensified in recent years around psychedelic drugs, with a particular focus on...
Tecnología en MarchaMay 20, 2025Frank Barrientos-Alfaro, Valeria Herrera-Rojas, Michelle Montero-Quesada et al.
Los hongos juegan un papel clave en el mantenimiento de la vida en la tierra, ya que desempeñan múltiples funciones a nivel ecológico. Adicionalmente, son productores de diversos metabolitos secundarios, entre estos, los alcaloides, los cuales en ciertos casos pueden proveer propiedades alucinógenas. Psilocybe cubensis es una especie común de hongos alucinógenos conocida como “hongos mágicos”....
Psilocybin, a serotonergic psychedelic, has emerged as a promising treatment for a range of mental health conditions, including anorexia nervosa. Recent insights from animal models and human imaging studies suggest psilocybin enhances cognitive flexibility and modifies reward processing - two core processes disrupted in anorexia nervosa. Both cognitive flexibility and reward processing are...
Psilocybin, a psychedelic compound in certain mushrooms, has been used for centuries in spiritual ceremonies and neuropsychiatric therapy.Despite its stigmatization as a Schedule I substance in 1970, research into psilocybin has resurged since the early 2000s, particularly in psychiatry and palliative care.This review examines psilocybins potential to improve the quality of life in palliative...
The head twitch response (HTR) is a spontaneously occurring behavior in mice that is increased in frequency by serotonergic psychedelics. The mouse HTR is often used as a proxy for psychedelic-like drug effects, but limited information is available about sex differences in HTRs evoked by various classes of psychedelics (i.e., phenethylamines, lysergamides, tryptamines). To examine potential sex...