Chronic pain is a debilitating disease with current treatments lacking efficacy and safety, therefore discovery of new treatments is crucial. Initial studies suggest that psychedelics may be feasible for targeting pain, however clinical and preclinical controlled studies are necessary to further investigate that possibility. In this study we assessed the effects of two classical psychedelics...
With very few treatments available, post-comatose disorders of consciousness (DoC) pose one of the hardest challenges in modern neurology. Following promising clinical trial results in psychiatry, and a deepening understanding of their brain mechanisms, psychedelics have been suggested as a novel therapeutic drug for DoC patients, given that they increase the entropy or complexity of...
Psilocybin is a hallucinogen with complex neurobiological and behavioral effects. This is the first study to use MRI to follow functional changes in brain activity in response to different doses of psilocybin in fully awake, drug naive rats. We hypothesized that psilocybin would show a dose-dependent increase in activity in the prefrontal cortex and thalamus, while decreasing hippocampal...
We present divergent experiences of 2 patients who participated in a clinical trial of psilocybin-assisted cognitive behavioral therapy for major depressive disorder. Both patients participated in an open trial involving 2 drug administration sessions separated by one month (10 and 25 mg, respectively) along with 12 sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy. The first of the 2 patients had...
Neurobiology of StressMay 1, 2025Alanna Kit, Kate Conway, Savannah Makarowski et al.5 citations
There is growing interest in exploring the therapeutic potential and mechanisms of action of psilocybin on stress-related neuropsychiatric disorders, including depression, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), addiction, and disordered eating. Despite promising progressions in preclinical and clinical research, the...
Most Delphi studies primarily rely on questionnaires and subsequent quantitative ratings across multiple rounds to learn about a complex issue. This article demonstrates the integration of qualitative inquiry into a Delphi study to enhance and complement quantitative findings. We conducted a mixed methods Delphi study to establish a comprehensive list of quality and safety indicators for best...
Introduction: High-dose psilocybin has shown potential in treating various psychiatric disorders, but its perceptual and cognitive effects, along with the risk of adverse events, highlight the need for alternative treatment approaches. One such approach is the use of low-dose psilocybin, which does not significantly alter cognition or perception. While low-dose psilocybin has garnered growing...
Abstract PcncAAAD is a calcium-activatable noncanonical aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase (AAAD) featuring a unique appendage C-terminal domain (CTD) and two metal-binding sites. In this study, we establish an in silico RMSD-based evaluation model through molecular dynamics simulations, validated by in vitro enzyme assays, to decipher the enzyme’s calcium activation mechanism. Between the two...
History of PsychiatryApril 28, 2025Casimir Klim, Bryan VanDreese, Terence Meyerhoefer et al.
This paper provides an overview of psychedelic research at the Mayo Clinic in the 1950s and 1960s, focusing on methods, objectives, findings, and ethical practices. We highlight instances where researchers prioritized scientific progress over the autonomy, safety, and equitable treatment of research subjects, and discuss this history in the context of ongoing challenges with informed consent...
Motives are a highly influential force in substance use and vary depending on the substance or dose being used. Little research has compared motives across different doses of psilocybin. Psilocybin is often ingested in microdoses (0.1–0.4 g) or macrodoses (1 g+), each producing unique perceptual and mood effects. The current study examined whether motives for microdose and macrodose psilocybin...
Abstract Psilocybin therapy (PT) is emerging as an effective intervention for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), offering comparable efficacy to conventional treatments like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Music, an emotionally evocative stimulus, provides a valuable tool to explore changes in hedonic and predictive processing mechanisms via expectancy violations, or ‘surprises’....
Neurobiological effects and psychological models propose that psychedelics may promote psychological flexibility, suggesting a transdiagnostic effect by disrupting maladaptive patterns. The objective of this study was therefore to investigate the determinants of psychological flexibility change following a psychedelic use. This retrospective online survey included French individuals who had...
Objective To evaluate psilocybin's efficacy in reducing depressive and anxiety symptoms in cancer patients based on randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Methods This systematic review and network meta-analysis (NMA) followed PRISMA and Cochrane Handbook guidelines. PubMed, Embase and Cochrane Library data up to July 2024 were analyzed. Two RCTs met the inclusion criteria. Changes in Beck...
Introduction Considering the increasing evidence supporting psilocybin’s efficacy in therapeutic settings, it is essential to deepen our understanding of its subjective meanings and effects to enhance its integration into psychotherapy. Current knowledge is primarily based on psychometric assessments or unstructured personal reports, leaving a gap in the qualitative analysis of subjective...
However, psilocybin is but one of scores of compounds belonging to two main chemical classesphenethylamines and tryptamines -along with ergolines and an expanding array of other (mostly heterocyclic) alkaloids -that act as agonists of the serotonin 5-HT2A, 5-HT2C and 5-HT1A receptors responsible for the various phenomenological and putative therapeutic effects of classic psychedelics (8). In...
Abstract Rationale Psilocybin is a potentially paradigm-shifting depression intervention. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of psilocybin-for-depression randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Objectives Systematically assess harm reporting, risk of bias, action mechanism specification, and incremental therapeutic effect sizes in the psilocybin-for-depression RCT literature....
Background Functional neurological disorder (FND) is a common cause of neurological symptoms including seizures and movement disorders. It can be debilitating, is associated with high health and social care costs, and can have a poor prognosis. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has suggested FND is a multi-network disorder. Converging evidence suggests that other mechanisms including...
Objective: Prior research has found an association between psychedelic use and reduced stigma attached to mental illness. However, whether psychedelics alleviate stigma-related distress remains unclear. Since stigma impacts different groups uniquely, any moderating effect of psychedelics on stigma-related distress is likely to vary across subpopulations. This study addresses two main questions:...
Psychological and existential distress is prevalent among patients with life-threatening cancer, significantly impacting their quality of life. Psilocybin-assisted therapy has shown promise in alleviating these symptoms. This systematic review aims to synthesize the evidence on the efficacy and safety of psilocybin in reducing cancer-related distress. We searched MEDLINE, APA PsycINFO, Cochrane...
Psilocybin-producing fungi have garnered attention due to accumulating evidence regarding the therapeutic potential of their principal component psilocybin. This diverse group of fungi harbors a wealth of less-studied metabolites, however, thus far most research has addressed them as a cohesive group. By optimizing an approach for extraction and analysis, we examined the metabolomes of 42...