October 14, 2026
Dayne Rayford, Shivani Dayal, Kosu Boudreau et al.
preprint
Background and aimsPsilocybin can induce profound alterations in perception, emotion and self-referential processing. These changes are often accompanied by increased feelings of interpersonal connection, found via both psychometric survey data and anecdotally collected qualitative data. Despite recent increases in psychedelic research and treatment, most clinical trials have been performed in...
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
October 14, 2026
Greg Cooper, Devon Stoliker, Sebastian Vincent Astl Delgado et al.
preprint
Language helps organise experience into an idiosyncratic, temporally extended sense of self. We therefore used fMRI to investigate whether greater similarity between participants in the activity of language-associated brain regions accompanied psilocybin-induced loss of selfhood. Participants heard music and viewed moving clouds at baseline and after 19 mg psilocybin. At each brain location and...
Psychopharmacology
October 13, 2026
Marisa J. Savini, Kylie M. King, Lillianna P. Puppel et al.
Abstract: Rationale: Psychedelics are considered to be promising therapeutic agents that could effectively treat several psychological disorders. However, these compounds can exert acute adverse effects that limit their practicality. Objectives: Across three experiments, the present study examined the acute and delayed effects of psilocybin (PSIL) and its putatively non-hallucinogenic analog,...
Behavioural Pharmacology
October 13, 2026
Bart A. Ellenbroek, Beth Naylor, Jiun Youn
Psilocybin has emerged as a promising therapeutic agent, with clinical benefits attributed to enhanced neuroplasticity rather than acute pharmacological effects. However, the fundamental mechanisms underlying these effects remain poorly understood. Using planarians as a model system, we investigated whether psilocybin enhances associative learning using a conditioned place preference paradigm....
ACS Omega
October 9, 2026
Evangelos Dadiotis, Romanos Konstantinos Antonopoulos, Antigoni Cheilari et al.
Abstract The genus Psilocybe (Basidiomycota) comprises over 300 mushroom-forming species, many of which produce the secondary metabolite psilocybin, a prodrug of its dephosphorylated active metabolite psilocin. Psilocybin has recently attracted significant interest, with numerous active, recruiting, and completed clinical trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov, primarily investigating its...
Journal of Psychopharmacology
October 8, 2026
Gianluca A. Florineth, Anna L. Boeker, Tobias Bracht et al.
Background: Psilocybin-assisted therapy (PAT) has emerged as a promising intervention for alcohol use disorder (AUD), yet contemporary clinical evidence has not been systematically synthesized to validate its clinical utility and safety profile. Methods: Contemporary clinical trials of PAT for AUD were identified systematically from PubMed, PsycINFO, and Scopus by two independent reviewers....
Frontiers in Psychiatry
October 8, 2026
Anthony L. Back, Cynthia J. Price, Bonnie A. Mcgregor et al.
Cancer patients arrive for psilocybin therapy with bodies altered by illness and treatment — bodies that they have learned to brace against, dissociate from, or scan for threat. Research on psilocybin-assisted therapy for cancer-related depression and anxiety consistently identifies the quality of the acute subjective experience — reflected in constructs such as acceptance, surrender,...
OSF Preprints
October 7, 2026
Suzanne Grant, Maria González, Hannah Adler
preprint
The objective of this scoping review is to map the extent, range, and types of evidence related to psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy in people with cancer, including the types of psychotherapy used, models of delivering therapy, and associated outcomes, as reported in qualitative and quantitative studies.
Psychological Medicine
October 6, 2026
Avery Chan Eun, Kevin H. Yang, Joseph J Palamar
Psilocybin use has increased in the US alongside promising therapeutic potential for depression, raising concerns that individuals may forgo conventional mental health treatment for unsupervised psilocybin use. However, no nationally representative studies have examined whether psilocybin use is associated with differential treatment utilization or perceived unmet need for mental health care...
Research Square
October 5, 2026
Anette Kjellgren, Johan Lundberg, Hampus Yngwe et al.
preprint
Abstract Psilocybin treatment has emerged as a promising intervention for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). However, the contribution of psychotherapeutic support to treatment outcomes remains unclear. This study explored therapists' descriptions of their work during a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled psilocybin treatment phase II trial for MDD. Nine therapists participated in...