Psychedelic compounds, particularly psilocybin, have demonstrated remarkable therapeutic potential for mental health disorders through mechanisms involving structural neural plasticity. This comprehensive review examines recent breakthrough research revealing how psilocybin triggers activity-dependent rewiring of large-scale cortical networks. Using monosynaptic rabies viral tracing,...
The “entourage effect,” well-documented in cannabis research, remains a hypothesis requiring validation in psilocybin mushrooms. Whether the complex interplay among multiple bioactive compounds (including psilocybin, psilocin, baeocystin, norbaeocystin, aeruginascin, and various alkaloids) produces synergistic effects distinct from those of isolated psilocybin remains a critical empirical...
Psilocin, a naturally occurring hallucinogenic component of magic mushrooms, exerts notable psychoactive effects in both humans and rodents. However, the underlying mechanisms remain not fully understood. Blood-oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a valuable tool in many preclinical and clinical trials for investigating changes of brain activity and...
Psilocybin and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) produce rapid, enduring therapeutic effects in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); however, the underlying cellular mechanisms remain incompletely understood. This study investigated whether adult myelin plasticity contributes to the therapeutic actions of psilocybin and MDMA in a rat model of contextual fear conditioning. Adult male...
Introduction: Cognitive flexibility is essential for behavioral adaptation in response to environmental changes and is impaired in various neuropsychiatric disorders. The serotonergic psychedelic psilocybin has shown potential in enhancing cognitive flexibility, although with mixed results. In this study, we investigated the effects of psilocybin on cognitive flexibility in rats using a...
Psychedelics, particularly psilocybin, have shown therapeutic potential across several psychiatric conditions, including depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and anorexia nervosa (AN). These disorders often share social deficits that may be effectively alleviated by psychedelics considering their use has been linked with emotional empathy and enhanced social cognition. However,...
As psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy gains momentum, clinical investigation of next-generation psychedelics may lead to novel compounds tailored for specific populations. 2,5-dimethoxy-4-bromophenethylamine (2C-B) is a psychedelic phenethylamine reported to produce less dysphoria and subjective impairment than the psychedelic tryptamine psilocybin. Despite its popularity among recreational...
BACKGROUND. Annual tobacco-related deaths are estimated at 480,000 in the US and 8 million worldwide, dwarfing mortality for all other drugs of abuse. Most smoking cessation interventions result in modest long-term success rates. A pilot study in 15 treatment-resistant smokers found psilocybin with cognitive behavioral therapy resulted in 80% point-prevalence abstinence rates at 6 months....
Although commonly used in psychedelic-assisted therapy, the role of therapeutic touch remains loosely defined and ethically sensitive. Gaining insight into how participants experience and interpret touch during psychedelic sessions is essential for informing safe and effective clinical practice. Participants were sampled from a large randomized clinical trial of psilocybin-assisted therapy that...