Over the past few years, research and public interest in psychedelic agents – such as psilocybin and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) – for mental health purposes has skyrocketed. The therapeutic approach to the use of these agents involves three components: preparation, drug administration, and integration. This bundled treatment has been termed psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT). The...
Common mental health pathologies such as depression, anxiety, addiction, and PTSD have recently seen treatment inroads. These issues share a phenomenological core—a dissociative quality that involves the disintegration of self and other. Interestingly, some of the most effective treatments of these pathologies are themselvesacutely dissociative. For example, psychedelic therapy has been...
Psychedelic compounds have been utilized by humans for centuries for medicinal, religious, and tribal purposes. Clinical trial data starting from the early 2000s and continuing today indicates that psychedelics are a clinically efficacious treatment for a variety of neurological and psychiatric disorders. However, all clinical trials examining these substances have excluded any individual with...
January 11, 2024Link Swanson, Sophia Jungers, Ranji Varghese et al.1 citation
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In visual perception, an effect known as surround suppression occurs wherein the apparent contrast of a center stimulus is reduced when it is presented within a higher-contrast surrounding stimulus. Many key aspects of visual perception involve surround suppression, yet the neuromodulatory processes involved remain unclear. Psilocybin is a serotonergic psychedelic compound known for its robust...
Introduction There is a resurgence of interest in the therapeutic potential of psychedelic substances such as 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). Primary findings from our randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multi-site Phase 3 clinical trial of participants with severe PTSD (NCT03537014) showed that MDMA-assisted therapy induced significant attenuation in the...
Abstract: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that can occur following exposure to a traumatic experience. An estimated 12 million U.S. adults are presently affected by this disorder. Current treatments include psychological therapies (e.g., exposure-based interventions) and pharmacological treatments (e.g., selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs))....
Our findings suggest that temporary amygdala signal attenuation is associated with mechanistic changes to resting-state network connectivity. These changes are significant for altered cognition and perception and suggest targets for research investigating the efficacy of psychedelic therapy for internalizing psychiatric disorders. More broadly, our study suggests the value of quantifying the...
Background Psychedelic-assisted therapies hold early promise for treating multiple psychiatric conditions. However, absent standards for the care, teams providing psychedelic-assisted therapy pose a major roadblock to safe administration. Psychedelics often produce spiritually and existentially meaningful experiences, and spiritual health practitioners have been involved in administering...
This study reports on 10 frontline healthcare workers, employed during the COVID-19 pandemic and experiencing symptoms of burnout and PTSD, treated with group ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP) in a private outpatient clinic setting. Participants attended 6 sessions once weekly. These included 1 preparation session, 3 ketamine sessions (2 sublingual, 1 intramuscular), 2 integration sessions....
OBJECTIVES Understanding variations in knowledge and attitudes of psychiatrists to psilocybin therapy is important for the collective discourse about the potential impact on clinical practice and public health in Ireland. METHODS A 28-item questionnaire was designed based on previous studies and distributed to psychiatrists in Ireland via online mailing lists and at in-person academic events....