The entropic brain today.

Introduced in 2014 and revised in 2018, the entropic brain hypothesis has accrued a wealth of supportive evidence. The hypothesis states that-along a dimension of the size of phenomenal consciousness-expansive states reliably exhibit increased brain entropy whereas the inverse applies for states of no or reduced consciousness. Examples of expansive states in...

Aquahenosis: A non-pharmacological altered state of consciousness induced by Floatation-REST in individuals with anxiety and depression

Floatation-REST (Reduced Environmental Stimulation Therapy) systematically alters sensory and bodily input by combining neutral buoyancy, thermal and proprioceptive neutrality, attenuation of exteroceptive stimulation, and enhancement of cardiorespiratory signaling to the brain. Here we examined whether this non-pharmacological sensory perturbation induces a...

The effects of psychedelics on attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder - a systematic review.

ObjectivesAttention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent neuropsychiatric disorder (Drechsler et al., 2020). Recently, psychedelics have become of interest regarding developing treatment options for ADHD. The aim of this systematic review is to find all studies from the APA PsychInfo and MEDLINE databases, where psychedelics have been use...

Psilocybin as a Treatment for Chronic Pain in Smokers

The purpose of this study is to understand whether psilocybin therapy is safe and well tolerated in improving chronic pain and increasing motivation to quit smoking for people who have chronic pain and smoke cigarettes. Psilocybin is a psychedelic drug and the active ingredient in "magic mushrooms." Psilocybin is currently being studied in clinical trials bu...

Psilocybin-assisted Physiotherapy for Refractory Motor Functional Neurological Disorder: A Randomized Dose-comparison Pilot Study (P7-17.001)

Alcohol consumption and substance use among French medical students: A nationwide cross-sectional study: Consommation d'alcool et de substances chez les étudiants en médecine de France: une étude transversale nationale.

ObjectivesMedical students are known to face significant psychological distress, making them vulnerable to substance use. There are few data on alcohol and drug consumption among medical students. The aim was to assess the prevalence of substance use, especially alcohol, in French medical students.MethodsThis cross-sectional nationwide study was conducted on...

PRISMatic: A Phase 1b Randomized, Double-Armed, Parallel-Group, Placebo-Controlled Trial of Psilocybin Efficacy With or Without Pimavanserin Pretreatment

Twenty healthy adults (≥21 years old) will be enrolled to evaluate the efficacy of a single oral dose of psilocybin (25 mg) administered with or without pretreatment using oral pimavanserin (34 mg) or placebo. Outcome assessments will occur at 1 week and 1 month following psilocybin administration. The purpose of this study is to clarify the receptor-level m...

A Double Blind, Randomized Trial Investigating the Safety, Feasibility, and Mechanisms of Psychedelics in Healthy Older Adults With Low Well-being as Moderated by Biomarkers for Preclinical Alzheimer's Disease

This study is being conducted to understand changes in brain activity following administration of two different drugs (Psilocybin and Dextromethorphan) in older adults with low well-being. The main questions it aims to answer are, does psilocybin: 1. Acutely increase complexity of EEG activity in older adults with low well-being, as modulated by the presence...

Psychedelics disrupt hierarchical cortical propagations in the default mode network of humans and mice.

Psychedelic drugs are poised to become mainstream treatments, yet we lack a circuit-level account of how they reshape brain activity. Emerging evidence suggests that multiple psychedelic compounds modulate activity in the brain's default mode network (DMN), often interpreted as either increased or decreased bottom-up hierarchical processing. Most imaging stu...

Multivariate Neural and Physiological Correlates of Psychedelic Sub-states: a Within-subjects, Healthy Volunteer Study With Experience-sampling

The main purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of the distinct mental states and physical reactions that can arise during a psychedelic experience. By repeatedly assessing the same participants in an MRI while under the effects of psilocybin, the investigators want to identify reliable brain and body reactions arising during these psychedel...

A Multi-site Randomized Controlled Trial of Psilocybin for Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD) in Veterans

The purpose of this multi-site randomized controlled trial is to evaluate the efficacy and risks of psilocybin for the treatment of depression in U.S. military Veterans with and without (±) concurrent posttraumatic stress disorder. Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is a serious mental health problem in Veterans, frequently comorbid with post-traumatic str...

Correction to: Preliminary Evidence of Sleep Improvements Following Psilocybin Administration, and their Involvement in Antidepressant Therapeutic Action.

Phylogenomic systematics of Lanmaoa (Boletaceae) reveals cryptic diversity, resolves global evolutionary relationships, and suggests a novel psychoactive lineage.

The genus Lanmaoa is a globally distributed, economically important group of mushroom-forming fungi in the family Boletaceae containing edible and psychoactive species. Despite the growing interest in its hallucinogenic properties, the fundamental systematics of this genus remains poorly resolved due to limited taxon sampling and limited genetic characteriza...

Prenatal stress, excitatory-inhibitory imbalance, and ADHD risk: a hypothesis-driven perspective on psilocybin-induced neuroplasticity.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent neurodevelopmental condition in which prenatal stress and long-lasting disruptions of excitatory-inhibitory (E/I) balance have been implicated as key vulnerability factors. Although established pharmacological and behavioral treatments are effective for many individuals, they are not universally ...

Developing Methods for Observing Awe Narration in Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy.

Background: Understanding the benefits of psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) will require scientific attention to the causal interaction between the therapeutic context and process. Measuring what actually happens during PAT in large-scale studies will be an essential component of this work. Objective: We aim to develop and preliminarily evaluate the feasibi...

A cross-national comparison of nonmedical and medical use of psychedelic drugs in the international cannabis policy study.

BackgroundWe know little about the extent psychedelic substances are consumed therapeutically and/or discussed with medical professionals despite renewed global interest in these substances.MethodsWe examined self-reported responses from the 2023 International Cannabis Policy Study (ICPS) in repeated cross-sectional surveys in Canada, the United States, Aust...

Effects of Repeated Dosing of Psilocybin on Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Randomized, Waitlist-Controlled Study

This study aims to investigate the effects of repeated dosing of oral psilocybin on obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptomatology in a randomized, waitlist-controlled design with blinded independent ratings, and assess psychological mechanisms that may mediate psilocybin's therapeutic effects on OCD. Aim 1: To examine the effects of two doses of psilocy...

2 x 2 Factorial, Double-blind, Randomized Trial of 'Set and Setting': a Translational Study in Healthy Volunteers

One hundred twenty healthy participants, ages 21 to 70, who experience moderate-to-lower-than-average mental well-being will be evenly randomized into four different study arms, using a 2x2 factorial design. Depending on the study arm, participants will either receive an inactive placebo or up to 25mg psilocybin (oral dose), in one of two set and setting con...

Classic Psychedelics for Chronic Pain: A Critical Review of the Literature and Practical Advice for Clinicians.

Chronic pain is common, costly, and for many, remains inadequately treated by existing pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic approaches. In parallel with growing dissatisfaction with conventional therapies, classic serotonergic psychedelics, such as psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), ayahuasca, N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), and mescaline, administer...

Substance-induced manic psychosis in which delusions were corroborated by a chatbot - case report.

BackgroundThis case describes a substance-induced manic episode with psychotic features in which interaction with an AI (artificial intelligence) chatbot appeared to corroborate and reinforce the patient's delusional thought content and to contradict medical advice. Excerpts from the patient's interactions with the AI chatbot provide novel clinical insight i...