Psilocybin is a drug with renewed clinical interest because of its potential to treat psychiatric diseases. Preliminary human data suggest that psilocybin could be used to treat chronic pain, but whether psilocybin produces direct analgesia remains unclear, and existing human data have not resolved how it works if it does. The preclinical literature has conf...
Chronic pain states remain challenging to control with current drug therapies. Here, we demonstrate that a single dose of psilocybin produces a sustained anti-nociceptive effect in chronic neuropathic pain models in male and female mice, mediated primarily by 5-HT2A receptors. Critically, psilocybin significantly potentiates the analgesic efficacy of gabapen...
The goal of this clinical trial is to evaluate whether a single dose of psilocybin is feasible and safe for adults with opioid use disorder (OUD) who are recovering from trauma surgery. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1. Is a single psilocybin dose feasible to administer during postoperative hospitalization? 2. Is psilocybin safe in this patient po...
The psychedelic psilocybin may have lasting therapeutic effects for patients with chronic pain syndromes. Some preclinical data suggest these putative benefits derive from direct analgesic effects; however, this possibility has not been comprehensively tested in preclinical models. Here, we evaluated the analgesic properties of a single exposure to psilocybi...
Chronic pain affects millions of people and remains one of the greatest clinical challenges due to limited response to conventional therapies. Psilocybin, a psychedelic found in mushrooms of the Psilocybe genus, has sparked interest due to its potential to modulate serotonergic receptors and promote neuroplasticity, suggesting analgesic and psychotherapeutic...
Chronic pain states are challenging to control with current drug therapies. Here, we demonstrate that a single dose of psilocybin can produce a sustained anti-nociceptive effect in a model of chronic neuropathic pain in male and female mice. Psilocybin anti-nociceptive effects were mediated by 5-HT2A receptors, although additional mechanisms might also be in...
Rationale: Recent evidence shows that Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD), even when administered in low, non-hallucinogenic doses, can produce analgesic effects and improve pain tolerance in a sample of healthy volunteers. Such results complement what was already observed with other serotonergic psychedelics such as psilocybin: survey studies and case series i...
This is a feasibility study to examine the use of use of Psilocybin (magic mushrooms) to alleviate pain in chronic neuropathic pain. While theoretical mechanisms demonstrate promise, there is no clinical evidence. This vacuum of clinical evidence has been occupied by a "psychedelic hype bubble" with media communications touting psychedelics as a 'miracle cur...
Background: Negative perceptions of psilocybin and challenges of participant enrollment may represent barriers to conducting a randomized controlled trial examining psilocybin for chronic neuropathic pain. Aim: Prior to trial initiation, we aimed to examine patient attitudes toward the trial via a prospective preference assessment. Methods: Twenty-six patien...
Abstract Chronic pain states are challenging to control with current drug therapies. Here, we demonstrate that a single dose of psilocybin can produce a sustained anti-nociceptive effect in a mouse model of chronic neuropathic pain. Beyond this, the single dose of psilocybin caused a dramatic increase in the anti-nociceptive potential of gabapentin, a widely...
Chronic pain is a public health concern that affects approximately 1.5 billion people globally. Conventional therapeutic agents including opioid and non-opioid analgesics have been associated with adverse side effects, issues with addiction, and ineffective analgesia. Novel agents repurposed to treat pain via different mechanisms are needed to fill the thera...
Opinion statementPreventing depression in cancer patients on long-term opioid therapy should begin with depression screening before opioid initiation and repeated screening during treatment. In weighing the high morbidity of depression and opioid use disorder in patients with chronic cancer pain against a dearth of evidence-based therapies studied in this po...
Basic pain research has shed light on key cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying nociceptive and phenomenological aspects of pain. Despite these advances, we still yearn for the discovery of novel therapeutic strategies to address the unmet needs of about 70 % of chronic neuropathic pain patients whose pain fails to respond to opioids as well as to oth...
