Abstract Introduction Despite evidence of an acute effect of psilocybin on sleep physiology, its enduring effects beyond the period of acute administration and active metabolism remain unexplored. Within a clinical trial of psilocybin-assisted therapy for alcohol use disorder comorbid with major depressive disorder, we monitored sleep for ten continuous nigh...
The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if psilocybin, given with psychological support, is safe and helps treat anorexia nervosa in young adults. Anorexia nervosa is a serious eating disorder that currently has no approved medicine. Psilocybin is a psychedelic substance that may help the brain form new connections, which could make it easier for people ...
Psychedelic substances reliably occasion transient self-transcendent states, including mystical-type experiences, which are theorized to support salutogenic psychological change and long-term well-being. Despite growing interest in these phenomena, little is known about how acute self-transcendent states translate into enduring trait-level changes, or whethe...
Classic psychedelics such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and psilocybin induce mild cardiovascular activation in addition to their psychological effects. While these effects are well described in healthy adults, little is known about their dynamics in clinical populations undergoing psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. This retrospective, observational, ...
BACKGROUND: Cognitive difficulties within treatment-resistant unipolar and bipolar depression (TRD; TRBD) often do not improve with conventional pharmacotherapies. Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy (PAP) has shown promise as a novel intervention for TRD; however, few studies have assessed its effects on cognition in this population. METHODS: This retrospecti...
Abstract Background Self-transcendent and mystical experiences may be key mechanisms underlying psychedelics’ therapeutic effects, yet how these experiences differ across substances remains unclear. This study compared mystical and self-transcendent experiences across psilocybin, 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), and cannabis in a diverse, community-...
The serotonergic psychedelic psilocybin induces neural plasticity and profoundly alters consciousness. The benzodiazepine midazolam blunts neural plasticity and induces conscious sedation and amnesia at low doses. In our recent open label pilot study, we administered oral psilocybin (25 mg) along with intravenous midazolam at doses allowing a full psychedeli...
Neurobiological effects and psychological models propose that psychedelics may promote psychological flexibility, suggesting a transdiagnostic effect by disrupting maladaptive patterns. The objective of this study was therefore to investigate the determinants of psychological flexibility change following a psychedelic use. This retrospective online survey in...
Background: Psilocybin is a psychedelic drug with potential therapeutic effects in patients with mood and substance use disorders. Little is known about its impact on the immune system. Methods: Multiplex immunoassay pro-inflammatory cytokine panels (Meso-Scale Discovery, Rockville, MD) were used to examine the serum from participants in three separate rando...
BACKGROUND: To investigate the association between pre-trial expectancy, suggestibility, and response to treatment in a trial of escitalopram and investigational drug, COMP360, psilocybin, in the treatment of major depressive disorder (ClinicalTrials.gov registration: NCT03429075). METHODS: = 55) from our recent double-blind, parallel-group, randomized head-...
A prominent theory of psychedelics is that they increase brain entropy. Thirteen studies have evaluated psychedelic effects on fMRI brain entropy; no findings have been replicated. Here we evaluated these metrics in an independent 28-participant healthy cohort with 121 pre- and post-psilocybin fMRI scans. We assessed relations between brain entropy and objec...
BackgroundPsilocin, the neuroactive metabolite of psilocybin, is a serotonergic psychedelic that induces an acute altered state of consciousness, evokes lasting changes in mood and personality in healthy individuals, and has potential as an antidepressant treatment. Examining the acute effects of psilocin on resting-state time-varying functional connectivity...
Microdosing is the practice of regularly using very low doses of psychedelic drugs. Anecdotal reports suggest that it may enhance well-being, creativity and cognition. Here, we use data from a self-blinding microdose trial, a large (n=240) placebo-controlled citizen science trial of microdosing to investigate whether tolerance develops during microdosing. We...
Background Psilocin, the neuroactive metabolite of psilocybin, is a serotonergic psychedelic that induces an acute altered state of consciousness, evokes lasting changes in mood and personality in healthy individuals, and has potential as an antidepressant treatment. Examining the acute effects of psilocin on resting-state dynamic functional connectivity imp...
Tryptamines are hallucinogenic substances many of which have appeared recently as novel psychoactive substances (NPS). Herein, we describe the establishment of a rapid UHPLC-MS/MS quantitative method for the targeted screening of 16 tryptamines of abuse in hair. Twenty milligram pieces of hair were pulverized below 4 °C in 0.5 mL of deionized water containin...
BACKGROUND: Psilocybin is a serotonergic psychedelic with psychoactive effects mediated by serotonin 2A receptor (5-HT2AR) activation. It produces an acute psychedelic altered state of consciousness with a unique phenomenology that can be temporally characterized by three intensity phases: onset of psychoactive effect, a peak plateau and return to normal con...
A procedure based on ultra-high-pressure liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry has been developed for the determination of mescaline, N,N-dimethyltryptamine, psilocin, psilocybin, salvinorin A in hair of consumers of psychedelic vegetal material such peyote or trichocereus cacti, psilocybe mushrooms, Salvia divinorum or psychedelic beverage ayahuasc...
Responses to hallucinogenic drugs, such as psilocybin, are believed to be critically dependent on the user's personality, current mood state, drug pre-experiences, expectancies, and social and environmental variables. However, little is known about the order of importance of these variables and their effect sizes in comparison to drug dose. Hence, this study...
