While the adoption of psilocybin-assisted therapy for existential distress offers promising support for patients with life-threatening illnesses, implementing this intervention into palliative care settings presents significant real-world challenges. To examine palliative care stakeholders' knowledge and attitudes regarding psilocybin-assisted therapy, and i...
Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) remains a major clinical challenge and is typically defined as the persistence of depressive symptoms despite at least two adequate antidepressant trials. Individuals with TRD experience substantial morbidity, impaired functioning, and elevated suicide risk, highlighting the need for therapeutic strategies beyond incremen...
This scoping review aims to comprehensively map and synthesize the breadth of evidence from original research on the relationship between psilocybin and health, spanning clinical trials, epidemiological surveys, mechanistic experiments, and cross-sectional attitudinal studies. The review uses 145 references and builds its evidence map from 216 original studi...
Background/Objectives: Psilocybin-assisted therapy (PAT) is a promising intervention to alleviate existential distress among patients with advanced cancer receiving palliative care. However, evidence on how to integrate PAT into routine oncology and palliative care services remains scarce. This study aimed to examine real-world PAT implementation, identify f...
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) causes persistent neurobehavioral deficits and increases the risk of psychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety, and cognitive dysfunction linked to disrupted neuroplasticity, neuroinflammation, and serotonergic (5-HT) signaling. No effective pharmacotherapies exist for chronic TBI. Psilocybin, a psychedelic 5-HT2A rece...
Psychological distress, such as anxiety and depression, is common among people with cancer and is often worsened by existential worries about mortality, loss of meaning, and decreased quality of life. Standard treatments, including medication and psychotherapy, often offer limited or short-term relief, highlighting the need for new, integrative psychosocial ...
Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide, affecting an estimated 300 million people. Despite available treatments, response rates remain modest, and treatment resistance is common. Novel treatments are needed that act rapidly, produce lasting effects and work differently than existing antidepressants. In clinical trials, psilocybin has shown p...
Abstract Rationale The elderly population is rapidly growing. Overwhelming epidemiologic data has demonstrated worse health outcomes with increasing age for a multitude of lung diseases (COVID being one of numerous examples). There is an increasingly urgent need for a more complete understanding of the molecular pathways and biological processes underlying a...
Depression and psychological distress are highly prevalent among patients with cancer and are associated with impaired quality of life, reduced treatment adherence, and poorer clinical outcomes. Standard pharmacological and psychosocial interventions often demonstrate limited efficacy or delayed onset of action in oncological and palliative settings. Psilocy...
INTRODUCTION: This article presents a narrative review of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy as a promising intervention for addressing anxiety, depression and psycho-existential distress in patients with advanced cancer. This group of disorders, often resistant to conventional treatments, significantly impacts patients' quality of life and autonomy, as well ...
People with cancer often experience anxiety and depression following a diagnosis and can face barriers to accessing treatment for their mental health. An increasing number of patients are considering alternative approaches to managing their mental health symptoms, such as the psychedelic, psilocybin. A growing number of clinical trials show significant and e...
Demoralization syndrome (DS) - a distinct clinical entity characterized by helplessness, hopelessness, and a persistent loss of meaning - affects approximately one in five Canadians with advanced cancer and is associated with increased desire for hastened death, negative clinical outcomes, and higher economic burden, yet recognition and treatment of DS remai...
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 cognitiv...
BACKGROUND: Psychological distress is a common problem near the end of life, for which we lack effective, timely and scalable treatments. No previous study has assessed whether microdose psilocybin can improve symptoms in this population. AIM: To determine whether microdose psilocybin is safe, feasible and potentially efficacious in a palliative setting. DES...
The principal investigator for this study plans to build upon the psilocybin-assisted therapy intervention used in prior completed trials to conduct an open-label trial of two psilocybin administration sessions combined with psychotherapy to investigate the safety, tolerability, and clinical efficacy of psilocybin-assisted therapy for the treatment of PTSD i...
Background: Psilocybin is a promising therapy for cancer-related distress, but existing individual treatment models are resource intensive. In this study, we designed and tested a group model of psilocybin therapy for people with metastatic cancer and cancer-related anxiety and depression. Method: Eligibility criteria included metastatic cancer, moderate-to-...
Objective: Emerging evidence suggests that mystical experiences mediate the therapeutic effects of psychedelic-assisted therapy. The current study examines associations between mystical experiences and components of “set” (positive mindset, participant intentions, and spirituality) and “setting” (perceived positivity of the dosing environment) in the context...
