PURPOSE OF REVIEW: There is growing evidence that psychedelics and associated treatment modalities may offer therapeutic benefits across a range of psychiatric conditions. Anorexia nervosa (AN), a serious and often treatment-resistant illness associated with significant morbidity and mortality, is one such condition for which psilocybin-assisted therapy (PAT...
Abstract Background: Conventional pharmacotherapy for treatment-resistant depression (TRD) has been found to provide limited benefit in a subset of patients. Psilocybin-assisted therapy has emerged as a promising modality due to its rapid-acting antidepressant effects and favourable tolerability profile shown in early trials. Despite growing research interes...
Background Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) can present significant challenges to individuals mental health, characterized by intrusive thoughts and repetitive maladaptive behaviors. Recent research into alternative treatments has highlighted psychedelics, notably psilocybin, for their potential therapeutic benefits in various psychiatric disorders, inclu...
Altered states of consciousness (ASC) represent a universal human capacity for accessing and transforming the subconscious mind, employed across cultures and millennia through diverse contemplative, somatic, pharmacological, ritual, and technological modalities. This comprehensive review synthesizes evidence from over 25 distinct disciplines spanning five cl...
S elective S erotonin R euptake I nhibitors (SSRIs) and two psychedelics, Psilocybin (4-phosphoryloxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine), and MDMA (3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine) act on serotonergic-related neural circuits and function as serotonin modulators. All three molecules are either currently used or proposed as novel therapeutic modalities to treat P ost- ...
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...
IntroductionBipolar disorder (BD) is a severe and persistent mental disorder characterized by recurrent mood episodes, with BD depression accounting for most of the illness burden. Although the mainstay treatment of BD consists of pharmacotherapy with mood stabilizers and atypical antipsychotics, a large proportion of patients with BD depression do not respo...
Research on psychedelic drugs, such as psilocybin, LSD or DMT, is a burgeoning field, with an increasing number of studies showing their promise in treatment of mental disorders as well as examining their mechanism of action. Determining their effect on the brain is crucial from clinical standpoint, but also offers highly promising avenues of advancement in ...
We present divergent experiences of 2 patients who participated in a clinical trial of psilocybin-assisted cognitive behavioral therapy for major depressive disorder. Both patients participated in an open trial involving 2 drug administration sessions separated by one month (10 and 25 mg, respectively) along with 12 sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy...
ObjectivesMood disorders and existential distress impact those with cancer or a serious illness at higher rates than the general population. There have been limited pharmacological advances in recent years, and available psychological interventions vary in degree of impact and durability as a treatment modality in this population. A recent renaissance in psy...
BackgroundPsychedelic-assisted therapy refers to a group of therapeutic practices involving psychedelics taken under therapeutic supervision from physicians, psychologists, and others. It has been hypothesised that psychedelic-assisted therapy may reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression, and existential distress in patients facing life-threatening diseases (e...
ImportanceBipolar II disorder (BDII) is a debilitating condition frequently associated with difficult-to-treat depressive episodes. Psilocybin has evidence for rapid-acting antidepressant effects but has not been investigated in bipolar depression.ObjectiveTo establish the safety and efficacy of psilocybin in patients with BDII in a current depressive episod...
Serotonergic psychedelics hold promise as a treatment modality for various psychiatric disorders and are currently applied in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. We investigated the learning effects of the serotonin receptor agonist psilocybin in a probabilistic cue-reward task with emotional cues in the form of neutral or fearful faces, presented either con...
Youth today are burdened by significant mental health challenges. In 2022, 25% of adolescents aged 12 to 17 years experienced a mental illness, with 20% experiencing a depressive episode, 12.5% reporting serious thoughts of suicide, and 17% meeting criteria for a substance use disorder.1 Close to 5% of adolescents experience posttraumatic stress disorder.2 I...
This article underscores the critical role of social workers in harnessing the potential therapeutic benefits of psilocybin for treating major depressive disorder (MDD) and substance use disorder (SUD). Contemporary treatments for MDD often have side effects, and the success rate for SUD treatments remains low. The pervasiveness of MDD, combined with the cha...
There has been an increase in research on the topic of psychedelic substances and their effects as treatment options in neuropsychiatric conditions. Psilocybin is a psychedelic drug that has recently garnered increased interest as an effective treatment modality for treatment-resistant depression, depression associated with terminal conditions, certain subst...
Introduction Despite emerging evidence suggesting the efficacy of psilocybin in the treatment of mood disorders such as depression, the exact mechanisms by which psilocybin is able to elicit these antidepressant effects remains unknown. Objectives As the use of psilocybin as a treatment modality for depression has garnered increasing interest, this study aim...
Eating disorders (ED) are a group of potentially severe mental disorders characterized by abnormal energy balance, cognitive dysfunction, and emotional distress. Cognitive inflexibility is a major challenge to successful ED treatment and dysregulated serotonergic function has been implicated in this symptomatic dimension. Moreover, there are few effective tr...
Objective: To synthesize the neurobiological basis of brain-resetting effects of psilocybin and identify neuroimaging correlates of psilocybin response in depressed patients.Data Sources: MEDLINE(R), Embase, APA PsycINFO, Cochrane, and CINAHL were systematically searched on June 3, 2022, with no date restrictions using the following string: (psilocybin) AND ...
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating mental illness with limited treatment options and a high treatment dropout rate. Psychedelics, often in combination with psychotherapy, are now under investigation as a potential treatment option for a variety of psychiatric conditions including PTSD. This paper reviews the proposed mechanism of action ...
