The acute subjective effects of serotonin (5-HT)2A receptor stimulation with psilocybin in humans are mostly positive. However, negative effects such as anxiety, paranoid thinking, or loss of trust towards other people are common effects, depending on the dose administered, the personality traits of the person consuming it (set), or the environment in which ...
Psilocybin, a psychedelic drug with reported anxiolytic and antidepressant potential, is rapidly metabolized to its active metabolite psilocin. However, a lack of adequate toxicity studies and tissue distribution studies currently restricts its development and application. This study combined behavioral assays in zebrafish with desorption electrospray ioniza...
Abstract Psilocybin induces profound alterations in consciousness, yet prevailing neural models often describe a monolithic change in brain connectivity that may not fully capture the multifaceted nature of the psychedelic state. To test the hypothesis of a composite neural state, this study applied a data-driven framework, Connectome Independent Component A...
Brain waves are ubiquitous phenomena of human brain activity. As they propagate, they coordinate neural communication, shaping conscious perception. Understanding how brain waves unfold across space and time is thus critical for uncovering the neural mechanisms that support and suppress consciousness. Here, we analyzed data from the Human Connectome Project ...
The primary purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility and estimate the efficacy of psilocybin-facilitated treatment for cocaine use. We also will monitor the impact of psilocybin-facilitated treatment on the use of other drugs and outcomes relevant to cocaine involvement. MRI assessment is a unique aspect of this study. As a potential biological m...
Objectives: For English, the validated part of Psychedelic Experience Scale (PES48) is a four-factor structure called the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ30). The other validated part of the PES48 consists of four more factors: two more mystical factors (paradoxicality and connectedness, which together with the MEQ30 form the MEQ40), and two more non-m...
This article presents the results of a Cognitive Linguistic analysis of metaphors used in a series of interviews by a single healthy volunteer following four moderate-to-high dosing sessions with psilocybin. The interviews were conducted by members of a human psychedelic research lab in a deep-sampling fMRI and EEG brain imaging study, allowing the participa...
The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the feasibility, initial signals of efficacy, and potential mechanisms of action of "microdoses" of psilocybin (i.e., low doses of psilocybin that are not believed to produce mystical-type, transcendent, hallucinogenic, or other overtly salient subjective effects that limit functionality) in the treatment of mo...
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: Although psychedelics have regained attention as potential treatment tools for various mental disorders, little research has examined their impact on temporal perception. Aims: This double-blinded placebo-controlled study aimed to investigate changes in temporal perception under psilocybin, both through performance during the Temporal Bisection T...
Background: Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy has shown promising results for treating alcohol use disorder (AUD) and other mental health conditions. Although the precise mechanisms of psychedelic therapies remain unclear, many studies report increased feelings of connectedness following psychedelic experiences. Specifically, both nature relatedness (one’s ...
This is a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled Phase 2 mechanistic clinical trial designed to evaluate the therapeutic neural mechanisms of psilocybin in patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD), and to determine whether further studies are warranted to study the relationship of any such effects to clinical improvement in AUD symptoms. The primary ai...
Introduction: The subjective effects of psilocybin on obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are under-explored. Therefore, we conducted a qualitative study of participant experiences from the first randomized placebo-controlled trial of single-dose psilocybin combined with unstructured and non-directive support for individuals with treatment-refractory OCD. Ou...
Background: Tramadol is a synthetic opioid analgesic prescribed for moderate pain. Psilocybin (4-phosphoryloxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine) is a naturally occurring psychoactive compound found in certain mushrooms, often referred to as "magic mushrooms" and is classified as a Schedule I substance. This case report aimed to present the unexpected detection of psil...
Psilocybin induces profound alterations in consciousness, yet prevailing neural models often describe a monolithic change in brain connectivity that may not fully capture the multifaceted nature of the psychedelic state. To test the hypothesis of a composite neural state, this study applied a robust, data-driven framework, Connectome Independent Component An...
The long-term objective of this project is to characterize how psilocybin affects visual perception and the brain's representation of the visual environment. It is known that psilocybin alters aspects of visual perception, but the underlying brain mechanisms contributing to these effects are poorly understood. The proposed work will address these questions i...
This retrospective observational study examines the effects of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAP) with lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) or psilocybin in patients with treatment-resistant depressive, anxiety, or addictive disorders. Data will be analyzed from patients treated at the University Hospitals of Geneva between June 2020 and April 2025 who obt...
Psilocybin has profound therapeutic potential for various mental health disorders, but its mechanisms of action are unknown. Functional MRI studies have reported the effects of psilocybin on brain activity and connectivity; however, these measurements rely on neurovascular coupling to infer neural activity changes and assume that blood flow responses to neur...
Both meditation and psychedelics are widely studied for their therapeutic potential in mental health. Recent research suggests potential synergies between mindfulness practice and psychedelics, though empirical studies have primarily focused on psilocybin. This study investigates the distinct and combined effects of mindfulness practice and an ayahuasca-insp...
Sleep paralysis (SP), an REM parasomnia, can be characterized as one of the symptoms of narcolepsy. The SP phenomenon involves regaining meta-consciousness by the dreamer during REM, when the physiological atonia of skeletal muscles is accompanied by visual and auditory hallucinations that are perceived as vivid and distressing nightmares. Sensory impression...
