Informed consent in psychedelic-assisted services is ethically complex, difficult to implement, and remains largely unstudied and unstandardized. The current study sought expert recommendations on informed consent challenges, best practices and recommendations for supervised psilocybin experiences across various settings. Participants with psilocybin content...
Interest in psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) is surging across research and medical communities, prompting the discussion of policy shifts that reflect growing openness to implementing psychedelics in clinical practice. State-level psychedelic reform in the United States has accelerated since 2019, with legalization projected to reach most states within th...
Psychedelics a class of psychoactive compounds such as psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and dimethyltryptamine (DMT) are undergoing a scientific renaissance. Studies since 2020 have shown their therapeutic promise in mental health treatment. This Commentary synthesizes historical usage, current neuroscientific and clinical evidence, and explores...
This paper follows 8 scientists who ventured into the world of psychedelics on a quest to find transformational pathways forward. Each have worked on aspects of global environmental change for decades, and observing environmental crises converging into a global polycrisis/metacrisis with genuine potential for collapse, we have all carried psychological burde...
ABSTRACT This paper examines the intimate relationship of affection, consumption, and ritual practice between humanity and mushrooms of the genus Psilocybe, focusing mainly on the Americas and Brazil. To this end, it uses reflections that present the American continent as a macroregion historically marked by transits, connections, and exchanges since pre-Col...
Indigenous Peoples have cultivated and protected natural psychoactive medicines through ceremony, kinship, and spiritual responsibility across generations, yet their long-standing contributions have often been marginalized through extractive research, commercialization, and policy exclusion. It is Indigenous communities that have stewarded and gained experti...
This study explores how individuals from ethnoracially marginalized backgrounds engage with psychedelic substances for psychological healing, cultural reconnection, and resistance to structural neglect in mainstream health care systems. Based on 23 in-depth interviews and participant-observation within a psychedelic preparation and integration training progr...
Background Classic psychedelics, such as psilocybin and LSD, evoke certain kinds of altered states of consciousness. Specific features of the experience, such as its allegedly ineffable nature, have been discussed as posing challenges to the informed consent process. A growing call for tailored informed consent documents (ICDs) in the psychedelic bioethics l...
The recent surge in psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) research and anticipated Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of MDMA (methylenedioxymethamphetamine) and psilocybin treatments has bro...
Although psychedelics were banned from medical research for about fifty years, recent early-phase studies indicate they may offer unique therapeutic benefits for various mental health and substance use disorders. When effective, psychedelic experiences often involve phenomena not typically observed in other medical or psychiatric interventions, such as a dim...
Psychedelic treatment with psilocybin is receiving increased attention following clinical trials showing it may help treat end-of-life anxiety, depression, and several other conditions. Despite this, physicians may be reluctant to prescribe psilocybin and carry out psilocybin treatment because of the stigma surrounding psychedelics and the potential for medi...
Abstract Psychedelic use has increased in the last decade. However, it is unclear whether the cultural background of the consumers exerts any influence. The aim of the present study was to determine the pattern of psychedelic use in Spain and Spanish-speaking populations in South America and compare these consumption patterns to understand the use of these s...
With its catchy title, historian Benjamin Breen's Tripping on Utopia brings together controversial findings about the human mind, social engineering, and professional responsibility. He delineates the time frame and focus of an inquiry into psychoactive drug research by stating that “Timothy Leary and the Baby Boomers did not usher in the first psychedelic e...
Psychedelics are a class of hallucinogenic drugs. They have been explored particularly for treatment-resistant psychiatric illnesses. In recent years, advances in psychopharmacology have benefited thousands of patients with some type of mental disorder. Preliminary evidence has shown that psilocybin has shown promise in the treatment of psychiatric disorders...
Psychedelic-assisted treatment (PAT) for mental health is in renaissance. Psilocybin and MDMA stand near FDA approval, and US cities and states are decriminalizing or regulating the non-clinical use of psilocybin. However, neither FDA indications nor a regulated use model sufficiently address the complex needs and opportunities for an improved treatment of a...
This paper addresses the possible effects of psychedelic drugs, notably psilocybin, on moral bio-enhancement (MBE). It will be argued that non-psychedelic substances, such as oxytocin, serotonin/serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or vasopressin, have indirect effects on M(B)E, whereas psilocybin has direct effects. Additionally, morality and happiness have been ...
Psychedelics such as psilocybin reliably produce significantly altered states of consciousness with a variety of subjectively experienced effects. These include certain changes to perception, cognition, and affect, 1 which we refer to here as the acute subjective effects of psychedelics. In recent years, psychedelics such as psilocybin have also shown consid...
Psychedelic treatments, particularly 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)-assisted and psilocybin-assisted therapies, have recently seen renewed interest in their clinical potential to treat various mental health conditions. Clinical trials for both MDMA-assisted and psilocybin-assisted therapies have shown to be highly efficacious for post-traumatic str...
