Since the dawn of civilization, ancient cultures have utilized hallucinogens from plants and fungi in the context of religious and healing practices. Recently, their use has expanded to other cultures. Hallucinogens are natural or synthetic substances that alter the perception of reality at nontoxic doses, producing intense psychological and physiological ef...
Goodwin et al.1 report a single 25 mg dose of psilocybin has an antidepressant effect short-term in medication-resistant depression. Unanswered questions include drug blood level as a guide to dose, psychedelic effects relationship to antidepressant benefit, and potential suicide risk of psilocybin.
Interest in the therapeutic potential of serotonergic psychedelic compounds including psilocybin has surged in recent years. While human clinical research suggests psilocybin holds promise as a rapid and long-lasting antidepressant, little is known about how its acute mechanisms of action mediate enduring alterations in cognition and behavior. Human neuroima...
Classic psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin have been associated with reduced depressive symptoms when used as an adjunct to therapy, but concern remains over the potential for adverse events such as seizures when these drugs are used outside controlled clinical settings. A study used a survey of U.S. adults to examine the association between use of classic...
Serotoninergic psychedelics such as psilocybin have been reported to elicit a long-lasting reduction in depressive symptoms. Although the main target for serotoninergic psychedelics, serotonin type 2A receptor (5-HT2A), has been established, the possible mechanism of the antidepressant action of psychedelics remains unknown. Using the mouse forced swim test ...
Mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety are major contributors to the overall global health burden. COVID-19 has further aggravated mental health disorders and also increased substance abuse due to lockdowns1. The Global Burden of Disease reported that the pandemic has led to a 27.6% increase in cases of major depressive disorder (MDD) and a 2...
Background: Psilocybin is being studied for depression, but little is known about how it interacts with common antidepressants. Limited data suggests that psilocybin’s effects may be diminished by serotonergic antidepressants acutely and even after a medication washout period. Aims: To learn the extent to which serotonergic antidepressants may diminish psilo...
Background: Psilocybin is being studied for depression, but little is known about how it interacts with common antidepressants. Limited data suggests that psilocybin’s effects may be diminished by serotonergic antidepressants acutely and even after a medication washout period. Aims: To learn the extent to which serotonergic antidepressants may diminish psilo...
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...
Purpose/backgroundThere has been resurgence of interest in the therapeutic use of serotonergic ("classic") psychedelics in major depressive disorder (MDD) and end-of-life distress. This commentary offers a critical appraisal of current evidence for antidepressant effects of classic psychedelics from contemporary clinical trials and highlights pitfalls that s...
Pharmacotherapy of depression is characterized by the delayed onset of action, chronic treatment requirements, and insufficient effectiveness. Ketamine, with its rapid action and long-lasting effects, represents a breakthrough in the modern pharmacotherapy of depression. The current review summarizes the latest findings on the mechanism of the antidepressant...
This publication discusses two compounds belonging to the psychoactive substances group which are studied in the context of depression treatment-psilocybin and esketamine. The former is a naturally occurring psychedelic. The latter was invented in the laboratory exactly 60 years ago. Although the substances were controversial in the past, recent studies indi...
The primary objective of this study is to assess the long-term efficacy of psilocybin with respect to use of new antidepressant treatment, hospitalisations for depression, suicidality, and depressive severity rated using the Montgomery and Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) over a total of 52 weeks (compared across the 1 mg, 10 mg and 25 mg psilocybin gr...
Initial promise and dire need have inspired the multiple research programs of the second psychedelic renaissance. Serotonergic psychedelics (psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide, and ayahuasca) have decreased end-of-life anxiety in cancer patients, treatment-resistant depression, alcohol dependence, social anxiety in autistic adults, and nicotine dependenc...
The hallucinogen psilocybin is a potential novel treatment for treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Our goal is to review current knowledge on psilocybin and its efficacy in TRD. Literature searches were done on PubMed, Web of Science and Google Scholar, references reviewed in identified articles and other articles found on the website of COMPASS Pathways. ...
IntroductionMajor depressive disorder remains a prevalent world-wide health problem. Currently available antidepressant medications take weeks of dosing, do not produce antidepressant response in all patients, and have undesirable ancillary effects.Areas coveredThe present opinion piece focuses on the major inroads to the creation of new antidepressants. The...
ObjectiveSerotonergic psychedelics are re-emerging as potential novel treatments for several psychiatric disorders including major depressive disorder. The Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT) convened a task force to review the evidence and provide a consensus recommendation for the clinical use of psychedelic treatments for major depre...
Carhart-Harris R, Giribaldi B, Nutt DJ et al. Trial of psilocybin versus escitalopram for depression. N Engl J Med 2021; 384: 1402-1411. doi:10.1056/ NEJMoa2032994
Over the last two decades, a number of studies have highlighted the potential of psychedelic therapy. However, questions remain to what extend these results translate to naturalistic samples, and how contextual factors and the acute psychedelic experience relate to improvements in affective symptoms following psychedelic experiences outside labs/clinics. The...
