Psychedelics have emerged as promising therapeutics for several psychiatric disorders. Hypotheses around their mechanisms have revolved around their partial agonism at the serotonin 2 A receptor, leading to enhanced neuroplasticity and brain connectivity changes that underlie positive mindset shifts. However, these accounts fail to recognise that the gut mic...
Depression astonishingly can be stopped instantly by electrotherapies or through some psychedelics like psilocybin. In explaining this, the traditional approaches to their antidepressant effects via "reset" models and orthosteric serotonin receptors has neglected the only serotonin channel 5HT3, which e.g. has emerged as being helpful for the neurotrophic tr...
This study will evaluate whether psilocybin, a hallucinogenic drug, improves symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), whether it is safely tolerated as treatment of OCD, and will investigate the mechanisms by which it works. The study seeks to improve our ability to treat and improve the lives of people who have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) by...
Alcohol is a harmful drug, and reducing its consumption is a significant challenge for users. Furthermore, alcohol dependence is often treatment-resistant, and no completely effective treatment model is available for chemical dependence. Classic psychedelics, such as LSD, psilocybin, and ayahuasca have been used in different clinical and pre-clinical trials,...
Disorders of consciousness (DoC), including the unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS) and the minimally conscious state (MCS), have limited treatment options. Recent research suggests that psychedelic drugs, known for their complexity-enhancing properties, could be promising treatments for DoC. This study uses whole-brain computational models to explore th...
Abstract Effective interventions for neuropsychiatric disorders may work by rebalancing the brain’s functional hierarchical organization. Here we directly investigated the effects of two different serotonergic pharmacological interventions on functional brain hierarchy in major depressive disorder in a two-arm double-blind phase II randomized controlled tria...
This article discusses evidence that offers insights into the effects of psilocybin on the brain and its potential role in alleviating the symptoms of some neuropsychiatric conditions.
Self-awareness can be defined as the capacity of becoming the object of one's own awareness and, increasingly, it has been the target of scientific inquiry. Self-awareness has important clinical implications, and a better understanding of the neurochemical basis of self-awareness may help clarifying causes and developing interventions for different psychopat...
Background: There has been a resurgence of research into the potential therapeutic benefits of psychedelics for neuropsychiatric disorders. Classic psychedelics, such as psilocybin, exert complex effects on higher cognitive functions such as perception and awareness, but their impact on motor function remains unexplored. Moreover, there is a theoretical rati...
. It remains unclear how human brain network changes relate to subjective and lasting effects of psychedelics. Here we tracked individual-specific brain changes with longitudinal precision functional mapping (roughly 18 magnetic resonance imaging visits per participant). Healthy adults were tracked before, during and for 3 weeks after high-dose psilocybin (2...
The purpose of this project is to assess the feasibility and safety of administering a single dose of psilocybin to patients diagnosed with alcohol use disorder (AUD). In addition the investigators will establish the pharmacokinetic properties of the active metabolite psilocin. This is the first step in a research project that has the overall aim to evaluate...
Fruitful comparison of psychedelic, spiritual, and psychotic experiences requires a degree of phenomenological nuance. Some shared features of these phenomena, such as encounters and communications with supernatural entities, are obfuscated by scientific and clinical terminology. Other supposed distinctions are based on an atemporal view of dynamic experienc...
Serotonergic psychedelics (e.g., psilocybin, LSD) have potential to treat psychiatric disorders, with therapeutic effects lasting days to weeks after a single dose. Prominent theories suggest that psychedelics have a lasting effect on hierarchical brain circuits, reducing top-down influence on information processing to facilitate an unbiased, bottom-up reass...
RATIONALE: Our study aimed to unravel the unknown mechanisms behind the exceptional efficacy of Psilocybin (PSI) in treating treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Focusing on Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats with a TRD phenotype and Wistar (WIS) rats as a normative comparison, we investigated behavioral and neuroplasticity-related responses to PSI, striving to shed l...
BACKGROUND: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a leading cause of disability worldwide across domains of health and cognition, affecting overall quality of life. Approximately one third of individuals with depression do not fully respond to treatments (e.g., conventional antidepressants, psychotherapy) and alternative strategies are needed. Recent early phas...
