The therapeutic potential of psilocybin in treating psychiatric disorders has gained attention recently. While most research has focused on isolated psilocybin, evidence suggests that whole mushroom extracts exhibit greater efficacy, implicating a possible entourage effect of additional bioactive compounds. This study aimed to elucidate the holistic neuropha...
Psilocin, a naturally occurring hallucinogenic component of magic mushrooms, exerts notable psychoactive effects in both humans and rodents. However, the underlying mechanisms remain not fully understood. Blood-oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a valuable tool in many preclinical and clinical trials for invest...
As psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy gains momentum, clinical investigation of next-generation psychedelics may lead to novel compounds tailored for specific populations. 2,5-dimethoxy-4-bromophenethylamine (2C-B) is a psychedelic phenethylamine reported to produce less dysphoria and subjective impairment than the psychedelic tryptamine psilocybin. Despite ...
About 30-50% of patients with advanced illness experience depression, anxiety, or decreased sense of purpose and autonomy. Together, these are called psychological distress. Treatment options such as medication and therapy are available; however, they do not always work and can be time-consuming and expensive. We need treatments that work well, quickly, and ...
This review examines the therapeutic efficacy of psilocybin for major depressive disorder by integrating findings from clinical trials, meta-analyses, and mechanistic research. A comprehensive literature search across major scientific databases identified empirical studies evaluating psilocybin’s effects on depressive symptomatology, safety, and underlying n...
BACKGROUND: Psilocybin has shown rapid and sustained antidepressant effects in patients with major depressive disorder, yet the neurobiological mechanisms underlying these outcomes remain unclear. AIMS: receptor occupancy (RO) achieved after administration of psilocybin and its effects on behavior and markers of neuroplasticity in mice. METHODS: H]MDL-100,90...
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...
Classical psychedelics, like lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), and psilocybin, can alter perception, emotion, and cognition, and have shown promise as 're-purposed' treatments for some psychiatric disorders. Recent trials have, e.g., demonstrated rapid and sustained symptom relief in treatment-resistant depression. While promisi...
The purpose of this study is to determine the safety and feasibility of sequencing psilocybin therapy with a short-duration, aiTBS protocol (Stanford Accelerated Intelligent Neuromodulation Therapy, or SAINT) in individuals with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder. This will be a phase II 2x2 design (device and dose) clinical trial. 100 participant...
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...
This project will employ functional brain imaging to study the mechanism and immediate and long-term effects of psilocybin, a serotonin receptor 2A agonist, on cortical and cortico-subcortical brain networks in healthy adults. Psilocybin shows promise as a safe, transformational therapeutic across several psychiatric conditions. However, little is know about...
The goal of this study is to learn how psychedelics may help symptoms of depression and anxiety. Participants with major depressive disorder experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety will receive one dose of either a drug related to psilocybin or a placebo. Assessments include interviews, self-report questionnaires, EEG and fMRI to measure symptoms and...
BackgroundResults from contemporary clinical trials of serotonergic psychedelic therapies have led to an increasing focus on their potential clinical use across mental disorders. However, studies examining mechanisms of clinical response to psychedelic therapy in psychiatric populations are limited. This review aimed to synthesize evidence from studies exami...
Background and Purpose Given the increase in recreational psychedelic use and ongoing efforts to explore psychedelics as therapeutic agents for mental health disorders, there is an urgent need to understand the effect of psychedelics such as psilocybin and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) on sleep-wake states, which share a bidirectional relationship with mental...
Human neuroimaging studies report that psychedelics induce serotonin-2A receptor-dependent changes in functional brain reorganization, presumably reflecting neuromodulation. However, these studies often overlook the potent vasoactive effects of serotonin. Here we identified psilocybin-induced alterations in hemodynamic response functions during human functio...
BackgroundPsychedelics are emerging as promising treatments for major depressive disorder (MDD) and treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) offers a powerful tool to study neural mechanisms underlying therapeutic response.MethodsThis systematic review (PROSPERO #CRD42024557973) examined neuroimaging studies of psilo...
Decades of cross-species research highlight the claustrums extensive bidirectional connectivity with cortical and subcortical regions, implicating it in higher-order cognitive processes requiring synchronized brain states. Psychedelics may disrupt this synchrony by modulating claustro-cortical signaling, reflected by the dissolution of cortical network signa...
Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) are functional paroxysmal motor disorders that may be clinically suggestive of epilepsy but are not associated with the electroencephysiological and electroencephalographic changes of epilepsy. Thus, hyper-connectivity of the regions of the default mode network (DMN) linked to executive control could be involved in t...
