ObjectivesThe Australian government recently rescheduled psilocybin and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine for limited clinical uses. This change has raised various regulatory concerns and challenges for the field of psychedelic-assisted therapy. To provide clarity, we aimed to comprehensively catalogue the matters relating to psychedelic-assisted therapy tha...
Psilocybin has shown promise for alleviating symptoms of depression and is currently in clinical trials for the treatment of anorexia nervosa (AN), a condition that is characterised by persistent cognitive inflexibility. Considering that enhanced cognitive flexibility after psilocybin treatment is reported to occur in individuals with depression, it is plaus...
Previous studies suggested effectiveness of psilocybin in the field of mental health. FDA designated psilocybin as a "breakthrough therapy" for the treatment of treatment-resistant depression (TRD) in 2018. This paper provided a review of psilocybin's potential role in treatment of depression by focusing on published clinical trials. Studies showed that psil...
Ethnopharmacology relevanceCentral nervous system (CNS) diseases can be diverse and usually present with comorbidity, as in the case of depression and anxiety. Despite alternatives like Psilocybe mushrooms for mental health there is no basic research to evidence their CNS benefits.Aim of the studyTo evaluate the anxiolytic- and antidepressant-like effects, a...
Pathophysiology of depression is related with reduced volume of the hippocampus and amygdala and hypertrophy of the nucleus accumbens. The mechanism of these changes is not well under-stood, but clinical studies have shown that administration of the fast-acting antidepressant keta-mine reversed the decrease in hippocampus and amygdala volume in depressed pat...
Psilocybin is being investigated as a treatment in adults with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Withdrawal from serotonergic antidepressant drugs is a common prerequisite for taking part in trials of psilocybin due to the possibility of ongoing antidepressant drugs altering the psychedelic effect. This phase II, exploratory, international, fixed-dose, o...
The Altered Xperience Project (AXP) is an ongoing research project that takes the form of an open citizen science initiative. Its main goal is to systematically collect and consolidate data on the subjective experiences induced by various consciousness-manipulating techniques (CMTs). These include both psychoactive substances as well as non-pharmacological m...
The Altered Xperience Project (AXP) is an ongoing research project that takes the form of an open citizen science initiative. Its main goal is to systematically collect and consolidate data on the subjective experiences induced by various consciousness-manipulating techniques (CMTs). These include both psychoactive substances as well as non-pharmacological m...
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a surge in depression cases, a pervasive and debilitating mental illness1. This trend is evident in the increased prescriptions for antidepressants. Depression is a chronic condition that affects a significant proportion of the global population, with ~280 million people, or about 3.8%, suffering from it. As a result, it...
This Special Issue of Neuropharmacology on psychedelics provides a timely and comprehensive update on progress following the previous Neuropharmacology Special Issue "Psychedelics: New Doors, Altered Perceptions". Remarkable advances have been made in basic and clinical research on psychedelics in the five years since 2018. It is partly based on the seminar ...
Chronic pain is a leading cause of disability, reduced productivity, healthcare seeking behavior, and a contributor to opioid overdose in the United States. For many people, pain can be satisfactorily managed by existing medicines and comprehensive psychosocial treatments. For others, available treatments are either ineffective or not acceptable, due to side...
BACKGROUND: COMP360 is a proprietary, synthetic formulation of psilocybin being developed for treatment-resistant depression (TRD), a burdensome, life-threatening illness with high global impact. Here, we expand upon the previous report of primary outcomes from a phase 2 study of COMP360 in individuals with TRD-the largest randomised controlled clinical tria...
Identifying gaps and strengths in psychedelic-related knowledge is key to developing effective, evidence-based education to inform appropriate use of and harm reduction practices for psychedelics in the naturalistic use landscape. The current study piloted an assessment instrument with questions on legal status, therapeutic potential, and side effects of psy...
BackgroundPsilocybin is being studied for use in treatment-resistant depression.MethodsIn this phase 2 double-blind trial, we randomly assigned adults with treatment-resistant depression to receive a single dose of a proprietary, synthetic formulation of psilocybin at a dose of 25 mg, 10 mg, or 1 mg (control), along with psychological support. The primary en...
New medicines containing classic hallucinogenic and entactogenic psychedelic substance are under development for various psychiatric and neurological disorders. Many of these, including psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) are Schedule I controlled substances of the United States Controlled Substances Act...
There is mounting evidence suggesting psychedelic and entactogen medicines (namely psilocybin and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine [MDMA]), in conjunction with proper psychosocial support, hold the potential to provide safe, rapid acting, and robust clinical improvements with durable effects. In the US, both psilocybin and MDMA have been granted Breakthroug...
The mystical experience is a potential psychological mechanism to influence outcome in psychedelic therapy. It includes features such as oceanic boundlessness, ego dissolution, and universal interconnectedness, which have been closely linked to both symptom reduction and improved quality of life. In this review, 12 studies of psychedelic therapy utilizing ps...
Clinical studies provide evidence that ketamine and psilocybin could be used as fast-acting antidepressants, though their mechanisms and toxicity are still not fully understood. To address this issue, we have examined the effect of a single administration of ketamine and psilocybin on the extracellular levels of neurotransmitters in the rat frontal cortex an...
Effects of serotonin 2A/1A receptor stimulation by psilocybin on mood and emotion processing in major depressive disorder: a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the world's greatest contributor to the global burden of disease and MDD affects around 17% of the Swiss population (Tomonaga et al. 2013). It i...
