Background: Emotional distress is often comorbid with serious illness, especially in individuals facing social stigmas, such as patients with HIV. Death acceptance may serve as a protective factor against such distress. Standard psychopharmacologic interventions have shown insufficient results in alleviating distress associated with serious illness. Prelimin...
Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms are typically not consumed for their nutritional value. The main reason people ingest these mushrooms is for their psychoactive effects. Recently, there has been growing interest in the potential therapeutic applications of psilocybin-containing mushrooms in a range of psychiatric conditions, including depression, anxiety disorde...
OBJECTIVE: Anxiety is common in patients receiving end-of-life care and significantly impacts their quality of life. However, pharmacological management remains challenging due to complex clinical presentations and potential side effects, emphasizing the need for systematically reviewing existing treatments. Here we aim to systematically evaluate the efficac...
Background: Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy has shown promising results for treating alcohol use disorder (AUD) and other mental health conditions. Although the precise mechanisms of psychedelic therapies remain unclear, many studies report increased feelings of connectedness following psychedelic experiences. Specifically, both nature relatedness (one’s ...
Background: Psilocybin therapy is an emerging treatment for cancer-related anxiety, depression, and existential distress. Most clinical trials to date have studied individual models of psilocybin therapy, but group models may offer increased access and benefits of community. Purpose: This technical report describes a group facilitation model developed for an...
Background: Psilocybin has been granted breakthrough therapy status in the United States, speeding its advancement from research to clinical care. Due to the controversial nature of psilocybin, psychiatrists may not be fully prepared to incorporate it into clinical practice. The current study aimed to evaluate the opinions toward psilocybin among practicing ...
OBJECTIVES: Interest in psilocybin as a treatment for depression has risen over the past decade, fuelled by promising clinical trials and a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape. Media coverage plays a critical role in shaping public perceptions, yet little is known about how psilocybin is portrayed in global anglophone online news for the treatment of depre...
Introduction:Psilocybin, a classical psychedelic, has shown to produce persistent antidepressant effects, including in patients with treatment-resistant depression. In clinical practice, it is common to coprescribe benzodiazepines (BZDs) alongside antidepressants. However, our preliminary study indicated that preadministration of lorazepam diminished the ant...
This narrative review synthesized the use of psilocybin-assisted therapy as a promising treatment for alleviating death anxiety in terminally ill patients. The insights presented are derived from findings reported in previous studies. Therefore, this review aimed to assess the efficacy, pharmacology, and mechanisms by which psilocybin alters brain function b...
Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating condition leading to significant personal and societal burden. Standard treatments frequently demonstrate limited efficacy, leading to persistent symptoms and high dropout rates. Psilocybin has shown promise in treating depression, a condition that is often comorbid with PTSD. We aimed to ex...
Griffiths et al.'s recent "Effects of Psilocybin on Religious and Spiritual Attitudes and Behaviors in Clergy from Various Major World Religions" is an important study in the literature on psychedelic medicine and religious experience. In this commentary on the study, we argue: (1) The study design's implicit presupposition of perennialism in its conception ...
Background: Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy (PAP) may be an effective intervention for a range of mental disorders. However, there appears to be a relative lack of qualitative evidence to complement emerging quantitative findings. To our knowledge, no reviews have systematically mapped the literature on qualitative studies on PAP for the treatment of menta...
Psilocybin, a naturally occurring psychedelic compound, has received attention as a novel therapeutic option for major depressive disorder (MDD), particularly in cases where traditional treatments prove ineffective. The study aims to evaluate psilocybin's therapeutic potential by examining its efficacy, safety, and mechanisms of action as well as addressing ...
OBJECTIVES: To assess the feasibility, safety and preliminary efficacy of psilocybin-assisted therapy (PAT) for demoralisation in terminally ill patients receiving home hospice care. METHODS: In this open-label pilot trial, 4607 home hospice patients at a large community hospice were screened over 22 months; 66 were approached, 15 enrolled and 10 received ps...
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...
