Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic rational for expanding the therapeutic landscape of psilocybin beyond depression.

The entropic brain today.

Introduced in 2014 and revised in 2018, the entropic brain hypothesis has accrued a wealth of supportive evidence. The hypothesis states that-along a dimension of the size of phenomenal consciousness-expansive states reliably exhibit increased brain entropy whereas the inverse applies for states of no or reduced consciousness. Examples of expansive states in...

The effects of psychedelics on attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder - a systematic review.

ObjectivesAttention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent neuropsychiatric disorder (Drechsler et al., 2020). Recently, psychedelics have become of interest regarding developing treatment options for ADHD. The aim of this systematic review is to find all studies from the APA PsychInfo and MEDLINE databases, where psychedelics have been use...

Alcohol consumption and substance use among French medical students: A nationwide cross-sectional study: Consommation d'alcool et de substances chez les étudiants en médecine de France: une étude transversale nationale.

ObjectivesMedical students are known to face significant psychological distress, making them vulnerable to substance use. There are few data on alcohol and drug consumption among medical students. The aim was to assess the prevalence of substance use, especially alcohol, in French medical students.MethodsThis cross-sectional nationwide study was conducted on...

Psychedelics disrupt hierarchical cortical propagations in the default mode network of humans and mice.

Psychedelic drugs are poised to become mainstream treatments, yet we lack a circuit-level account of how they reshape brain activity. Emerging evidence suggests that multiple psychedelic compounds modulate activity in the brain's default mode network (DMN), often interpreted as either increased or decreased bottom-up hierarchical processing. Most imaging stu...

Correction to: Preliminary Evidence of Sleep Improvements Following Psilocybin Administration, and their Involvement in Antidepressant Therapeutic Action.

Phylogenomic systematics of Lanmaoa (Boletaceae) reveals cryptic diversity, resolves global evolutionary relationships, and suggests a novel psychoactive lineage.

The genus Lanmaoa is a globally distributed, economically important group of mushroom-forming fungi in the family Boletaceae containing edible and psychoactive species. Despite the growing interest in its hallucinogenic properties, the fundamental systematics of this genus remains poorly resolved due to limited taxon sampling and limited genetic characteriza...

Prenatal stress, excitatory-inhibitory imbalance, and ADHD risk: a hypothesis-driven perspective on psilocybin-induced neuroplasticity.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a prevalent neurodevelopmental condition in which prenatal stress and long-lasting disruptions of excitatory-inhibitory (E/I) balance have been implicated as key vulnerability factors. Although established pharmacological and behavioral treatments are effective for many individuals, they are not universally ...

Developing Methods for Observing Awe Narration in Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy.

Background: Understanding the benefits of psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) will require scientific attention to the causal interaction between the therapeutic context and process. Measuring what actually happens during PAT in large-scale studies will be an essential component of this work. Objective: We aim to develop and preliminarily evaluate the feasibi...

A cross-national comparison of nonmedical and medical use of psychedelic drugs in the international cannabis policy study.

BackgroundWe know little about the extent psychedelic substances are consumed therapeutically and/or discussed with medical professionals despite renewed global interest in these substances.MethodsWe examined self-reported responses from the 2023 International Cannabis Policy Study (ICPS) in repeated cross-sectional surveys in Canada, the United States, Aust...

Classic Psychedelics for Chronic Pain: A Critical Review of the Literature and Practical Advice for Clinicians.

Chronic pain is common, costly, and for many, remains inadequately treated by existing pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic approaches. In parallel with growing dissatisfaction with conventional therapies, classic serotonergic psychedelics, such as psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), ayahuasca, N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), and mescaline, administer...

Substance-induced manic psychosis in which delusions were corroborated by a chatbot - case report.

BackgroundThis case describes a substance-induced manic episode with psychotic features in which interaction with an AI (artificial intelligence) chatbot appeared to corroborate and reinforce the patient's delusional thought content and to contradict medical advice. Excerpts from the patient's interactions with the AI chatbot provide novel clinical insight i...

Changes in anxiety, quality of life, and functioning following psilocybin-assisted therapy in veterans with treatment-resistant depression.

BackgroundPsilocybin has demonstrated promise for improving depressive symptoms in treatment-resistant depression, but its effects on anxiety, quality of life, functioning, and posttraumatic stress symptoms are less well studied. This study reports exploratory findings from an open-label trial in Veterans with TRD.MethodsParticipants received a single 25-mg ...

Current status and future prospects of research on psilocybin's regulation of neurotransmitters and their receptors related to the pathogenesis of tinnitus.

Subjective tinnitus is a common auditory disorder characterised by the subjective perception of noise in the absence of external sound sources. Its prevalence has been rising annually due to noise exposure, medication misuse, and population ageing. Current tinnitus treatments employ antidepressants, anticonvulsants, and vasodilators, yet most demonstrate lim...

Bringing Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy to Palliative Oncology: Early Lessons from Real-World Implementation.

Background/Objectives: Psilocybin-assisted therapy (PAT) is a promising intervention to alleviate existential distress among patients with advanced cancer receiving palliative care. However, evidence on how to integrate PAT into routine oncology and palliative care services remains scarce. This study aimed to examine real-world PAT implementation, identify f...

Prolonged Grief Symptom Outcomes During At-Home Ketamine-Assisted Therapy: A Real-World Retrospective Analysis of 503 Adults

Abstract Background Prolonged grief disorder (PGD) is a clinically distinguishable bereavement-related condition characterized by persistent yearning, identity disruption, and impaired functioning, formalized in DSM-5-TR and ICD-11 (6L72) and empirically distinguishable from but frequently co-occurring with major depressive disorder. Approximately 7 to 10 pe...

Time to embrace the whole: considering the replacement of psilocybin with Psilocybe spp. in psychedelic research and therapy.

Psilocybin, the main psychoactive compound in Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms, has gained considerable attention for its therapeutic potential. Current research focuses only on isolated psilocybin, neglecting the broader pharmacological and cultural use of the whole mushroom. This perspective advocates for an integrative approach that includes standardised P. c...

Integrating the Mystical Experience Questionnaire Into a Broader Psychometric Framework: English Validation of the Psychedelic Experience Scale and Comparison of Psilocybin and LSD Sessions Across Two Controlled Settings.

ObjectivesFor English, the validated part of Psychedelic Experience Scale (PES48) is a four-factor structure called the Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ30). The other validated part of the PES48 consists of four more factors: two more mystical factors (paradoxicality and connectedness, which together with the MEQ30 form the MEQ40), and two more non-mys...

Global increases in brain glucose metabolism following acute N,N-dimethyltryptamine and harmine administration in healthy volunteers: A randomised [18F]FDG-PET study.

Classical psychedelics such as N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) modulate consciousness via serotonergic receptor agonism, and are increasingly investigated for their psychotherapeutic potential. When combined with the monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) inhibitor harmine-mimicking the pharmacological profile of ayahuasca-oral DMT induces a psychedelic experience lasting...

Psilocybin Decreases Preference for Large Rewards Accompanied by Increased Activity of Parvalbumin Neurons With Perineuronal Nets in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex.

Clinical trials suggest that a single dose of psilocybin may be an effective treatment for substance use disorders. Choice impulsivity is a value-based decision-making bias that predicts drug-intake escalation and is commonly associated with substance use disorders. The dorsomedial prefrontal cortex regulates choice impulsivity and is enriched with 5-HT2A re...