Background and aimsPsychedelic drug use is increasing due in part to local legislative reforms. Understanding the patterns of first-time psychedelic drug use is imperative for informing consumers, healthcare providers, and policy makers.Design setting and participantsThe National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) is a repeated cross-sectional nationally ...
Background: Informed consent in psychedelic-assisted services is ethically complex, difficult to implement, and remains largely unstudied and unstandardized. Objective: The current study sought expert recommendations from experienced psychedelic facilitators on what constitutes informed consent best practices for supervised psychedelic experiences across var...
Background: Informed consent in psychedelic-assisted services is ethically complex, difficult to implement, and remains largely unstudied and unstandardized. Objective: The current study sought expert recommendations from experienced psychedelic facilitators on what constitutes informed consent best practices for supervised psychedelic experiences across var...
In Canada, the use of both prescription medications and psychedelics has become increasingly prevalent. As of 2022, approximately 16.5% of Canadians-about 6.3 million individuals-were prescribed at least one antidepressant, with fluoxetine remaining one of the most commonly used options (IQVIA, 2023). Benzodiazepine use, including drugs like alprazolam, rang...
The legal status of psilocybin mushrooms in Brazil remains ambiguous, despite increasing global scientific and public interest in their therapeutic and ceremonial use. This commentary examines the regulatory uncertainty surrounding psilocybin mushrooms in Brazil and situates the debate within broader legal, drug policy, public health, and Indigenous rights d...
Psilocybin is a hallucinogen with complex neurobiological and behavioral effects. Underlying these effects are changes in brain neuroplasticity. We hypothesized psilocybin given during adolescence, a time of heightened neuroplasticity, particularly in the forebrain, would affect emotional behavior and the associated underlying neuroanatomy, neurocircuitry, a...
Unknown journal2026-02-17Sahoo I, Masadi S, Maheswari A, Utama R, Abeer MI, Soltanpour S, Nasseef MT, Chukwuemeka T, Sinhal N, Pandit J, Ortiz RJ, Cavallaro N, Brengel E, Kulkarni PP, Gitcho MA, Ferris CF.
Europe PMCPublishedpsilocybinNeuroplasticityBrain ImagingMechanism of ActionBiomarkersAgingEpigeneticsEmotional ProcessingAnimal StudyAnimal StudyBrainNeural Pathways
Demoralization syndrome (DS) - a distinct clinical entity characterized by helplessness, hopelessness, and a persistent loss of meaning - affects approximately one in five Canadians with advanced cancer and is associated with increased desire for hastened death, negative clinical outcomes, and higher economic burden, yet recognition and treatment of DS remai...
The overall objective of this study is to develop and pilot test a novel regimen of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for demoralization in patients receiving hospice care. -The name of the study drug involved in this study is Psilocybin The purpose of this research is to understand how psilocybin-assisted therapy may be adapted in the context of hospice car...
Demoralization syndrome (DS) - a distinct clinical entity characterized by helplessness, hopelessness, and a persistent loss of meaning - affects approximately one in five Canadians with advanced cancer and is associated with increased desire for hastened death, negative clinical outcomes, and higher economic burden, yet recognition and treatment of DS remai...
People with cancer often experience anxiety and depression following a diagnosis and can face barriers to accessing treatment for their mental health. An increasing number of patients are considering alternative approaches to managing their mental health symptoms, such as the psychedelic, psilocybin. A growing number of clinical trials show significant and e...
In our original case report we provide detailed accounts of two research participants who reported the emergence of spontaneously recovered, previously forgotten traumatic memories of sexual assaults during psilocybin treatment. In their commentary of this article, Kangaslampi et al. argue that we preemptively label the experiences as dissociated traumatic m...
BackgroundMajor depressive disorder (MDD) is the leading cause of disability worldwide, affecting roughly 322 million people. Recently, doses of psilocybin have shown promise in treating mood disorders, sparking interest in other dosing practices. According to anecdotal reports and observational studies, microdosing psilocybin yields benefits to mental healt...
Unknown journal2026-02-15Beidas Z, Ragnhildstveit A, Blackman A, Anderson T, Fewster E, Syed OA, Sobolenko V, Kanca IK, Jaglinska M, Son T, Farb N, Petranker R.
Europe PMCPublishedpsilocybinDepressionMicrodosingWellbeingCreativityClinical TrialReview ArticleObservational StudySafetyClinical Trial
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic, often debilitating psychiatric condition characterized by intrusive thoughts and behavioral or mental rituals. Although exposure and response prevention (ERP) remains the first line treatment, many individuals do not experience full remission, highlighting the need for innovation. This review provides a compr...
We carried out a systematic review of modern-era (1990-2025) placebo-controlled studies assessing the acute and post-acute effects of lysergic acid diethylamide, dimethyltryptamine and psilocybin on cognitive and psychological functions. From February 28 to March 19, 2025, PubMed and APA PsychINFO were systematically searched for placebo-controlled studies e...
Mitochondrial dysfunction is increasingly recognized as a central driver of Alzheimer's disease (AD), contributing to neuroinflammation, synaptic failure, and energy collapse.Emerging preclinical evidence suggests that classic hallucinogens, such as psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), mescaline, may restore mitochondri...
Unknown journal2026-02-15Minauro-Sanmiguel F, Vargas-Perez H.
Europe PMCPublishedpsilocybinNeuroplasticityMechanism of ActionReceptor PharmacologyMitochondrial FunctionOxidative StressResilienceAnimal StudySafetyInflammationAnimal StudyMitochondriaAnimals
BackgroundPsilocybin-assisted therapy has emerged as a promising treatment for major depressive disorder, but little attention has been paid to the psychotherapy that adjoins psilocybin. Providing an adjunctive psychotherapy that is manualized and evidence-based may make psilocybin treatment more acceptable, effective, and disseminable. We examined the accep...
The neurotic disorders (e.g., depression, dysthymia, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia, social anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder) are costly and difficult to treat. Diagnosis is based on symptoms not biological causes. Here, we summarize New Zealand-based work developing EEG biomarkers and nove...
The serotonergic psychedelic psilocybin induces neural plasticity and profoundly alters consciousness. The benzodiazepine midazolam blunts neural plasticity and induces conscious sedation and amnesia at low doses. In our recent open label pilot study, we administered oral psilocybin (25 mg) along with intravenous midazolam at doses allowing a full psychedeli...
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...
Glaucoma is increasingly recognized as an ischemic neurodegenerative disorder that extends beyond elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) to involve complex vascular, metabolic, and inflammatory mechanisms. Retinal ganglion cells are particularly vulnerable to ischemia-reperfusion injury, oxidative stress, and chronic neuroinflammation, leading to progressive di...
