Hallucinogen-Assisted Psychotherapy for Trauma Disorders: A Bionian Lens.

There has been an increasing interest in the use of classic psychedelics (such as psilocybin) and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) for treating mental health conditions. Individuals often describe psychedelic sessions as among the most significant experiences in their lives, emphasizing the sense of awe, connectedness, and spiritual transformation ta...

Expectations and Motivations for Participation in Clinical Trials Utilizing Psychedelics for Treatment-Resistant Depression: A Qualitative Study.

PurposeExpectations strongly shape participant experiences in clinical trials, contributing to placebo effects that complicate interpretation of outcomes. While quantitative tools exist to measure expectations, their subjective and multidimensional nature, especially for individuals with treatment-resistant depression (TRD), remains underexplored. This study...

Psychedelic Therapy and the Role of Music: A Scoping Review of Quantitative Evidence on Subjective and Objective Outcomes.

PurposePsychedelics have received considerable attention due to their potential in treating psychiatric disorders. The "setting" during psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) is recognized as playing a central role in the experience, during which music features prominently. Although music is theorized as directing and shaping psychedelic sessions, its precise co...

Trials, trips, and tribulations: pathways for implementing psychedelic therapy in Ireland.

Classical serotonergic psychedelics, such as psilocybin, show emerging evidence of therapeutic potential across a range of mental health disorders, including depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders, with indications of transdiagnostic efficacy. While early-phase studies yielded encouraging results, recent larger-scale phase 3 trials, such as those e...

Studies on enzymatic hydrolysis of psilocin-O-glucuronide for screening of psilocin in human urine by liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry.

Psilocin is a psychedelic indole alkaloid and one of the major human metabolites of its phosphorylated precursor, psilocybin. Psilocin binds to the serotonin receptor, 5-HT2A, and dose-dependently induces hallucinogenic effects stronger than psilocybin. As a result, psilocin has been a drug of interest in the analytical toxicology community for years. In viv...

Classic psychedelics and personality: An updated systematic review.

BackgroundThe impact of classic psychedelics (5-HT2A receptor agonists) on personality traits has been studied for decades, and it has been hypothesized that the mechanisms underlying these changes are linked to agonism at cortical serotonergic 5-HT2A receptors. However, research results are contradictory. Therefore, the present paper aims to systematically ...

A systematic review of the pharmacokinetics of classical serotonergic psychedelic compounds in healthy adult subjects.

IntroductionDespite renewed investigations into classical psychedelic compounds, their pharmacokinetic profiles remain incompletely understood.MethodsThis systematic review collated data from healthy adult volunteers on the pharmacokinetic properties of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), mescaline, and 5-methoxy-N,N-dimet...

Effects of psilocybin on sleep quality and brain microstructure in chronic cluster headache.

BackgroundPatients with chronic cluster headache (CCH) suffer from poor sleep, which may impact their brain microstructure and parenchymal clearance of waste products. Psilocybin has shown promise for the treatment of CCH and has been linked to increased neuroplasticity with possible influences on brain microstructure.AimsTo investigate the effects of psiloc...

A spatiotemporal gating hypothesis for psilocybin plasticity: reconciling the 5-HT₂A-TrkB mechanistic paradox.

Psychedelic-induced hypomania and mania: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Serotonergic psychedelics are increasingly investigated as treatments for affective disorders. Concerns persist regarding their potential to induce hypomania or mania, particularly in individuals with bipolar spectrum vulnerability. Whether these substances precipitate transient mood switches or contribute to persistent bipolar illness or diagnostic transiti...

Psilocybin-induced neurocardiogenic syncope: a case report.

BackgroundPsilocybin is among the serotonergic psychedelics closest to potential FDA approval, with growing evidence of therapeutic benefit across psychiatric conditions. As clinical trials expand, systematic characterization of adverse events (AEs) remains essential. While transient hypertensive responses are well documented, hypotensive events such as neur...

Blinding integrity in psychedelic research: Evidence from a comparative randomized controlled trial of psilocybin, MDMA, and methylphenidate in healthy volunteers.

Maintaining effective blinding is a major methodological challenge in psychedelic research. This study provides a comprehensive evaluation of blinding integrity in 120 healthy volunteers who received either psilocybin, MDMA, or methylphenidate (active placebo) in a double-blind, randomized controlled trial. Using a multi-level assessment incorporating forced...

Retail Availability of Intoxicating Cannabis and Mushroom Products Across Eleven U.S. Cities: Sales Persist Despite Prohibitions.

ObjectiveRetail sales of intoxicants, including derived intoxicating cannabis products (DICPs) such as delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and hallucinogenic mushrooms, have rapidly increased throughout the US, despite their sale being federally illegal. This study assessed DICP and hallucinogenic mushroom availability in US smoke shops with differing DICP an...

Transient multidomain functional improvement in advanced Alzheimer's disease following high-dose psilocybin-containing mushroom administration: a case report.

BackgroundAdvanced Alzheimer's disease (AD) is generally regarded as a stage of irreversible functional decline. Psilocybin is known to transiently alter large-scale brain network dynamics and to induce plasticity-related mechanisms in preclinical models, yet clinical data in advanced dementia remain lacking.Case presentationWe report the case of an octogena...

Long-Term Efficacy of Psilocybin with Adjunct Psychotherapy in Treatment-Resistant Major Depression (EPIsoDE): 6- and 12-Month Naturalistic Follow-Up of a Phase 2b Trial.

IntroductionPsilocybin shows promise for treatment-resistant depression (TRD), but long-term data are limited. This study examined the antidepressant effect of one or two psilocybin doses with adjunct psychotherapy in TRD until twelve months.MethodsThis is a naturalistic follow-up of a phase 2b, randomized, active placebo-controlled trial, where participants...

Correction: Catatonia Associated With First-Time Psilocybin Exposure: A Case Report.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.7759/cureus.106474.].

Environmental and Internal Gating of Memory: ARCH Multiplicative Threshold Framework for Encoding and Retrieval

Memory encoding depends on the joint convergence of substrate readiness, internal drive, environmental input, and a permissive temporal-physiological state. The same logic recurs across vertebrate learning systems: hippocampal-dependent spatial and schema-modulated memory (the Navigia substrate in the Systema Behavorum taxonomy), filial imprinting in the chi...

Epigenome-wide association study of psilocybin-induced methylome changes in alcohol use disorder.

The serotonergic hallucinogen psilocybin has shown potential as a treatment for psychiatric conditions like alcohol use disorder (AUD) and depression in clinical studies. Epigenetic mechanisms, including DNA methylation, are hypothesized to contribute to its lasting therapeutic benefits. In this exploratory study, we present the first methylome-wide analysis...

Mystery shopper assessments of cannabis retailer practices and regulatory compliance in five U.S. states, 2025.

ObjectiveThis study used mystery shoppers to assess cannabis retail practices in 5 US states regulating legal nonmedical cannabis retail.MethodsThis mystery shopper study assessed 130 cannabis retailers in 5 cities (Los Angeles [LA], California; Las Vegas [LV], Nevada; Denver, Colorado; Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington) in summer 2025. Researchers recor...

Psilocybin modulates social behaviour in male and female mice in a time-dependent manner.

With the resurgence of psychedelic research and growing evidence of their therapeutic potential, there is an urgent need to understand how these compounds act across biological sexes. Despite widespread interest in their use for conditions marked by social impairments, including depression, anxiety, and anorexia nervosa, the influence of sex as a biological ...