Serotonergic psychedelics (e.g., psilocybin, LSD) have potential to treat psychiatric disorders, with therapeutic effects lasting days to weeks after a single dose. Prominent theories suggest that psychedelics have a lasting effect on hierarchical brain circuits, reducing top-down influence on information processing to facilitate an unbiased, bottom-up reass...
BACKGROUND: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a leading cause of disability worldwide across domains of health and cognition, affecting overall quality of life. Approximately one third of individuals with depression do not fully respond to treatments (e.g., conventional antidepressants, psychotherapy) and alternative strategies are needed. Recent early phas...
Data on medication interactions with psychedelics are limited. Here we present what may be the first published report of a hypertensive emergency following the combination of psilocybin mushrooms with a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI). A42-year-old man with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder took 1 g of Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms, while presc...
Introduction: Treatment-outcome expectancies are an individual’s beliefs about how a medical or psychological intervention will affect them and others. These response expectancies represent serious potential confounds to clinical trials of psychedelic-assisted therapies for a variety of conditions because of difficulties associated with blinding psychedelic ...
Background. Psychedelic drug policy is beginning to change, both in the U.S. and internationally. However, psychedelic use is not homogeneous, as there are multiple unique contexts for use, including clinical therapies, naturalistic use, and microdosing. There are notable differences between these contexts regarding emerging evidence for therapeutic efficacy...
PROTOCOL SYNOPSIS Title The effect of psilocybin on Major depressive disorder (MDD) symptom severity and synaptic density - a single dose randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled phase 2b positron emission tomography study Study Code PSIPET Name of Sponsor SLSO Organisationsnr: 232100-0016 Sponsor representative: Andreas Carlborg Norra Stockholms Psykiat...
Abstract Psilocybin, the natural hallucinogen produced by Psilocybe (“magic”) mushrooms, holds great promise for the treatment of depression and several other mental health conditions. The final step in the psilocybin biosynthetic pathway, dimethylation of the tryptophan-derived intermediate norbaeocystin, is catalysed by PsiM. Here we present atomic resolut...
This pilot study investigated psilocybin-induced changes in neural reactivity to alcohol and emotional cues in patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD). Participants were recruited from a phase II, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial investigating psilocybin-assisted therapy (PAT) for the treatment of AUD (NCT02061293). Eleven adult p...
BackgroundGrowing clinical interest in psychedelic-assisted therapies has led to a second wave of research involving psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and other substances. Data suggests that these compounds have the potential to treat mental health conditions that are especially prevalent in older adults ...
Abstract Objective To evaluate the feasibility and prophylactic effect of psilocybin as well as its effects on hypothalamic functional connectivity (FC) in patients with chronic cluster headache (CCH). Background CCH is an excruciating and difficult-to-treat disorder with incompletely understood pathophysiology, although hypothalamic dysfunction has been imp...
The practice of taking small, sub-hallucinogenic doses of psychedelics, known as microdosing, has exploded in popularity over the last decade. Users claim benefits ranging from improved mood and enhanced creativity to an increased sense of meaning and connectedness in life. While research on microdosing is still lagging behind the shift in public opinion, se...
There is a renewed interest in psychedelic drugs as potential therapeutic agents for the treatment of psychiatric disorders. In particular, psilocybin has shown promise for the treatment of refractory depression 1 and major depressive disorder 2, and has also been explored as a treatment for tobacco and alcohol abuse 3, 4. However, despite suggestive evidenc...
R) agonist, are reported as effective rapid-acting antidepressants. Both compounds increase glutamate signalling and evoke cortical hyperexcitation. S-ketamine induces neurotoxicity especially in the retrosplenial cortex (Olney's lesions). Whether psilocybin produces similar neurotoxic effects has so far not been investigated. We performed an immunohistochem...
Psychedelic therapy (PT) is an emerging paradigm with great transdiagnostic potential for treating psychiatric disorders, including depression, addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder, and potentially others. 'Classic' serotonergic psychedelics, such as psilocybin and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), which have a key locus of action at the 5-HT2A receptor...
