The goal of this pilot clinical trial is to learn whether it is feasible to individually tailor psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy (PAP) for people with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) based on their personal preferences. The study also aims to explore whether two different psychotherapy styles, music-centered and mindfulness-centered, influence how peop...
Affective biases are important neuropsychological mechanisms by which emotions modulate cognition, behaviour and the subjective experience of mood. Previous studies have shown that the rapid-acting antidepressant, ketamine, and serotonergic psychedelic, psilocybin, modulate affective biases in a translational rat model. Both treatments differ from convention...
PurposeTo examine the prevalence of lifetime ("ever") cannabis and classic psychedelic use, and their co-use among U.S. adults aged ≥ 50 years with versus without a lifetime history of cancer, and to describe variation by cancer type/site among survivors.MethodsWe analyzed pooled 2015-2019 and 2021-2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) data of ...
The classic psychedelic psilocybin elicits long-lasting neural plasticity and behavioral effects, but prior studies largely examined stress-naive animals. Using longitudinal imaging, we show that psilocybin increases dendritic spine density in frontal cortical neurons and facilitates fear extinction after chronic restraint stress, demonstrating psilocybin’s ...
Serotonergic psychedelics such as N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and 4-phosphoryloxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (psilocybin) show therapeutic promise for psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders but may be limited by liabilities from serotonin (5-HT)-2A mediated psychoactive effects and potential cardiotoxicity via 5-HT2B activation. To address these limitation...
Background: Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms contain the tryptamines psilocybin and psilocin, which are recognized for their therapeutic potential in mental health [1]. Additionally, due to their psychedelic effects, these mushrooms are also used for religious and recreational purposes. The increasing use of these tryptamines and other psychoactive substances ha...
Psilocybin is a federally illegal psychedelic substance that carries positive (e.g., treatment for mood disorders) and negative (e.g., emotional distress) consequences. In 2020, Oregon legalized psilocybin for adult use (21+) at the state level, restricted to designated service centers. In Fall 2024 and Spring 2026 we summarized and compared Oregon’s legal/r...
The goal of this study is to learn about the brain network response in people who have functional neurological disorder who are administered with a single dose of the psychedelic psilocybin with therapeutic support. The main question it aims to answer is: Can the default mode network, a brain network thought to be relevent in FND, be modified by the administ...
Psychedelics show therapeutic potential for treating psychiatric disorders. While studies have emphasized the roles of cortical pyramidal cells, GABAergic neurons also express serotonin receptors and are therefore likely targets of psychedelics. In this study, we determine the effect of psilocybin on the activity dynamics of major GABAergic cell types in the...
Aging is associated with chronic, low-grade inflammation (“inflammaging”), which contributes to neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders such as depression, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease. Conventional pharmacotherapies often provide limited benefit in older adults and are further complicated by polypharmacy and drug-drug interactions. ...
Abstract Background and aims Psilocybin, a psychoactive compound found in fungi commonly referred to as “magic mushrooms,” is consumed for both spiritual and recreational purposes. However, psilocybin use in Puerto Rico remains understudied. This exploratory cross-sectional survey aimed to describe patterns of use, motivations for consumption, explanatory fa...
Prolonged obesity induces enduring structural changes within neural circuits that contribute to maintaining the body at an elevated/obese body weight. These circuits regulate various mechanisms which can inhibit extreme or persistent weight loss. Therefore, a potential therapeutic strategy to facilitate weight loss is to promote structural plasticity within ...
Introduction: Psilocybin therapy has demonstrated efficacy for cancer-related anxiety and depression, but resource-intensive individual treatment models raise important questions for psychedelic public health about equitable access and scalability. In our prior Phase 1/2 study of group retreat psilocybin therapy for patients with metastatic cancer, we observ...
Psilocybin and other serotonergic drugs acutely alter human brain function and large-scale connectivity as measured with BOLD fMRI, but whether these effects are frequency-specific remains unknown. We applied multitaper spectral and cross-spectral analyses to resting-state fMRI data from 28 healthy volunteers scanned multiple times acutely following oral psi...
Prolonged grief disorder (PGD) affects approximately 10% of bereaved individuals and is now formally recognized in both the DSM-5-TR and ICD-11. Despite its prevalence, PGD often responds poorly to traditional therapeutic approaches. This manuscript outlines the protocol for an early-stage open-label feasibility trial investigating the use of psilocybin, a p...
This article presents the results of a Cognitive Linguistic analysis of metaphors used in a series of interviews by a single healthy volunteer following four moderate-to-high dosing sessions with psilocybin. The interviews were conducted by members of a human psychedelic research lab in a deep-sampling fMRI and EEG brain imaging study, allowing the participa...
The psychedelic psilocybin has shown therapeutic potential, yet underlying neural mechanisms remain poorly understood. We investigated the impact of psilocin-the active metabolite of psilocybin-on basal activity and reactivity within the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT) and PVT projections to central amygdala (CeA) in rats. Psilocin administrati...
Altered states of consciousness (ASC) represent a universal human capacity for accessing and transforming the subconscious mind, employed across cultures and millennia through diverse contemplative, somatic, pharmacological, ritual, and technological modalities. This comprehensive review synthesizes evidence from over 25 distinct disciplines spanning five cl...
This study will examine whether combining a single dose of psilocybin with non-invasive transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS), a potential inducer of neuroplasticity and enhanced memory formation, will enhance the long-term beneficial behavioral effects of psilocybin when compared to sham taVNS or no VNS by allowing memory for insights gai...
Psilocybin extends lifespan in aged mice, and this has prompted extensive media speculation about possible human longevity benefits. We examined mortality among prominent psychedelic personalities, researchers, and advocates who claimed psychedelic use (n = 11) and compared them with cancer (n = 12) and aging researchers (n = 5). All groups exceeded populati...
