BackgroundBacillus subtilis is a probiotic strain that is widely used as a feed supplement for ruminants. In this study, one B. subtilis strain isolated from the ruminal fluid of Holstein dairy cows was used for an ex vivo study with ruminal tissue explants. The main goal was to assess the potential endosymbiotic links between B. subtilis and the ruminal epi...
Psilocybin and psilocin, two psychoactive components found in “magic mushrooms,” have therapeutic potential in a number of mental health disorders without the addictiveness and overdose risks found in other mind-altering drugs, such as cocaine, methamphetamines and alcohol. Psychedelic mushrooms occur naturally, are wide distributed and easily accessible. Th...
BackgroundThere are currently relatively few effective pharmacological treatments for obesity, and existing ones may be associated with limiting side-effects. In the search for novel anti-obesity agents, drugs that modify central serotonergic systems have historically proven to be effective in promoting weight loss. Psilocin, which is rapidly metabolized fro...
Langlitz and colleagues wrote about clinically used psychedelic drugs and the possibility of a “moral psychopharmacology” earlier in this journal (1). They emphasized the context-dependency of the effects of these substances (e.g., ayahuasca, psilocybin) and the importance of understanding their impact on social and moral cognition, particularly now that the...
Background: Across psychotherapeutic frameworks, the strength of the therapeutic alliance has been found to correlate with treatment outcomes; however, its role has never been formally assessed in a trial of psychedelic-assisted therapy. We aimed to investigate the relationships between therapeutic alliance and rapport, the quality of the acute psychedelic e...
Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy, i.e., psilocybin treatment with psychological support, has demonstrated the efficacy of psilocybin to reduce depressive symptoms. However, in clinical trials, the structure of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy is primarily based on preparation, navigation (support during dosing sessions), and integration. For psychotherapeu...
BackgroundThe current study is one of the first to examine race, ethnic, and sex differences in the prevalence of and trends in hallucinogen use among lifetime users in the United States.MethodsData came from the 2015-2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health and included respondent's reporting ever-using hallucinogens (n = 41,060; female = 40.4%). Descrip...
Psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin have shown substantial promise for the treatment of several psychiatric conditions including mood and addictive disorders. They also have the remarkable property of producing persisting positive psychological changes in healthy volunteers for at least several months. In this study (NCT03289949), 35 medium-high doses of ps...
Psilocybin (a serotonin 2A, or 5-HT2A, receptor agonist) has shown preliminary efficacy as a treatment for mood and substance use disorders. The current report utilized positron emission tomography (PET) with the selective 5-HT2A receptor inverse agonist radioligand [11C]MDL100,907 (a.k.a. M100,907) and cortical regions of interest (ROIs) derived from restin...
Various metabolites identified with therapeutic mushrooms have been found from different sources and are known to have antibacterial, antiviral, and anticancer properties. Over thousands soil growth-based mushroom metabolites have been discovered, and utilized worldwide to combat malignancy. In this study, psilocybin-mushroom that contains the psychedelic co...
Psychedelic-assisted therapy research for depression and PTSD has been fast tracked in the United States with the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) granting breakthrough designations for MDMA (post-traumatic stress disorder) and psilocybin (major depressive disorder). The psychotherapeutic treatments accompanying these psychedelics have not been well-studi...
Background: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a serious and life-threatening psychiatric condition. With a paucity of approved treatments, there is a desperate need for novel treatment avenues to be explored. Here, we present (1) an overview of the ways through which Public Patient Involvement (PPI) has informed a trial of psilocybin-assisted therapy for AN and (2) a...
Our hominin ancestors inevitably encountered and likely ingested psychedelic mushrooms throughout their evolutionary history. This assertion is supported by current understanding of: early hominins' paleodiet and paleoecology; primate phylogeny of mycophagical and self-medicative behaviors; and the biogeography of psilocybin-containing fungi. These lines of ...
The publication in April 2021 of the Imperial College London Phase II study investigating \nthe efficacy of psilocybin-assisted therapy vs. escitalopram for depression reported differences \nin the primary outcome measure (the QIDS-SR16) between experimental and control arms as \nstatistically insignificant (1). However, secondary measures of dep...
Spontaneous Spiritual Awakenings (SSAs) are subjective experiences characterised by a sudden sense of direct contact, union, or complete nondual merging (experience of oneness) with a perceived ultimate reality, the universe, "God," or the divine. These profound transformative experiences have scarcely been researched, despite extensive anecdotal evidence su...
Rationale: Previous studies with the serotonergic hallucinogens LSD and psilocybin showed that these drugs induced changes in personality traits, such as increases in Openness. However, results are inconsistent, and the effects of ayahuasca on personality were never investigated in a controlled trial. Objectives: To assess the effects of ayahuasca on persona...
In the last 15 years, psychedelic substances, such as LSD and psilocybin, have regained legitimacy in clinical research. In the general population as well as across various psychiatric populations, mental well-being has been found to significantly improve after a psychedelic experience. Mental well-being has large socioeconomic relevance, but it is a complex...
Background: One of the main public health strategies adopted at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic consisted of implementing strict lockdowns to stop the transmission of the virus. Despite being an effective measure, the confinement and the associated social isolation create a stressful, potentially lengthy situations that has been proven to have several...
Psilocybin has a long history of non-medical use and some seem to infer from this that it has therapeutic utility. Early phase clinical trials with psilocybin are encouraging, but suggest only that larger, multicentre trials are required. These are ongoing but will take many years to complete. Meanwhile, retreat centers offering paid experiences with psilocy...
