Effects of psychedelic use on authoritarian attitudes revisited.

BackgroundPrevious research suggests that psychedelics may, under certain conditions, decrease authoritarian attitudes, but larger and more rigorously designed studies are needed to confirm these findings.AimsWe aimed to examine the effects of psychedelic use on authoritarian attitudes.MethodsUsing data from three separate studies with different designs and ...

Efficacy and Safety of Psilocybin in Treatment-Resistant Major Depression: The EPISODE Randomized Clinical Trial.

ImportancePsilocybin shows promise in treating depression, although limitations of previous research warrant further research.ObjectiveTo investigate the efficacy and safety of oral psilocybin, 25 mg, with adjunct psychotherapy in treatment-resistant depression (TRD).Design, setting, and participantsThis was a 2-center, triple-blinded (investigator, particip...

Enlightenment in a Pill-Testing the Efficacy of Psilocybin.

Psilocybin in the Treatment of Cocaine Use Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

ImportanceCocaine use disorder is a serious public health problem and no medications have been proven effective for its treatment.ObjectiveTo evaluate psilocybin in the treatment of cocaine use disorder. It was hypothesized that psilocybin, compared with placebo, would yield a higher percentage of cocaine abstinent days, a greater likelihood of complete abst...

Pilot Results for Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy for Cocaine Use Disorder-A Critical Appraisal.

Short-Term and Late-Term Effects of Psilocybin on Symptoms in Major Depression: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

ImportancePsilocybin has been proposed as a rapid-acting antidepressant (onset 6 weeks), but evidence from randomized clinical trials remains limited, particularly in the broader major depressive disorder (MDD) population.ObjectiveTo assess short-term and long-term antidepressant effects of psilocybin therapy in patients with MDD.Design, setting, and partici...

New Approach Methodologies and Open Access Tools Help Characterize Risks for DART, DNT, or Endocrine Effects From Exposure to Hallucinogens With Potential Pesticide Contaminants.

BackgroundPsilocybe mushrooms (psilocybin/psilocin [PSI/PSC]) and ayahuasca (N,N-dimethyltryptamine [DMT]) are hallucinogenic serotonergic agonists. Pregnant and lactating women are frequently omitted from clinical studies; hence minimal developmental/reproductive/neurotoxicity (DART/DNT) and endocrine disruption (ED) data in humans are available. Hallucinog...

Pharmacotherapeutic Management of Depression in Patients With Cancer: A Review of Mechanistic and Clinical Evidence.

BackgroundDepression is a prevalent comorbidity in cancer, yet conventional treatments show inconsistent efficacy. This review sought to provide a mechanism-based framework for managing cancer-related depression by exploring its unique pathophysiology and evaluating promising pharmacotherapies based on their alignment with these biological pathways. This nar...

Synthesis of Amines for Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Using the Whole-Cell Factory Saccharomyces Cerevisae.

Whole-cell biocatalysis offers a sustainable alternative to traditional chemical synthesis for producing pharmaceutically relevant, often chiral, amines and amino acids. Saccharomyces cerevisiae has emerged as a privileged microbial chassis due to its robustness, ease of genetic manipulation, and GRAS status. This concise review summarizes recent advances in...

Psilocin glucuronide in whole blood: a stable and useful biomarker of psilocybin intake.

Detecting psilocybin use is challenging because it rapidly converts to its psychoactive metabolite psilocin, and both compounds are unstable in blood. Bufotenin, a structural isomer of psilocin, may exhibit comparable instability in blood. For reliable detection, we developed and validated an LC-MS/MS method to simultaneously quantify psilocin, bufotenin, an...

Does Psychological Flexibility Correlate with Mystical Experiences: A Machine Learning Approach Including State of Surrender, Near-Death Experiences, and Psilocybin Consumption.

Mystical experiences are characterized by a profound sense of interconnectedness and transcendence of ordinary reality. These experiences can facilitate feelings of connectedness with oneself and others and have been documented as leading to significant positive changes in thoughts, emotions, and behavior. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the...

The Ecstasy of Gold in Neurodiversity: Focus on the Use of Psychedelics in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Psychedelic drugs are serotonergic hallucinogens that can be divided into two types: naturally occurring (psilocybin, psilocin, and N,N-dimethyltryptamine) and synthetic (LSD, MDMA, 2,5-dimethoxy-4-iodoamphetamine, and ketamine). Psychedelics generally work on 5-hydroxytryptamine receptors and might be useful in cognitive enhancement, brain connectivity, neu...

A128-Channel Wireless Wearable Myolink (W2 Myolink): Functional Characteristics and Multidisciplinary Experiments

Abstract This paper presents Wireless Wearable Myolink (W2 Myolink), a high-density, battery-powered system for wireless acquisition of surface electromyography(EMG) signals, and demonstrates its practicality across diverse experimentalparadigms. The device features a compact form factor (110x70x35 mm), low weight(160 g), and continuous operation for up to 6...

Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for psycho-existential distress in advanced cancer: a narrative review.

IntroductionThis article presents a narrative review of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy as a promising intervention for addressing anxiety, depression and psycho-existential distress in patients with advanced cancer. This group of disorders, often resistant to conventional treatments, significantly impacts patients' quality of life and autonomy, as well as...

Fusing Specialized Surveys of Rare Populations to Larger Surveys for Generalized Inference: Cross-Sectional Survey Study.

BackgroundMainstays of pharmacoepidemiology are large, representative, behavioral surveys, which focus on many drugs with few detailed behaviors. Smaller, targeted studies measure drug-specific patterns but without explicit generalizability assumptions; the evidence generated is narrow.ObjectiveIn this cross-sectional survey study, we outline an estimation f...

"Large-Scale and Local Functional Connectivity Changes Following Psilocybin Administration in Methamphetamine Use Disorder.

Background and purposeMethamphetamine (MA) use disorder is associated with widespread disruption of large-scale brain networks involved in cognitive control, attention, and salience processing. Resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) provides a means to characterize these alterations; however, little is known about the capacity for functional network reorgani...

Psilocybin ameliorates neuropathic pain-like behaviour in mice and facilitates gabapentin-mediated analgesia.

Chronic pain states remain challenging to control with current drug therapies. Here, we demonstrate that a single dose of psilocybin produces a sustained anti-nociceptive effect in chronic neuropathic pain models in male and female mice, mediated primarily by 5-HT2A receptors. Critically, psilocybin significantly potentiates the analgesic efficacy of gabapen...

Methamphetamine-Fentanyl Polysubstance Administration Produces Social Deficits and Corticolimbic Stress-Reward Circuit Adaptations

Abstract Rationale and Objectives: Polysubstance use involving psychostimulants and opioids is increasingly prevalent and associated with elevated overdose risk, relapse vulnerability, and poor treatment outcomes. However, the neurobehavioral consequences of opioid-stimulant use remain poorly understood. We evaluated whether repeated methamphetamine-fentanyl...

Serotonergic psychedelics for Autism spectrum disorder: Neurobiological mechanisms and translational prospects.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by persistent social-communication deficits, cognitive rigidity, and atypical sensory processing. Current pharmacological treatments, including risperidone and aripiprazole, provide only limited symptomatic relief and do not address the underlying neurobiological mechanisms. Converging evidence implicates dysre...

Prevalence and Correlates of Past-Year Psilocybin Use in the United States.