ObjectivesThere is an increasing interest in combining psilocybin or methylenedioxymethamphetamine with psychological support in treating psychiatric disorders. Although there have been several recent systematic reviews, study and participant numbers have been limited, and the field is rapidly evolving with the publication of more studies. We therefore condu...
Anxiety disorders are the most common type of psychiatric disorders among Western countries. Evidence-based treatment modalities including pharmacological and cognitive-behavioral therapy result in relatively low response rates (average range: 51 - 58%). Historical and recent research suggests psychedelic drugs may be efficacious in alleviating anxiety-relat...
Depression treatments succeed with many but leave others unimproved, and they can generate concerns about side effects, time, and cost. Psilocybin has generated media attention and empirical support for antidepressant effects, but lay impressions of its effectiveness are unclear. Although perceptions of treatment credibility contribute to outcome, beliefs ab...
The acute subjective effects of psychedelics are responsive to users' expectations and surroundings (i.e., "set and setting"). Accordingly, a great deal of thought has gone into designing the psychosocial context of psychedelic administration in clinical settings. But what theoretical paradigms inform these considerations about set and setting? Here, we desc...
In this study, we describe the development and initial validation of two psychometric scales for measuring psychedelic integration. Psychedelic integration refers to the post-acute period of time following psychedelic drug administration. We created the Integration Engagement Scale (IES) to capture positive behavioral engagement with integration and the Expe...
Psilocybin has shown promise for the treatment of mood disorders, which are often accompanied by cognitive dysfunction including cognitive rigidity. Recent studies have proposed neuropsychoplastogenic effects as mechanisms underlying the enduring therapeutic effects of psilocybin. In an open-label study of 24 patients with major depressive disorder, we teste...
Several pilot studies have provided evidence supporting the potential of classic psychedelics like psilocybin in the treatment of substance use disorders (SUDs). If larger trials confirm efficacy, classic psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy may eventually be integrated into existing addiction treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy, contingency manage...
Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is a major health problem with one of the highest mortalities and treatment costs of any psychiatric condition. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is currently the most widely used treatment for AN in adults but provides remission rates ≤ 50%. Treatment drop-out is exceedingly high and those that persevere with treatment often relapse,...
Hallucinogens include many different drugs, which are often called “psychedelic” drugs. The US National Institute on Drug Abuse categorizes these drugs into 2 categories: classic hallucinogens and dissociative drugs. Both types of psychedelics can lead to hallucinations - sensations and images that seem real although they are imaginary. In addition, an indiv...
Healthful behaviours such as maintaining a balanced diet, being physically active and refraining from smoking have major impacts on the risk of developing cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and other serious conditions. The burden of the so-called 'lifestyle diseases'-in personal suffering, premature mortality and public health costs-is considerable. ...
Healthful behaviors such as maintaining a balanced diet, being physically active, and refraining from smoking have major impacts on the risk of developing cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and other serious conditions. The burden of the so-called “lifestyle diseases” - in personal suffering, premature mortality, and public health costs - is consider...
Healthful behaviors such as maintaining a balanced diet, being physically active, and refraining from smoking have major impacts on the risk of developing cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and other serious conditions. The burden of the so-called “lifestyle diseases” - in personal suffering, premature mortality, and public health costs - is consider...
This review illustrates the relevance of shamanism and its evolution under effects of psilocybin as a framework for identifying evolved aspects of psychedelic set and setting. Effects of 5HT2 psychedelics on serotonin, stress adaptation, visual systems and personality illustrate adaptive mechanisms through which psychedelics could have enhanced hominin evolu...
Accumulating clinical evidence shows that psychedelic therapy, by synergistically combining psychopharmacology and psychological support, offers a promising transdiagnostic treatment strategy for a range of disorders with restricted and/or maladaptive habitual patterns of emotion, cognition and behavior, notably, depression (MDD), treatment resistant depress...
IntroductionMental illness has a chronic course of illness with a number of clinical manifestations. Affected individuals experience significant functional, emotional, cognitive, and/or behavioral impairments. The growing prevalence of mental illness has been associated with significant social and economic costs. Indeed, the economic burden of mental illness...
The concept of self and self-referential processing has a growing explanatory value in psychiatry and neuroscience, referring to the cognitive organization and perceptual differentiation of self-stimuli in health and disease. Conditions in which selfhood loses its natural coherence offer a unique opportunity for elucidating the mechanisms underlying self-dis...
Depression is a major public health problem that affects approximately 4.4% of the global population. Since conventional pharmacotherapies and psychotherapies are only partially effective, as demonstrated by the number of patients failing to achieve remission, alternative treatments are needed. Mindfulness meditation (MM) and psilocybin represent two promisi...
The efficacy of psychedelic-assisted therapies for mental disorders has been attributed to the lasting change from experiential avoidance to acceptance that these treatments appear to facilitate. This article presents a conceptual model that specifies potential psychological mechanisms underlying such change, and that shows substantial parallels between psyc...
BackgroundA resurgence of neurobiological and clinical research is currently underway into the therapeutic potential of serotonergic or 'classical' psychedelics, such as the prototypical psychedelic drug lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin (4-phosphoryloxy-N,Ndimethyltryptamine), and ayahuasca - a betacarboline- and dimethyltryptamine (DMT)-containi...
