Effects of serotonin 2A/1A receptor stimulation by psilocybin on mood and emotion processing in major depressive disorder: a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study Major depressive disorder (MDD) is one of the world's greatest contributor to the global burden of disease and MDD affects around 17% of the Swiss population (Tomonaga et al. 2013). It i...
ABSTRACT Psilocybin, and its active metabolite psilocin, have been shown to elicit rapid and long-lasting symptom improvements in a variety of affective psychiatric illnesses. However, the region-specific alterations underlying these therapeutic effects remain relatively unknown. The central amygdala (CeA) is a primary output region within the extended amygd...
4-Acetoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (4-AcO-DMT, psilacetin, O-acetylpsilocin) is a synthetic tryptamine with psychedelic properties. Psilacetin may also act as precursor drug of psilocin, similar to psilocybin, but little is known about its metabolism. In this study, the phase I and phase II in vitro metabolism of 4-AcO-DMT was investigated with pooled human li...
Rationale and objectivesDifferences among psychedelic substances regarding their subjective experiences are clinically and scientifically interesting. Quantitative linguistic analysis is a powerful tool to examine such differences. This study compared five psychedelic substance report groups and a non-psychedelic report group on quantitative linguistic marke...
IntroductionPsilocybin-assisted therapy may be a new treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD), with encouraging data from pilot trials. In this trial (short name: PsiDeR) we aimed to test the feasibility of a parallel-group, randomised, placebo-controlled design. The primary outcomes in this trial are measures of feasibility: recruitment rates, dropout ...
Alcohol-dependent patients commonly show impairments in executive functions that facilitate craving and can lead to relapse. However, the molecular mechanisms leading to executive dysfunction in alcoholism are poorly understood, and new effective pharmacological treatments are desired. Here, using a bidirectional neuromodulation approach, we demonstrate a ca...
The studies of psychedelics, especially psychedelic tryptamines like psilocybin, are rapidly gaining interest in neuroscience research. Much of this interest stems from recent clinical studies demonstrating that they have a unique ability to improve the debilitating symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD) long-term after only a single treatment. Indeed, ...
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...
Clinical research into serotonergic psychedelic drugs including psilocybin, LSD and N,N-DMT (e.g., in ‘ayahuasca’) is expanding rapidly and clinical trials across a range of psychiatric conditions have shown promising efficacy, with larger trials ongoing. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has emerged as a brain imaging strategy commo...
Recently, we presented a strategy for analysis of eight biomarkers in human urine to verify toxic mushroom or Ricinus communis ingestions. However, screening for the full panel is not always necessary. Thus, we aimed to develop a strategy to reduce analysis time and by focusing on two sets of analytes. One set (A) for biomarkers of late-onset syndromes, such...
Clinical research into serotonergic psychedelic drugs including psilocybin, LSD and N,N-DMT (e.g., in ‘ayahuasca’) is expanding rapidly and clinical trials across a range of psychiatric conditions have shown promising efficacy, with larger trials ongoing. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has emerged as a brain imaging strategy commo...
Serotonergic hallucinogens psilocybin, and its active metabolite psilocin, have shown promise as rapid-acting antidepressants. The FDA granted breakthrough therapy designation for psilocybin's use as an antidepressant in 2019, and phase II clinical trials are currently ongoing. Psilocybin is converted to psilocin following oral administration, and this metab...
Hallucinogens are a loosely defined group of compounds including LSD, N,N-dimethyltryptamines, mescaline, psilocybin/psilocin, and 2,5-dimethoxy-4-methamphetamine (DOM), which can evoke intense visual and emotional experiences. We are witnessing a renaissance of research interest in hallucinogens, driven by increasing awareness of their psychotherapeutic pot...
Hallucinogenic mushroom is a kind of toxic strain containing psychoactive tryptamine substances such as psilocybin, psilocin and ibotenic acid, etc. The mushrooms containing hallucinogenic components are various, widely distributed and lack of standard to define, which made a great challenge to identification. Traditional identification methods, such as morp...
In recent years, there has been significant research on the mental health effects of classic psychedelic use, but there is very little evidence on how classic psychedelics might influence physical health. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the associations between lifetime classic psychedelic use and markers of physical health. Using data fr...
Psychedelics are new, promising candidate molecules for clinical use in psychiatric disorders such as Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD) and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). They were recently also proposed as molecules supporting neural tissue repair by anti-inflammatory properties. Here we reported that two classic psychedelics, DMT and psilocin, c...
Nicotine use and dependence, typically achieved through cigarette smoking, but increasingly through vape products, is the leading cause of preventable death today. Despite a recognition that many current smokers would like to quit, the success rate at doing so is low and indicative of the persistent nature of nicotine dependence and the high urge to relapse....
Addressing global mental health is a major 21st-century challenge. Current treatments have recognized limitations; in this context, new ones that are prophylactic and effective across diagnostic boundaries would represent a major advance. The view that there exists a core of transdiagnostic overlap between psychiatric disorders has re-emerged in recent years...
Serotonergic agonist psilocybin is a psychedelic with antidepressant potential. Sleep may interact with psilocybin's antidepressant properties like other antidepressant drugs via induction of neuroplasticity. The main aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of psilocybin on sleep architecture on the night after psilocybin administration. Regarding the po...
