Expectancy effects for many psychoactive substances appear to play a role in consumption, problematic use, subjective responses to acute administration, and subsequent effects. Expectancies of psychedelics have received little attention in published research despite their reputation for creating dramatic changes in subjective state. Psilocybin-assisted treat...
There has been an increase in research on the topic of psychedelic substances and their effects as treatment options in neuropsychiatric conditions. Psilocybin is a psychedelic drug that has recently garnered increased interest as an effective treatment modality for treatment-resistant depression, depression associated with terminal conditions, certain subst...
Patients characterized by stress-related disorders such as depression display elevated circulating concentrations of pro-inflammatory cytokines and a hyperactive HPA axis. Psychedelics are demonstrating promising results in treatment of such disorders, however the mechanisms of their therapeutic effects are still unknown. To date the evidence of acute and pe...
Psilocin is an active substance and a dephosphorylated product of psilocybin formed after the ingestion of mushrooms. The low stability caused by the quick oxidation of this analyte requires sensitive methods for its determination in biological matrices. In this work, we described the development, optimization and validation of a method for the quantificatio...
High Resolution Image Download MS PowerPoint Slide While correlations between drug-induced cortisol elevation, self-reported anxiety, and treatment outcomes have been reported for human studies during psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy, the mechanistic relationship between psychedelic-associated alterations in plasma glucocorticoid responses and the time cour...
Natural psychedelic compounds are emerging as potential novel therapeutics in psychiatry. This review will discuss how natural psychedelics exert their neurobiological therapeutic effects, and how different neurotransmission systems mediate the effects of these compounds. Further, current therapeutic strategies for depression, and novel mechanism of action o...
Psilocybin is being investigated as a treatment in adults with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Withdrawal from serotonergic antidepressant drugs is a common prerequisite for taking part in trials of psilocybin due to the possibility of ongoing antidepressant drugs altering the psychedelic effect. This phase II, exploratory, international, fixed-dose, o...
Introduction Psilocybin is one of the most extensively studied psychedelic drugs with a broad therapeutic potential. Despite the fact that its psychoactivity is mainly attributed to the agonism at 5-HT2A receptors, it has high binding affinity also to 5-HT2C and 5-HT1A receptors and indirectly modulates the dopaminergic system. Psilocybin and its active meta...
Abstract Background Psilocybin Therapy (PT) is being increasingly studied as a psychiatric intervention. Personality relates to mental health and can be used to probe the nature of PT's therapeutic action. Methods In a phase 2, double-blind, randomized, active comparator controlled trial involving patients with moderate-to-severe major depressive disorder, w...
SUMMARY: Although the development of psilocybin therapy has come as a surprise to many, modern research with the drug has been ongoing for 25 years. Psilocybin therapy is composed of psilocybin dosing sessions embedded within a wider process of psychoeducation, psychological support and integration. Early phase clinical trial evidence is promising, particula...
Clinical trials of pharmacological approaches targeting the core features of autism have failed. This is despite evidence from preclinical studies, genetics, post-mortem studies and correlational analyses linking peripheral and central markers of multiple candidate neurochemical systems to brain function in autism. Whilst this has in part been explained by t...
Mescaline, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and psilocybin are classic serotonergic psychedelics. A valid, direct comparison of the effects of these substances is lacking. The main goal of the present study was to investigate potential pharmacological, physiological and phenomenological differences at psychoactive-equivalent doses of mescaline, LSD, and psi...
Psilocybin, a naturally occurring hallucinogenic component of magic mushrooms, has significant psychoactive effects in both humans and rodents. But the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. Blood-oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a useful tool in many preclinical and clinical trials to investigate ps...
Fungi produce diverse metabolites that can have antimicrobial, antifungal, antifeedant, or psychoactive properties. Among these metabolites are the tryptamine-derived compounds psilocybin, its precursors, and natural derivatives (collectively referred to as psiloids), which have played significant roles in human society and culture. The high allocation of ni...