Each month our editorial team sifts through hundreds of papers and curates notable findings—for practitioners and informed readers who want to stay current with the evidence. Subscribe to the monthly Research Digest for expert analysis and concise summaries of key papers.
11 papers
This small, randomized, double-blind pilot study tested MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for anxiety tied to life‑threatening illness. Eighteen people were enrolled (13 got MDMA, 5 got placebo) and had two blinded 8‑hour therapy sessions, with later open‑label MDMA sessions and 6‑ and 12‑month follow-ups. The MDMA group showed a larger drop in…
This systematic review searched for clinical trials of psilocybin for substance use problems up to September 2, 2022. The authors found four trials with 151 patients that tested psilocybin combined with psychotherapy for alcohol or tobacco use. These small trials, including one randomized placebo-controlled trial, reported reductions in heavy drinking…
This paper reviews research on using psychedelic drugs to treat addiction. The authors say scientific and medical interest has grown a lot in the last ten years and that early evidence is starting to show these treatments can be safe and may help with psychiatric problems including addiction. The review…
This paper looked across existing studies of psilocybin and found that, when it is given along with psychotherapy or therapy-style support, it looks promising as a treatment for several mental health problems, including cases that did not get better with other treatments. But the authors say the current studies are…
MAPS reports results from a randomized, blinded Phase 3 trial of MDMA-assisted therapy for severe, chronic PTSD (90 people, average 14 years of PTSD). After three MDMA-assisted therapy sessions, 67% of treated participants no longer met the study's PTSD diagnosis and 88% had a clinically meaningful symptom drop, compared with…
This review describes a rapid rise in medical research on psychedelic drugs over the past five years. Several later-stage clinical trials have been published, and many different drugs — including psilocybin, MDMA, ketamine, LSD, ayahuasca, and ibogaine — are being tested for conditions such as depression, post‑traumatic stress, addiction, obsessive‑compulsive…
This systematic review looked at clinical studies of psilocybin for adults with major depressive disorder. It combined 6 studies with 319 participants, found that every study reported that psilocybin reduced depressive symptoms, and noted few side effects. Each study included psychological support, and the authors say more and better studies…
The authors reviewed 134 clinical trials of psilocybin listed on ClinicalTrials.gov and found many small, often unblinded, single-site studies that take years to finish and rarely post results. Only three trials have reached advanced phases recently, and there are no FDA marketing approvals for psilocybin. The paper concludes that the…
This was a 6-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial that tested low-dose LSD (20 μg) given twice weekly in 53 adults with moderate to severe ADHD. Both the LSD group and the placebo group showed similar symptom reductions by week 6 (LSD mean change on the ADHD rating scale −7.1 points; placebo…
Researchers reviewed the fast-growing interest in psychedelic therapies. They found that even though hundreds of studies are under way, no psychedelic medicine is officially approved for any mental health condition yet. The review explains the kinds of drugs being tested, the conditions people hope to treat, and big challenges such…
This randomized controlled trial tested Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFCT) with 26 married couples. Couples were randomly assigned to an EFCT group or a control group. The study measured shame and intimacy and found that, compared with the control group, EFCT significantly reduced shame and significantly increased intimacy (p <…
