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.
Researchers reviewed studies of drugs that act on serotonin (so-called serotonergic psychedelics) and MDMA. They found that harms and bad reactions are not clearly defined in these studies and are probably reported less often than they actually happen. Some intense or frightening experiences during treatment might help people heal, but…
The paper reviews how people use two different names for MDMA’s mind effects—"empathogen" (being open and connected to others) and "entactogen" (being connected to oneself). It finds evidence that MDMA produces both kinds of effects, that researchers use the two terms inconsistently, and that a single name—"connectogen"—better captures MDMA’s core…
