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 are actively testing psilocybin (the active part of “magic mushrooms”) as a possible treatment for several mental health problems. Early clinical trials—usually done under medical supervision with therapy before and after the drug session—have found quick improvements in some people with major depression, anxiety linked to serious illness, and other hard-to-treat conditions (but the studies are still small). (15135,15063,15056) Scientists propose several ways psilocybin might help, such as changing how brain networks communicate, boosting the brain’s ability to form new connections, and lowering brain inflammation. However, the exact reasons are not settled. Safety in careful clinical settings looks acceptable so far, but harms may be underreported, and unsupervised use can carry real risks. More and larger trials are needed, and many groups (for example people of color) were not well represented in early studies. (15132,15050,15135,15061,15095,15056)
Researchers gave different psychedelic drugs to mice and found the drugs could reopen a window of brain plasticity used for learning social rewards. This reopened window went along with changes in a social hormone system in a key reward area of the brain and with changes in genes that control…
The authors reviewed psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy studies published from 1993 to 2017 to see how many people of color took part. They found 18 studies with about 280 people. About 82% of participants were non-Hispanic White, while only small percentages were African American, Latino, Asian, indigenous, or mixed race. Because so…
This paper describes psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, which means giving drugs like ketamine, MDMA, psilocybin, LSD or ibogaine together with guided therapy. The authors say this approach has shown promising safety and benefits so far, even for people who did not get better with usual treatments. They also argue that these therapies…
This review looked at many studies about classic psychedelics (like psilocybin and LSD), MDMA, ketamine, and plant medicines (like ayahuasca). The authors explain how these drugs can change the brain’s wiring, calm inflammatory processes, and shift key brain chemicals. Those actions may help explain why small clinical trials and animal…
Researchers collected and read 15 studies where patients described their own experiences with psychedelic treatments for mental disorders. These studies looked at about 180 patient accounts across different drugs and different illnesses. Even though the drugs and treatment settings were very different, many patients described similar helpful processes, such as…
Researchers around the world have started clinical studies again to see if psychedelic drugs can help treat serious mental health problems. This work picks up after research that stopped around the 1950s. Scientists are running controlled studies to test whether these substances can safely reduce problems like depression, anxiety, addiction…
This review explains the fast-growing problem of so-called "legal highs", which are better called novel psychoactive substances or NPS. Unknown labs keep making slightly different chemicals to avoid bans, and this led to about 80 new substances being spotted in one year. The paper groups these drugs into five main…
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…
This review looks at research on psychedelic drugs, especially psilocybin. It says recent human studies show a single dose can give lasting relief from severe depression, and regulators have given two late-stage psilocybin trials special 'Breakthrough Therapy' status. The paper also pulls together lab and animal studies that suggest psychedelics…
This paper reviews what scientists know about how ketamine and classic serotonergic psychedelics (like psilocybin and LSD) can lift depression quickly. The authors compare how the drugs work in the brain, point out that ketamine has the strongest clinical evidence so far, and say psychedelics show early promise but need…
This paper reviews human and animal research on so-called psychedelics (like psilocybin and LSD) and entactogens (mainly MDMA). The authors say these drugs can produce fast improvements in mental health that sometimes last for months or longer. But we do not yet understand exactly how they work. Human studies point…
This paper is a review of research about psychedelic drugs and whether they could help with mood and anxiety problems. It explains that these drugs were used for thousands of years in some cultures, then were banned in the 1960s which slowed scientific study. The authors describe a new wave…
