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.
Research shows several different ways can help with sadness or low mood. Right now, the strongest clinical evidence for a fast-acting drug comes from ketamine and its approved form esketamine. At the same time, a wave of studies on classic psychedelics (psilocybin, LSD, DMT) and entactogens (MDMA) looks promising, especially when the drug is given together with careful psychological support. However, most psychedelic studies are still small or early-stage. They often rely on the setting, preparation, and therapy as part of the treatment, so researchers say we need larger, controlled trials and more long-term safety data. Also, non-drug options like brain stimulation and standard psychotherapies remain important parts of treatment plans and have mixed but useful evidence.
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 paper reviews the recent comeback of psychedelic research and points out that much of that work borrows from indigenous healing traditions. The authors say Indigenous people, ethnic and racial minorities, women, and other marginalized groups are often left out of research and the mainstream story about psychedelic medicine. The…
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…
Researchers followed two groups of people who planned to use a psychedelic. They gave questionnaires before the trip, then about two weeks and four weeks after. On average, people reported less avoidance of painful thoughts and feelings, lower depression scores, and less thinking about suicide after using a psychedelic. The…
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 paper looked at 20 clinical trials to see whether therapies that use psychedelic drugs together with talking therapy can help people who have serious, life‑limiting illnesses. The review found that these therapies often helped with psychological and spiritual problems like anxiety, low mood, and fear of dying. The drugs…
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…
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…
Researchers ran a national online survey of U.S. adults from November 2020 to March 2021 that was weighted to represent the adult population. They asked about use of psychedelic mushrooms (psilocybin), reasons for use, and mental health. Many users said they took mushrooms for general mental health and well-being. Users…
Researchers looked at studies on mindfulness training and psychedelic-assisted therapy. They found both can reduce mental-health symptoms and boost well-being. Early results also show that psychedelics can make people more mindful. Combining the two might give stronger benefits, but the evidence is still early. Bigger and better studies are needed…
This paper reviews past and recent research on classic psychedelics and some newer psychedelic-like drugs as treatments for unipolar and bipolar depression. Classic psychedelics named in the paper are LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, and ayahuasca. Early carefully controlled studies of psilocybin show encouraging results for unipolar depression, and ketamine (in the…
