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 finding several promising ways to reduce anxiety and worry. The strongest and most consistent clinical results so far come from giving psychedelic or fast‑acting drugs together with careful psychotherapy. Ketamine, MDMA, and psilocybin show the quickest and clearest positive results in trials for related problems. Non‑drug approaches like talking therapies and physical activity also help and have longer histories of evidence. At the same time, many drug studies are still small, early‑stage, or done in narrowly selected groups. Important factors that shape outcomes include how the drug is given, the therapy around it, and safety monitoring. There are real risks and unanswered questions, so scientists say more large, diverse, and carefully run trials are needed before these treatments become routine.
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…
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 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…
The authors reviewed 83 papers and guides about how therapists prepare people for substance-assisted psychotherapy — therapy that uses drugs like psilocybin, LSD, MDMA, or ketamine together with psychological support. They found clear agreement that good preparation before a drug session is important for safety and for helping people get…
Researchers followed 62 older adults (age 60 and up) and 62 younger adults who planned to take part in guided psychedelic group sessions. People in both age groups reported better well-being in the weeks after the sessions, but older adults experienced weaker immediate drug effects during the sessions. For older…
Researchers reviewed published clinical trials testing psychedelic drugs for people diagnosed with anxiety disorders. They found nine trials that used ayahuasca, ketamine, LSD, MDMA, or psilocybin. Overall, the studies showed reduced anxiety symptoms and better self-image or social functioning for people with generalized anxiety, social anxiety, or anxiety linked to…
This paper reviews research on three naturally occurring psychedelics: psilocybin, ibogaine, and N,N-dimethyltryptamine (the active part of the brew ayahuasca). It explains that these drugs work on the brain's serotonin system and summarizes growing studies that suggest they might help with problems like post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression, anxiety, and…
