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.
This randomized, double‑blind, cross‑over trial gave 51 patients with life‑threatening cancer two sessions of psilocybin (one very low dose and one high dose) spaced five weeks apart. The high dose (22–30 mg/70 kg) produced large drops in clinician‑ and self‑rated depression and anxiety, and increased quality of life, meaning, and…
This randomized, double-blind phase 3 trial tested MDMA-assisted therapy versus placebo with the same therapy in 90 adults with severe PTSD. Participants had three drug sessions plus preparatory and integration therapy, and were assessed 18 weeks after starting. The MDMA group had larger drops in PTSD symptoms and in functional…
This multi-site, randomized, double-blind phase 3 trial tested MDMA-assisted therapy (MDMA-AT) versus placebo with the same therapy in 104 people with moderate to severe PTSD. Blinded assessors found larger average reductions in PTSD symptoms and in functional impairment for the MDMA-AT group than for the placebo group. The MDMA group…
This was a small, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled 13-week pilot trial of two nonpsychoactive cannabis-related compounds (cannabidiol, CBD, and tetrahydrocannabivarin, THCV) in 62 people with type 2 diabetes who were not using insulin. Participants were assigned to CBD, THCV, two CBD/THCV combination doses, or placebo. Compared with placebo, THCV lowered fasting…
Researchers gave 10 adults placebo cigarettes and three active marijuana cigarettes (including a 3.58% Delta9-THC dose) in a repeated-measures lab test. Using a task that forced a choice between a risky and a nonrisky option, the highest THC dose made people choose the risky option more often. The same high…
This small pilot randomized placebo‑controlled trial tested a cannabinoid spray (Sativex) in 30 adults with ADHD. The main test of cognition and activity (QbTest) showed no significant difference between Sativex and placebo in the intention‑to‑treat analysis (Estimate = -0.17, 95% CI -0.40 to 0.07, p = 0.16). Some secondary measures…
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…
In a small randomized, double-blind crossover study of 15 men with chronic radicular lower‑limb neuropathic pain, a single sublingual dose of THC (about 15.4 mg on average) reduced pain more than placebo. The amount of pain relief was linked to changes on resting‑state fMRI: reduced connectivity between emotional/cognitive brain areas…
In this small, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study, 10 healthy male, infrequent cannabis users took 10 mg oral THCV daily for five days and then received 1 mg IV THC on day five. THCV was safe and felt like placebo. Compared with placebo, THCV reduced some effects of THC (for example…
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…
Project Twenty21 is the UK’s first medical cannabis registry. It began in August 2020 to collect real-world data because randomized trials are hard and NHS prescribing remained rare after medical cannabis was legalised in November 2018. By 12 March 2021, 678 people had joined; most were men and the most…
