A planned clinical trial will test whether psilocybin-assisted therapy, compared to a placebo, reduces heavy drinking in people with alcohol use disorder. Ninety treatment-seeking adults aged 20–70 will be randomly assigned to receive either psilocybin or placebo alongside psychological support. The main outcome is the change in percentage of heavy drinking days from baseline to 12 weeks after dosing. Secondary outcomes include total alcohol consumption, a blood biomarker for alcohol, the active drug metabolite in blood, the subjective drug experience, and brain responses to alcohol cues measured with functional MRI one week after dosing. The trial is registered and has ethical approval.
Among Danish adults, classic psychedelics were primarily used for therapeutic or spiritual purposes and were linked to self-reported positive lasting effects, though they were also associated with hazardous alcohol use. DMT was linked to significantly greater positive effects than LSD and psilocybin.
A Danish translation of the Revised Mystical Experiences Questionnaire (MEQ30) is a valid and reliable tool for assessing mystical-type experiences in Danish-speaking individuals. The questionnaire showed excellent internal reliability across three samples: healthy volunteers receiving psilocybin in a lab (N = 47), recreational users reporting on their most recent psilocybin experience (N = 834), and users reporting on their most memorable psychedelic experience (N = 500). A four-factor structure provided the best, fair fit to the data. MEQ30 total scores correlated with dose and spiritual or religious intention, but not with setting.