Journal of affective disorders
April 1, 2023
Nadav Liam Modlin, Tammy M Miller, James J Rucker et al.
30 citations
Psilocybin therapies show promise for conditions like major depressive disorder, end-of-life anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. However, little attention has been paid to intrapersonal and interpersonal factors that influence a patient's readiness for such interventions. This paper proposes that readiness assessment should include both intrapersonal and interpersonal factors to improve safety, patient care, and treatment outcomes. Although no reliable and valid instrument currently exists, the authors suggest three areas of focus—patient presentation, therapeutic alliance, and patient safety—to establish readiness and optimize and personalize psilocybin therapy.
American Journal of Psychiatry
January 1, 2025
Namik Kirlic, Molly Lennard-Jones, Merve Atli et al.
27 citations
A structured framework called the Compass Psychological Support Model (CPSM) provides psychological support for individuals with treatment-resistant depression receiving investigational psilocybin treatment in clinical trials. The model aims to ensure a safe and meaningful psychedelic experience and enables future research into which aspects of psychological support or psychotherapy best complement psilocybin treatment. The authors describe therapist training, mentoring, and fidelity assessment programs developed to maintain quality and consistency in delivering the CPSM.
BMJ Open
December 1, 2021
James Rucker, Hassan Jafari, Tim Mantingh et al.
23 citations
A randomized, placebo-controlled trial is testing the feasibility of psilocybin-assisted therapy for people with major depressive disorder who have not responded to at least two prior treatments. Up to 60 participants in London, UK receive either 25 mg psilocybin or a placebo in a single dosing session, along with psychological therapy. The primary outcomes are recruitment rates, dropout rates, and variance in depression scores measured by the Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale at 3 and 6 weeks. The trial also collects neuroimaging and omics data and offers an open-label extension dose of psilocybin.
Npj Ment Health Res
July 2, 2024
Ronit Kishon, Nadav Liam Modlin, Yael M. Cycowicz et al.
22 citations
Before psychedelics were prohibited, clinical research with complex psychiatric patients developed diverse treatment methods and practices that remain relevant today. These early studies, though lacking modern rigor, recognized that the treatment context and clinician's role are essential for positive outcomes. This review examines pre-prohibition clinical narratives about the phenomenology of psychedelic treatment and non-pharmacological factors in patient experience. It also explores clinician perspectives and psychological interventions from that era to inform future research directions and best practice guidelines for modern psychedelic research and clinician training.
Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment
January 1, 2024
Nadav Liam Modlin, Michael Creed, Maria Sarang et al.
18 citations
Patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often find standard psychotherapies burdensome and drop out. Psychedelic therapy (PT) shows promise for difficult-to-treat conditions, but trials of classical psychedelics for PTSD are lacking. This systematic review of 40 qualitative studies (26 on evidence-based psychotherapies for PTSD, 14 on PT for various conditions) found overlapping themes: both therapies involve key mechanisms of change, require psychological safety and readiness, and can burden patients. In PT, indirect trauma processing and reorganization of self-narratives emerged as unique themes. Trauma-informed care may improve safety and acceptability of PT research.
Journal of Eating Disorders
May 26, 2025
Julie Trim, Samantha Shao, Nadav Liam Modlin et al.
14 citations
Psychedelic therapy (PT) may be beneficial for treating eating disorders and trauma-related conditions such as PTSD and dissociative amnesia. The abstract reviews how psilocybin could help patients remember and process traumatic memories, suggesting a mechanism for its therapeutic effects.
British Journal of Psychotherapy
June 30, 2023
Nadav Liam Modlin, Joanne Stubley, Carolina Maggio et al.
11 citations
The psychedelic state is an interdependent intrapsychic, somatic, interpersonal, and spiritual happening that can bring forth unconscious desires and traumas, experienced as both cathartic and anxiety-provoking. In clinical trials, these effects often co-occur. Amid renewed interest in psychedelics for mental health, gaps remain in understanding extra-pharmacological factors and therapeutic models. Drawing from psychoanalytic perspectives, this paper explores intersections between psychedelic therapy and psychoanalysis for traumatic stress. It considers the psychedelic state as an attempt to make the unconscious conscious by immersing in a bewildering waking-dream, a willful vulnerability to build trust, and an indescribable experience to redescribe the traumatic past.
Journal of Psychopharmacology
August 29, 2025
Niall M. Mcgowan, James Rucker, Rachel Yehuda et al.
10 citations
A single 25 mg dose of psilocybin, given with psychological support, was safe and well-tolerated in 22 adults with PTSD. No serious adverse events occurred, and most side effects (headache, nausea, crying, fatigue) resolved within a day. PTSD symptoms, measured by the CAPS-5 scale, showed a clinically meaningful average decrease of nearly 30 points at 4 and 12 weeks after the dose, and this improvement was linked to the intensity of the psychedelic experience. Functional impairment and quality of life also improved. The open-label design and small sample size mean further controlled trials are needed to confirm efficacy.
Psychedelic Medicine
November 26, 2024
Nadav Liam Modlin, Tyler McPhee, Nira Zazon et al.
5 citations
People who use psychedelics and attend integration groups report that these groups provide essential community support and help process psychedelic experiences, but also face challenges such as managing group dynamics and ensuring facilitators are adequately trained. Three main themes emerged: reasons for attending, utility of the groups, and adverse factors affecting experience. While integration groups can reduce some risks of unregulated psychedelic use, research is needed to develop standardized protocols and facilitator training to improve their safety and effectiveness.
Wellcome Open Research
April 22, 2025
Matthew Butler, Catherine Bird, Carolina Maggio et al.
3 citations
Functional neurological disorder (FND) is a common, debilitating condition linked to abnormal brain networks, dissociation, interoception, and motor agency. This open-label neuroimaging protocol will administer 25 mg of oral psilocybin with psychological support to 24 people with chronic FND. Resting-state and task-based functional MRI sequences will be compared before and after psilocybin. Additional measures include interoception, somatisation, illness perceptions, suggestibility, and dissociation. Participants will be followed for three months. The study aims to probe mechanisms underlying FND and assess the safety and feasibility of psychedelic administration with psychological support in this population.
Journal of Psychopharmacology
January 26, 2026
Jess Kerr-Gaffney, Samuel Myrtle, Famia Askari et al.
2 citations
A single dose of psilocybin, compared to an inert placebo, did not alter personality traits, psychiatric symptoms, or cognitive flexibility in healthy participants. However, both the 10 mg and 25 mg psilocybin groups reported greater changes in personal values at both short-term (day 8) and long-term follow-up (day 85). The acute psychedelic experience, particularly the feeling of oceanic boundlessness, partially explained these value changes, with auditory alterations also playing a role in one subscale. These exploratory findings are tentative and require replication in larger samples.
EClinicalMedicine
December 1, 2025
Nadav Liam Modlin, Victoria Williamson, Guy M Goodwin et al.
2 citations
Psilocybin treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, when delivered with standardized preparation and support, may allow patients to engage with trauma-related material indirectly through affective, somatic, and self-transcendent experiences, such as feelings of unity or dissolution of self, rather than requiring direct confrontation with traumatic memories as in standard therapies. This qualitative study, nested within a phase 2 trial involving 21 adults with PTSD, identified four core themes: non-pharmacological factors for psychological safety and trust, the experiential nature of psilocybin treatment, engagement with trauma-related material, and comparative reflections on prior therapies. The findings suggest psilocybin offers a meaningful therapeutic opportunity, but larger controlled studies are needed.
Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology
June 8, 2025
Nadav Liam Modlin, Victoria Williamson, Carolina Maggio et al.
1 citation
PTSD is a common and debilitating condition that current treatments only partially address. This review examines psilocybin, a classical psychedelic, as a potential therapeutic agent. It synthesizes recent literature on psychedelic therapies for trauma-related conditions, including treatment-resistant depression and end-of-life anxiety. The authors propose a conceptual framework viewing PTSD as a maladaptive interpretive framework that psilocybin may disrupt through its psychopharmacological properties and subjective effects. A clinical narrative illustrates this process. Recommendations emphasize rigorous, trauma-informed protocols for safe administration in medical research settings.
Journal of Psychopharmacology
July 16, 2026
Robert F. Dougherty, Nadav Liam Modlin, Niall M. Mcgowan et al.
In a 12-week clinical trial of 25 mg COMP360 psilocybin for 22 participants with post-traumatic stress disorder, audio recordings showed that during drug-administration sessions speech by either party was rare: silence filled 78% of the time on average, compared to 25% to 30% in non-administration sessions. Thematic analysis of post-dosing interviews revealed that support was minimally enacted but experientially salient, autonomy was promoted through the introspective state and non-directive support, and primary modes of support during altered states included reassurance and validation. The minimal verbal interaction distinguishes this monitoring and support from conventional psychotherapies and MDMA-assisted therapy.
Psychodynamic psychiatry
June 1, 2026
Nadav Liam Modlin, Zsofia Elek, Carolina Maggio et al.
Psychedelic therapy may help people access unconscious mental content—preverbal, dissociated, or developmentally buried material—that emerges through bodily sensations, symbolic images, and intense emotions. A psychodynamic framework, drawing on psychoanalytic theory, can guide clinicians in working with this material across four phases: screening, preparation, the treatment session, and follow-up integration. Although neurobiological mechanisms like 5-HT2A receptor activation are well studied, unconscious processes remain underexplored. The authors argue that psychoanalytic models, though currently underrepresented, can deepen understanding of therapeutic change beyond symptom reduction and should inform future research, training, and individualized care as psychedelic treatments move toward broader clinical use.
Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology
August 14, 2025
Nadav Liam Modlin, Jessica L. Maples‐keller, Maria Sarang et al.
Among 873 people who reported trauma symptoms or a PTSD/CPTSD diagnosis, 94.8% had experienced psychological trauma and 73.4% had a formal diagnosis. Many had tried multiple medications and psychotherapies but were highly dissatisfied. Significant numbers used marijuana, psychedelics, or MDMA on their own to manage symptoms, with few physical or psychological complications. After learning about MDMA and psilocybin therapies, willingness to try them was high (0.81 and 0.83, respectively). Women and heterosexual individuals showed lower willingness, while younger and more educated respondents were more willing. The findings point to a need for further clinical research and public education about risks and harm reduction.