Journal of substance use and addiction treatment
August 1, 2025
Reinhard Janssen-Aguilar, Shakila Meshkat, Ilya Demchenko et al.
12 citations
Ketamine may offer short-term benefits for treating substance use disorders, including alcohol, cocaine, opioid, and cannabis use disorders. In alcohol use disorder, it reduced withdrawal symptoms and the need for benzodiazepines. For cocaine use disorder, it decreased craving and increased abstinence rates. In opioid use disorder, high-dose ketamine combined with psychotherapy improved abstinence and reduced craving. For cannabis use disorder, it reduced weekly use and increased confidence in abstinence. However, the evidence is limited by small sample sizes and a lack of randomized trials. Larger, well-controlled studies are needed to determine optimal dosing, mechanisms, long-term efficacy, and risks before broader clinical use can be recommended.
Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews
June 1, 2025
Shakila Meshkat, Gunjan Malik, Richard J Zeifman et al.
11 citations
Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy may reduce alcohol consumption and help with smoking cessation, especially for alcohol and tobacco use disorders. In a systematic review of 16 published studies, most focused on alcohol or tobacco use, and over half used psilocybin combined with psychotherapy. Doses ranged from microdosing to 20–40 mg per 70 kg. Alcohol use disorder studies reported fewer heavy drinking days and higher abstinence rates, with brain scans showing normalized activity. Tobacco use disorder studies found high smoking abstinence rates, with mystical experiences predicting long-term success. Findings for other substance use disorders were mixed. The evidence is preliminary; larger clinical trials are needed.
Psychiatry and clinical psychopharmacology
August 11, 2025
Reinhard Janssen-Aguilar, Shakila Meshkat, Huda F Al-Shamali et al.
4 citations
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a severe condition that can be difficult to treat, prompting interest in innovative therapies. This systematic review of 94 studies evaluated interventional treatments including neuromodulation, rapid-acting pharmacotherapies like intravenous ketamine and esketamine, and psychedelic-assisted psychotherapies. Randomized controlled trials showed response rates ranging from 12.5% to 80% for transcranial magnetic stimulation, 17% to 67% for intravenous ketamine, and 50% to 87% for MDMA-assisted therapy. Most treatments were well tolerated with only mild, transient adverse effects. The review highlights variability in efficacy, safety, and tolerability across treatments, reflecting differences in patient populations, protocols, and comorbidities. While symptom improvement is observed, sustained efficacy varies, underscoring the need for maintenance strategies.
Psychopharmacology
July 1, 2026
Sarah Ann Smith, Haseeb Mohammad, Lik Hang N Lee et al.
A review of 20 studies examined whether psychedelic drugs can affect social cognition in people with psychiatric or neurodevelopmental disorders that involve cognitive impairment. The drugs studied were ketamine, MDMA, psilocybin, LSD, and ayahuasca, tested in depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, autism spectrum disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Findings included neural activation patterns suggesting that ketamine and psilocybin may modulate processes relevant to social perception, especially facial emotion processing, in depressive disorders. MDMA was linked to improvements in self-reported psychosocial functioning, self-awareness, and self-compassion in participants with PTSD. Direct evidence of improved social-cognitive functioning remains limited.
Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry
April 2, 2025
Viktoriia Kurkova, Olga Winkler, Andrew Greenshaw et al.
A scoping review of 10 studies out of 11,734 publications examined whether psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAP) can help people recover from moral injury—deep distress from morally challenging experiences. None of the studies focused specifically on moral injury; they involved psilocybin, MDMA, or LSD for conditions such as PTSD, alcohol use disorder, depression, and anxiety. Across these studies, PAP was associated with rapid, sustained increases in self-compassion, self-forgiveness, and self-acceptance, along with reduced demoralization and lower drinking scores. The authors suggest PAP holds promise for treating moral injury, especially when it co-occurs with PTSD, but conclude that direct research is needed.