Journal of Clinical Medicine
February 11, 2022
Chia‐ling Yu, Chih‐sung Liang, Fu‐chi Yang et al.
37 citations
A meta-analysis of ten studies found that one or two doses of psilocybin produce rapid and sustained antidepressant effects lasting up to six months. Depressive symptoms decreased substantially, with the largest effect at one week (standardized mean difference -1.74) and a still-large effect at six months (-1.12). Higher doses and two sessions were linked to greater improvement. Psilocybin raised systolic blood pressure by 19.00 mmHg and diastolic by 8.66 mmHg, but discontinuation rates and heart rate changes were similar to placebo. The findings suggest psilocybin has favorable cardiovascular safety and acceptability for treating depression.
BMJ
August 21, 2024
Trevor Thompson, Ping-Tao Tseng, Chih-Wei Hsu et al.
24 citations
A systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials compared oral psychedelics (MDMA, LSD, psilocybin, ayahuasca) and escitalopram for depressive symptoms. Placebo responses were lower in psychedelic trials than in antidepressant trials. Only high-dose psilocybin outperformed placebo from antidepressant trials, with a mean difference of 6.45 on the Hamilton depression rating scale. However, when the reference arm shifted from psychedelic-trial placebo to antidepressant-trial placebo, the effect size dropped from large (0.88) to small (0.31). High-dose psilocybin showed a larger relative effect than escitalopram at 10 mg and 20 mg. No intervention caused higher discontinuation or severe adverse events than placebo.
Frontiers in Psychiatry
August 13, 2024
Mu-Hong Chen, Shu-Li Cheng, Yu-Chen Kao et al.
8 citations
A Bayesian meta-analysis of 10 clinical trials involving 515 adults with diagnosed depression found that psilocybin-assisted therapy produced a pooled mean reduction of 10.08 points on the 17-Item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. The psychological protocols used alongside psilocybin varied: manualized directive psychotherapy, manualized nondirective psychological support, non-manualized nondirective psychological support, and non-manualized supportive psychotherapy. Compared with manualized nondirective psychological support, the other three approaches did not differ significantly in their effect on depressive symptoms. The improvement in depressive symptoms was not associated with the type of psychological protocol employed.
Biological psychiatry global open science
July 1, 2025
Benjamin Brake, Lillian Wieder, Natasha Hughes et al.
5 citations
Dissociative states—disruptions in awareness and perception—occur across many psychiatric conditions and can be modeled in the lab. A meta-analysis of 123 studies (6,692 individuals) measured state dissociation using a standardized scale. At baseline, the largest effects were in dissociative and complex subtypes of posttraumatic stress disorder. In controlled experiments, mirror gazing and several drugs, particularly ketamine and cannabis, induced dissociation as high as or higher than that seen in PTSD. Results were highly variable across studies but not explained by methodological differences. These findings validate experimental methods for inducing dissociation and inform monitoring of adverse events in drug-based interventions.