Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States (all authors). Department of Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States (Lepow, Morishita). Department of Ophthalmology, Icahn School of Medicine Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States (Morishita). Department of Psychiatry, James J. Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Bronx, NY, United States (Yehuda).
2 papers in the library · 79 citations · publishing 2021-2023
A framework is proposed for investigating how psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAP) produces neurobiological changes that underlie recovery from illnesses like PTSD. The authors suggest that psychedelics may remove brakes on adult neuroplasticity, inducing a state similar to developmental critical periods (CPs) when the brain is exquisitely sensitive to environmental input. They highlight ocular dominance plasticity in the visual system as a model for characterizing CPs in limbic systems relevant to psychiatry. This CP framework may help integrate neuroscientific inquiry with the influence of the environment both in development and in PAP, moving beyond traditional focus on pharmacologic properties alone.
Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy may work by reopening a critical period of heightened neuroplasticity, similar to developmental windows when the brain is especially sensitive to environmental input. The paper proposes that psychedelics could remove molecular brakes on adult neuroplasticity, creating a brain state akin to neurodevelopment. Drawing on ocular dominance plasticity in the visual system as a model, the authors suggest this framework could help explain how combining psychedelic compounds with psychotherapy produces enduring clinical improvements in conditions like PTSD. The framework integrates neuroscientific inquiry with the influence of environment both in development and in therapy.