Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry
July 15, 2025
Zohaib Nadeem, Stephen Parker, Hugh McGovern et al.
7 citations
Australian mental health clinicians—general practitioners, psychiatrists, and psychologists—generally hold positive attitudes toward psychedelic-assisted therapy, but concerns about safety and efficacy persist, especially among psychiatrists. Psychiatrists were significantly more likely than psychologists to perceive psychedelic use as unsafe under medical supervision and to question the scientific rigor of current research. Many clinicians relied on informal sources like podcasts and internet media for information, indicating gaps in evidence-based education. Clinicians who had personal experience with psychedelics were more likely to agree that these substances improve outcomes when combined with psychotherapy and show promise for treating psychiatric disorders. Targeted educational initiatives from professional bodies are needed to support informed clinical decision-making.
May 26, 2024
Hugh McGovern, Nick Wellman, Brendan Hutchinson et al.
2 citations
preprint
Psychedelics such as psilocybin show promise for treating anxiety, but how they work is unclear. This review proposes a model where anxiety disorders involve the hippocampus biasing the amygdala and salience network toward anxiety-related information, creating a self-perpetuating cycle. Psychedelics temporarily free cortical networks from this hippocampal constraint, and increased plasticity afterward allows the hippocampus to integrate new information into a less biased contextual frame, reducing anxious thoughts. The model highlights that psychedelics can acutely increase anxiety, and future research should determine optimal treatment approaches informed by cognitive neuroscience.
October 14, 2024
Terence J. Lyons, Merle Spriggs, Leevi Kerkelä et al.
preprint
A single high dose of psilocybin (25 mg) produced lasting functional and anatomical brain changes in healthy, psychedelic-naive adults, detected from one hour to one month later. Diffusion imaging showed decreased axial diffusivity in prefrontal-subcortical tracts, correlating with reduced brain network modularity, which in turn correlated with improved well-being. Increased cortical signal entropy shortly after dosing predicted better psychological well-being at one month, with next-day psychological insight mediating this relationship. No such effects occurred with a 1 mg placebo dose. Cognitive flexibility, psychological insight, and well-being also increased at one month.