Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
August 19, 2021
Brian S. Barnett, Yvan Beaussant, Franklin King et al.
64 citations
Psychiatrists attending psychedelic didactic presentations at two national meetings largely believe psychedelics show treatment promise and strongly support federal funding for medicinal psychedelic research. The most common concerns were lack of trained providers, logistics of therapy delivery, administration for patients with contraindications, and diversion. Desired educational topics included potential benefits, how to conduct therapy, pharmacology, and side effects. Factors associated with increased belief in treatment potential included working primarily in research, higher psychedelic knowledge test scores, and less concern about addictive potential. Support for legalization of non-medicinal use was negatively associated with age and positively associated with support for medicinal legalization.
Palliative & Supportive Care
November 3, 2022
Lisa Reynolds, Brian S. Barnett, Jeremy Weleff et al.
19 citations
Cancer health-care practitioners in New Zealand and the USA perceive psychedelic-assisted therapy as potentially beneficial for cancer patients, especially those with advanced disease no longer receiving curative treatment. They consider research in this area important and express willingness to refer patients to trials, though they emphasize that work should incorporate spiritual and indigenous perspectives of health. US practitioners had greater awareness of psychedelics, while New Zealand practitioners more strongly believed that spiritual and indigenous factors should be considered. The findings suggest that practitioners may be more open to studies beginning in palliative and end-of-life contexts.
Journal of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry
January 21, 2021
Brian S. Barnett, George R. Greer
13 citations
No Summary
Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine
March 1, 2025
Franklin King, Brian S. Barnett, Erin E. Mauney
11 citations
Psychedelic-assisted therapy, using substances like MDMA and psilocybin, shows preliminary efficacy for depression, PTSD, and substance use disorders. Psilocybin, MDMA, and LSD have been designated breakthrough therapies by the FDA. However, in August 2024, the FDA declined to approve MDMA and requested an additional phase 3 trial. Clinicians should prepare for the possible return of psychedelics to medicine.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
October 11, 2022
Jeremy Weleff, Teddy J. Akiki, Brian S. Barnett
11 citations
After decades of limited research, interest in using psychedelics as psychiatric treatments has revived. A bibliometric analysis of 394 clinical studies on 5-MeO-DMT, ayahuasca, DMT, LSD, ibogaine, mescaline, MDMA, and psilocybin published from 1965 to 2021 found that publications resurged after a lull from the 1970s to the 1990s. MDMA was the most frequently studied substance (49%), followed by LSD (19%), psilocybin (18%), and ayahuasca (7%). Comparing studies from 1965-2009 with those from 2010-2021, the recent cohort had a higher proportion of studies on therapeutic applications and a lower proportion on effects in non-research settings. Psilocybin studies increased proportionally, while DMT and mescaline studies decreased. Researchers in the United Kingdom had the most diverse international collaborations.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
June 21, 2024
Peter Kenneth Gillman, Brian S. Barnett, Curtis J. Koons et al.
9 citations
A 42-year-old man with treatment-resistant depression experienced a hypertensive emergency with chest pain, palpitations, headache, and ST-elevation on electrocardiogram about half an hour after taking 1 g of Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms while on tranylcypromine, extended-release dextroamphetamine-amphetamine, and other medications. He was diagnosed with a myocardial infarction, treated with lorazepam, nitroglycerin, and aspirin, and underwent cardiac catheterization that showed no significant abnormalities. He was discharged after overnight hospitalization with no lasting physical effects. The authors suspect phenylethylamine in the mushrooms interacted with the MAOI and amphetamine to cause the event, noting past studies suggest classic serotonergic psychedelics alone with MAOIs should not produce such emergencies.
Journal of Psychedelic Studies
February 1, 2024
Jeremy Weleff, Akhil Anand, Elizabeth N. Dewey et al.
8 citations
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) use in the United States increased by 47% from 2015 to 2019, rising from 0.59% to 0.87% of the population. Among people with past-year hallucinogen use disorder, the proportion of LSD users did not significantly increase. Factors associated with LSD use included easier access to LSD, lower perceived risk of trying it, low income, fewer children in the home, recent contact with drug sellers, and, among adults 18 and older, a past-year suicide attempt. No associations were found with unemployment, arrest history, or psychological distress. Over the study period, LSD users became more likely to be ages 26–34 and married, and lifetime methamphetamine users also increased their LSD use. LSD remains uncommon and does not appear to be a major public health burden.
Psychoactives
February 5, 2025
Brian S. Barnett
7 citations
A survey of researchers who submitted NIH grant applications for therapeutic psychedelic research found that only 16.7% of 24 applications were funded, below the NIH's average 23.4% funding rate for R01-equivalent grants from 1998 to 2023. No applications submitted before 2006–2010 received funding, but the rate since then (19.05–22.2%) aligns with the NIH's annual average of 20.6 ± 1.9% from 2006 to 2023. Respondents perceived funding as more difficult to obtain than for other areas, though recent improvements were noted. The small sample and lack of public data on unfunded applications limit generalizability.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
August 31, 2023
Alexsandra Kovacevich, Jeremy Weleff, Benjamin Claytor et al.
6 citations
Three individuals with smell loss—one from a respiratory infection, one from childhood, and one from COVID-19—reported improved olfactory function after using psychedelics: 6 g of psilocybin mushrooms, 100 µg of LSD, or microdosing 0.1 g of psilocybin mushrooms three times. These are the first such cases recorded in academic literature. Possible mechanisms include serotonergic effects, increased neuroplasticity, and anti-inflammatory actions. The authors suggest that the potential therapeutic benefits of psychedelics for olfactory impairment warrant further investigation.
Psychedelic medicine (New Rochelle, N.Y.)
March 1, 2023
Brian S. Barnett, Andrey Ostrovsky
6 citations
Psychedelic therapies are approaching regulatory approval in the United States, but a major barrier to equitable patient access is the lack of specific medical billing codes for their delivery. The authors argue that developing new billing codes through the American Medical Association's Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) Editorial Panel is the best approach, but note challenges: no similar existing services to guide development, the potential need for multiple providers during dosing sessions, limited mental health care representation on the panel, and misconceptions about psychedelic therapy. An industry-sponsored application for new CPT codes for "psychedelic drug monitoring services" is under review, but questions remain about flexibility and provider qualifications. The effort marks a critical step toward creating a robust billing strategy.
Drug Science Policy and Law
January 1, 2023
Brian S. Barnett, Noah Wiles Sweat, Peter S. Hendricks
6 citations
A person with red-green color blindness (mild deuteranomalia) self-administered the Ishihara color vision test before and after taking 5 grams of dried psilocybin mushrooms. Partial improvement in color vision peaked at 8 days and lasted at least 16 days after taking psilocybin, though later observations were confounded by additional substance use. The improvement extended beyond the acute drug effect, even though color blindness is typically a genetic condition. The authors call for systematic research to confirm these findings and understand the mechanism.
Psychiatric Annals
September 1, 2022
Brian S. Barnett, Jeremy Weleff
6 citations
Psychedelics such as LSD, MDMA, and psilocybin may hold treatment potential for alcohol, opioid, tobacco, and other substance use disorders, based on growing evidence from observational studies and clinical trials. The mechanisms are not fully understood, but the subjective psychedelic experience appears necessary for therapeutic effects, possibly serving as a turning point that elicits lasting behavioral change. Randomized, placebo-controlled trials are needed and some are underway. Even with compelling evidence, these substances may face challenges to integration into current treatment paradigms due to clinician concerns about addictive potential and philosophical objections from 12-step facilitation programs.
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
March 1, 2025
Alexsandra Kovacevich, Ian Dorney, Lukas Bobak et al.
1 citation
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, smell loss (olfactory dysfunction) has become more common, but effective treatments are scarce. Anecdotal reports suggest that serotonergic psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin might help. Analyzing 125 online posts from people with self-reported smell loss, 108 (86.4%) reported improvements in their sense of smell after using psychedelics. Of those, 55 (50.1%) first noticed improvement during the psychedelic experience, and 42 (38.8%) said the improvement lasted at least one day. No statistical link was found between dose and how long the benefit lasted for either psilocybin or LSD. These findings indicate that further research is needed to explore whether these substances could become a clinical treatment for smell loss.
medRxiv Preprint Server
April 28, 2026
Sandeep M. Nayak, Nathan D. Sepeda, Matthew Nielsen Dick et al.
preprint
Psilocybin is being studied as a treatment for psychiatric and neurologic conditions, but there is limited comprehensive data on its cardiovascular safety. Current clinical trials typically exclude people with blood pressure of 140/90 mmHg or higher, a cutoff set conservatively without strong empirical evidence.
Psychedelic Medicine
December 30, 2025
Brian S. Barnett, Akhil Anand, Tatiana Falcone et al.
Between 2015 and 2019, past-year LSD use rose 43% among heterosexual individuals, 58% among bisexual individuals, and 106% among lesbian/gay individuals in the United States. Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people were 3.3 to 4.4 times more likely to report past-year LSD use than heterosexual people, depending on the year. Living in poverty, being divorced versus married, living in a small metropolitan area versus a non-metropolitan area, and a past-year suicide attempt were unique correlates of LSD use for heterosexual individuals compared with LGB individuals. The findings suggest a need for targeted harm reduction strategies based on sexual identity.
medRxiv
October 13, 2024
Brian S. Barnett
preprint
A survey of researchers who published the most-cited psychedelics articles since 2000 found that federal grant applications for therapeutic psychedelic research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had a 16.7% funding rate, lower than the NIH's 23.4% average for R-01 equivalent grants from 1998 to 2023. No applications submitted before 2006–2010 were funded, but the rate since then (estimated at 19.05% to 22.2%) is close to the NIH's average annual rate of 20.6% for those years. Respondents believed the funding landscape has improved recently.
Figshare
January 1, 2021
Jeremy Weleff, Teddy J. Akiki, Brian S. Barnett
A dataset was compiled for a bibliometric analysis of journal articles reporting clinical study findings on eight psychedelic substances—5-MeO-DMT, ayahuasca, DMT, ibogaine, LSD, mescaline, MDMA, and psilocybin—published between 1965 and 2018. The dataset accompanies a preprint article that analyzes the academic literature on these compounds.