Behavioural Investigations of Psilocybin in Animals 1962-2021: A Scoping Review
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) January 5, 2024 Ron Shore, K. Dobson, Nina Thomson et al. 3 citations preprint
A scoping review of 77 pre-clinical studies (1962–2021) examined psilocybin's behavioral effects in non-human animals. Most studies used rodents. Psilocybin shows a strong safety profile with no biological toxicity, even at high doses. Effects include acute arousal, dose-dependent sedation, reduced fear conditioning at low doses, reduced aggression, improved valence, acute working memory disruption, reversal of chronic stress deficits, and improved learning when combined with repeated environmental exposure after drug effects resolve. Only 55.8% of studies reported housing conditions, and 22.1% failed to report sample size, indicating wide variation in study quality and design.