A randomized controlled trial investigated whether psilocybin-assisted therapy could reduce relapse in patients with alcohol use disorder. The study compared psilocybin therapy against a control condition, finding that the psilocybin group showed a significantly lower rate of heavy drinking days over the follow-up period. The results suggest that psilocybin, when combined with psychotherapy, may be a promising intervention for relapse prevention in alcohol dependence, though further research is needed to confirm these findings.
Cocaine is the most frequently used stimulant worldwide, with increasing consumption in Europe. Psychotherapeutic interventions for cocaine use disorder (CUD) show only modest effects, and no pharmacotherapy has been approved. A novel target, glutamatergic neurotransmission, emerged from animal models: after chronic cocaine, glutamate concentrations in the nucleus accumbens are reduced, with overflow during cue-induced cocaine-seeking. This imbalance has also been observed in humans. Neurofeedback training (NFT) studies using real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rt-fMRI) show participants with CUD can learn to regulate brain activity in reward areas using reward imagery.