Psilocybin and LSD have no long-lasting effects in an animal model of alcohol relapse
Neuropsychopharmacology May 5, 2020 Marcus W. Meinhardt, Cansu Güngör, Ivan Skorodumov et al. 66 citations
Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is hypothesized to restore normal brain function in people with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and reduce relapse risk after a single session. In this study, three treatment schedules with psilocybin or LSD were tested in male and female rats using the alcohol deprivation effect (ADE) model of relapse-like drinking. Neither high doses comparable to clinical studies nor chronic microdosing produced long-lasting reductions in relapse-like drinking. Only sub-chronic psilocybin had a short-lasting anti-relapse effect, but this regimen is not considered a translatable treatment. The findings do not support the hypothesis that microdosing or high-dose psychedelics reduce relapse behavior in this model, though the authors note that animal models may not fully capture psychedelics' therapeutic potential.