Depression, Mindfulness, and Psilocybin: Possible Complementary Effects of Mindfulness Meditation and Psilocybin in the Treatment of Depression. A Review
Frontiers in Psychiatry March 31, 2020 Kristin Heuschkel, Kim P.C. Kuypers 82 citations
Mindfulness meditation (MM) and psilocybin both show promise for treating depression, and their combined use may produce complementary therapeutic effects. This review of 93 articles found that MM and psilocybin similarly improve mood, social skills, and neuroplasticity, but differ in their effects on executive functioning, neural core networks, and neuroendocrine and neuroimmune markers. MM likely works through enhanced affective self-regulation and stress reactivity adjustments, while psilocybin may act via cognitive disinhibition and global neural network disintegration. The authors suggest that combining them could potentiate or prolong positive effects, such as MM facilitating psilocybin-induced peak experiences, and call for future placebo-controlled double-blind randomized trials of psilocybin-assisted mindfulness-based therapy.