Don’t be afraid, try to meditate- potential effects on neural activity and connectivity of psilocybin-assisted mindfulness-based intervention for social anxiety disorder: A systematic review
Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews June 6, 2022 Corinna L. Felsch, Kim P.C. Kuypers 23 citations
Current first-line treatments for social anxiety disorder (SAD) have limited efficacy, prompting a need for novel approaches. This systematic review proposes combining meditation-based interventions with a psychedelic, such as psilocybin, as a future alternative. Thirty experimental studies on neural effects of meditation or psilocybin in healthy and patient samples suggest that psilocybin-assisted meditation could alter cognitive processes like biased attention to threat by modulating salience network connectivity, balancing cortical-midline structure activity, and increasing frontoparietal control over amygdala reactivity. The authors conclude that future studies should investigate whether this combination provides therapeutic benefits for SAD patients who do not remit with conventional therapy.