Efficacy and Safety of Psychedelics in Mental Disorder Cases: An Umbrella Review of Meta-Analyses of Randomized Controlled Trials
Journal of Clinical Medicine December 29, 2025 Monika Dominiak, Adam Gędek, Szymon Modrzejewski et al. 2 citations
Psychedelic-assisted therapy shows short-term efficacy and safety for selected psychiatric disorders, particularly depression and PTSD. Psilocybin produced large effects in major depression (Hedges’ g ≈ 1.05), with some benefits lasting up to six months. MDMA showed very large reductions in PTSD symptoms (Hedges’ g ≈ 1.24) after 2–3 sessions. LSD yielded short-term benefits for alcohol use disorder (odds ratio ≈ 2.0), though effects declined over time. Adverse events were generally mild and transient, with no consistent signal for serious harm. However, considerable methodological variability, small and overlapping samples, risk of bias, and limited long-term data constrain the findings.