A renaissance in psychedelic drug research is underway in North America and Europe, overturning a 30-year political embargo. Randomized controlled trials using active placebos have shown that psilocybin can occasion spiritual experiences leading to long-term positive personality changes. Multiple trials indicate that one or two doses of psychedelic medicines like psilocybin or LSD, within a psychotherapeutic program, reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms in advanced-stage cancer patients, sustained for 6 months. Psychedelics also show promise as adjuncts for substance use disorders; an open-label trial of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for tobacco addiction found much higher abstinence rates at 6-month follow-up.
PsiConnect is a large-scale neuroimaging study that investigates how psilocybin affects brain activity and subjective experience depending on context. Sixty-two participants received a 19 mg dose of psilocybin and underwent functional, structural, and diffusion-weighted MRI, as well as EEG, before and after administration. Scans included resting-state and three naturalistic conditions: guided meditation, music listening, and movie watching. Half of the participants completed an 8-week meditation training program, allowing examination of interactions between meditation, psilocybin, and brain function. Multi-echo fMRI improved signal quality. Behavioral and self-report measures captured acute and long-term effects, with follow-ups up to one year. Data is openly shared to support future research.