Learned Helplessness As a Potential Transdiagnostic Therapeutic Mechanism of Classic Psychedelics
Psychedelic Medicine June 1, 2023 Praachi Tiwari, Andrea Berghella, Ceyda Sayalı et al. 9 citations
Classic psychedelics may treat mood and substance use disorders by reversing learned helplessness, a well-studied phenomenon across mammals. The neural circuits underlying resilience to learned helplessness, including the dorsal raphe nucleus, overlap with those activated by psychedelics. Preclinical data show psychedelics improve performance in rodent behavioral despair tasks, supporting this hypothesis. The learned helplessness paradigm offers a robust model for investigating psychedelic mechanisms across behavioral, neurobiological, and clinical levels, potentially explaining transdiagnostic therapeutic effects.