Inducing Psychedelic-Like States Through Brain Stimulation: A Review of Mechanisms, Clinical Evidence, and Psychotherapeutic Implications
BJPsych Open June 1, 2026 Sunandan Banerjee
Brain stimulation techniques such as TMS, tACS, tDCS, and DBS can induce transient changes in perception, emotion, self-experience, and cognitive flexibility that overlap with psychedelic states. Both approaches reduce default mode network dominance and increase global brain connectivity. Unlike pharmacological psychedelics, brain stimulation avoids systemic drug exposure, can be titrated or stopped in real time, and reduces risks of prolonged perceptual disturbance or psychosis. Therapeutic benefit in psychedelic research depends on psychotherapeutic processes like insight and emotional processing, not the altered state alone. Brain stimulation may similarly enhance neural flexibility, boosting psychotherapy response for depression, trauma, and addiction. Stimulation-assisted psychotherapy offers a controllable, non-pharmacological clinical model.