J Psychiatr Res
March 14, 2025
Aron Amaev, Jianmeng Song, Yasaman Kambari et al.
8 citations
Psychedelic-assisted therapy produces sustained reductions in death anxiety and state and trait anxiety among people facing life-threatening illness. A meta-analysis of five randomized controlled trials found that serotonergic psychedelic therapy, which acts more rapidly than antidepressants, decreased both the fear of death and the transient and chronic anxiety that accompany serious disease. The analysis used the State Trait Anxiety Inventory to measure anxiety in the context of life-threatening illness. These results highlight psychedelic therapy as a promising alternative to limited existing treatments such as psychotherapy and antidepressant drugs. Future research should test whether these benefits extend to illness anxiety disorder and somatic symptom disorders.
J Psychiatr Res
March 17, 2025
Otto Simonsson, Sankalp Chaturvedi, Peter S. Hendricks et al.
2 citations
Psychedelic use is linked to increases in weekly mindfulness and loving-kindness or compassion meditation practice, especially among people new to psychedelics or meditation. In a longitudinal study of 13,012 US adults aged 18–50, with 7,484 completing follow-up and 336 reporting psychedelic use during the two-month study, those who used psychedelics showed greater gains in meditation days. Among psychedelic users, higher baseline trait mindfulness and self-compassion predicted less severe challenging experiences and lower odds of psychedelic-related thoughts or attempts of self- or other-harm. However, for those already meditating, psychedelic use was associated with more meditation-related difficulties and impairments.
J Psychiatr Res
November 26, 2025
Michael Van Ameringen, Vidhi Patel, Beth Patterson et al.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) involves imbalances in serotonin, dopamine, and glutamate. About 40-60% of patients do not respond to first-line treatments and are considered treatment resistant. There is no gold-standard treatment for these patients. This scoping review examined evidence for cannabinoids and psychedelics (psilocybin, LSD, DMT, MDMA) in OCD. Most evidence comes from surveys and case reports, with few controlled trials. The review found a lack of evidence supporting cannabinoids for OCD, but a stronger signal for psilocybin in treatment-resistant OCD. Well-controlled randomized trials are needed.