Scientific Reports
February 14, 2026
Zurika Murray, Angélique Lewies, Johannes F. Wentzel et al.
3 citations
Whole mushroom extracts containing psilocybin may be more effective than isolated psilocybin for treating psychiatric disorders, possibly due to an entourage effect from additional bioactive compounds. Using computational methods including network pharmacology, molecular docking, and molecular dynamics, researchers identified fifteen compounds from psilocybin-producing mushrooms, eight with favorable pharmacokinetic profiles. Target prediction revealed 44 brain-localized proteins with biological connectivity. The compounds showed strong docking to neurological targets, with several forming stable salt bridges with the Asp155 residue of HTR2A, similar to serotonin. Molecular dynamics simulations confirmed high residence stability within HTR2A and MAOA binding pockets, supporting a mechanistic rationale for enhanced efficacy of whole mushroom extracts.
Scientific Reports
August 23, 2025
Kalin Manooki, Mahdieh Gholami, Maryam Eslami et al.
3 citations
In rats, five days of ketamine injections induced schizophrenia-like behaviors—increased activity and climbing, reduced exploration, impaired object-recognition memory, and lowered BDNF in the prefrontal cortex. Females showed additional effects: lower pain threshold (hyperalgesia) and less immobility in the forced swim test (an antidepressant-like effect). A single dose of olanzapine after the last ketamine injection reversed most behavioral deficits in both sexes, including memory impairment, and normalized pain threshold and immobility in females. Olanzapine did not affect BDNF levels, suggesting its therapeutic actions in this model do not rely on BDNF upregulation in the prefrontal cortex.
Scientific Reports
December 31, 2024
Georg Leistenschneider, Tomislav Majić, Simon Reiche et al.
3 citations
Classic psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin show promise for treating psychiatric disorders but can occasionally cause lasting psychological harm, including Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder (HPPD), a rare condition with enduring perceptual symptoms. This study examined the neuropsychological profiles of eight individuals with HPPD using a comprehensive test battery, comparing their performance against normative data and two matched control groups (with and without prior psychedelic use). Some participants with HPPD scored below average on tests of visual memory and executive function. Statistically adjusted comparisons found no significant differences between groups, though unadjusted analyses hinted at impaired executive functions in HPPD patients. These preliminary findings highlight the need for more focused research on the neuropsychological aspects of HPPD.
Scientific Reports
January 13, 2023
Thomas Schnell, Christina-Marie Grömm, Nils Klöckner
3 citations
Paranoid and dysphoric experiences during cannabis intoxication are the strongest predictors of wanting to quit or having quit cannabis use, more so than psychosis-like effects such as hallucinations. In a survey of 441 current and past users, those who had stopped using retrospectively reported more unpleasant and fewer positive intoxication effects than current users. Current users intending to stop also reported significantly more paranoia and dysphoria during intoxication than those not intending to stop. These findings suggest that different acute intoxication effects differently influence abstinence motivation and substance use behavior, pointing to a potential focus for treatment interventions.
Scientific Reports
February 28, 2018
Will Lawn, Jaime E. C. Hallak, J.a.s. Crippa et al.
3 citations
A correction to this article has been published and is linked from the HTML and PDF versions. The error has not been fixed in the paper.
Scientific Reports
February 25, 2026
Albert Garcia-Romeu, Gideon P. Naudé, Alison W. Rebman et al.
2 citations
An estimated 10–20% of Lyme disease patients develop post-treatment Lyme disease (PTLD), a chronic syndrome with no established treatments. In an open-label pilot study of 20 participants with PTLD, two sessions of psilocybin (15 mg then 15 or 25 mg) with psychological support led to significant improvements in symptom burden and quality of life from enrollment through one month after the second dose, with benefits sustained at six months. At six months, general PTLD symptom burden decreased 40% from baseline, and mental and physical quality-of-life scores improved 13%. Mood, fatigue, sleep, and pain also improved. No serious adverse events occurred; common side effects were transient hypertension, headache, and tachycardia. The findings suggest psilocybin-assisted treatment is feasible and well-tolerated, warranting further research.
Scientific Reports
November 26, 2025
Małgorzata Domżalska, Joanna Kwiatkowska, Iwona Cichoń et al.
2 citations
In a mouse model of depression induced by chronic social defeat stress, a single dose of either ketamine or psilocybin reversed social avoidance within 24 hours, with effects lasting up to 14 days. In contrast, the SSRI fluoxetine showed no effect after a single dose or 7 days of repeated administration; antidepressant-like effects only appeared after 14 days of continuous treatment. These results mirror clinical patterns, where traditional SSRIs require weeks to work, while ketamine and psilocybin produce rapid and sustained effects. The findings highlight the potential of fast-acting agents as alternatives for treating major depressive disorder.
Scientific Reports
March 24, 2025
Lisa Höfert, Benjamin Franz, Cedric Groß et al.
2 citations
After oral (25 mg fruit gum) or inhalative (three puffs from a vape) consumption of the semi-synthetic cannabinoid hexahydrocannabinol (HHC), its pharmacokinetics and psychoactive effects are comparable to those of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The route of administration and inter-individual factors strongly influence maximum concentrations, pharmacokinetic profiles, and the subjective 'high' feeling. Serum, urine, and saliva samples were analyzed for HHC and its metabolites. Three commercially available immunological tests were also evaluated for detectability.
Scientific Reports
November 2, 2024
Marco Schlosser, Julie Gonneaud, Stefano Poletti et al.
2 citations
Older adults who spent more time practicing meditation perceived greater benefits from an 18-month meditation program. The study involved 90 healthy adults aged 65-84 years who were randomly assigned to either meditation training or a non-native language training. Higher levels of formal practice were associated with higher combined ratings of self- and teacher-perceived responsiveness across measures of connection, emotions, and meta-awareness during sessions and in daily life. Global responsiveness scores were not correlated with actual changes in well-being. The findings suggest that engagement, rather than baseline characteristics like personality or expectancy, predicts perceived response to meditation training.
Scientific Reports
February 11, 2023
Grant Jones, Joshua Lipson, Erica Wang
2 citations
Social functioning problems are common in mental health disorders, but effective treatments are limited. Analyzing data from a large U.S. national survey (2015–2019, over 214,000 adults), lifetime use of MDMA/ecstasy was linked to lower odds of three social difficulties: dealing with strangers (9% lower odds), participating in social activities (10% lower odds), and being prevented from social activities (16% lower odds). Lifetime mescaline use was also linked to lower odds of difficulty with strangers (15% lower odds). Other psychedelics showed no benefit or were associated with increased social difficulties. The authors note that experimental studies are needed to determine if these relationships are causal.
Scientific Reports
April 25, 2026
Audrey G. Evers, Elizabeth C. Stade, Aadesh Salecha et al.
1 citation
Media coverage of psychedelics as mental health treatments is more positive and less cautious than coverage of FDA-approved antidepressants. An analysis of 6,805 newspaper articles from 2017 to 2024 found that positive emotion and sentiment were more strongly associated with psychedelic coverage, while negative emotion and risk language were more strongly associated with antidepressant coverage. Contrary to expectations, reward language was more linked to antidepressants, and negative sentiment appeared more in psychedelic coverage. This imbalance may shape patient expectations, treatment adherence, and outcomes.
Scientific Reports
November 29, 2025
Leehe Peled‐avron, Jacob S. Aday, Madeline M. Pantoni et al.
1 citation
MDMA enhances emotional empathy but reduces accuracy in recognizing negative facial expressions such as sadness, fear, and anger. No significant effects were found on cognitive empathy or recognition of happy expressions. These findings come from a meta-analysis of studies using the Multifaceted Empathy Test and the Facial Emotion Recognition Task. Understanding these nuanced effects may help optimize therapeutic applications and safety considerations for MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, which is currently under regulatory review for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Scientific Reports
July 14, 2024
Annie C. Souza, Bryan C. Souza, Arthur França et al.
1 citation
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Scientific Reports
July 15, 2026
Mohammad Asif Sheikh, Thaddeus Alfonso
For adults with both obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and major depressive disorder, a mindfulness-based version of exposure and response prevention (MB-EX/RP) led to greater reductions in OCD symptoms, obsessive beliefs, and improvements in mindfulness and mental well-being compared to standard exposure and response prevention alone. Depressive symptoms improved in both groups, with a larger improvement in the MB-EX/RP group, though the rate of change was similar. Of 54 participants, 40 completed 17 sessions. Gains were maintained at a four-month follow-up, and antidepressant use did not affect results. Integrating mindfulness into exposure-based treatment may improve outcomes for people with these co-occurring conditions.
Scientific Reports
June 24, 2026
Hanjui Chang, J Y Li, Daewon Kang et al.
Multi-modal physiological monitoring—integrating EEG and ECG from critical care settings—reveals that during the out-of-body sensation phase of near-death experiences, EEG shows increased gamma waves and decreased alpha waves while ECG exhibits arrhythmia, confirming coordinated brain–heart changes. In parallel, optimizing brain-computer interface manufacturing via the Multi-Strategy Differential Evolution algorithm reduced average node displacement from 0.289 mm to 0.021 mm (92.73% optimization), volume shrinkage from 10.162% to 6.39%, and voltage difference from 5.78 V to 0.42 V. This cross-disciplinary approach supports end-of-life care, resuscitation protocols, and consciousness research.
Scientific Reports
June 14, 2026
Bar Eilat Yogev, Gal Levi, Noa Efroni et al.
Alcohol consumption before trauma increases vulnerability to PTSD-like symptoms in rats. Rats given ethanol four hours before predator scent stress showed more anxiety-like behavior, heightened startle responses, and greater hippocampal dendritic retraction seven days later. This vulnerability was linked to reduced brain-derived neurotrophic factor and neuropeptide Y, increased hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated channel 1, and loss of neuropeptide Y-Y1 receptor immunoreactivity in the hippocampus—a hypoexcitable, plasticity-resistant state. A single intranasal subanesthetic dose of ketamine delivered via amylolipid nanovesicles one hour after trauma reduced cue-induced freezing and dendritic atrophy, suggesting a potential preventive strategy for alcohol-exposed trauma survivors.
Scientific Reports
May 19, 2026
Karin Matko, Cate Bailey, Julieta Galante et al.
Seventy percent of adults in Australia and New Zealand engaged in contemplative practices such as meditation, yoga, or breathing techniques in the past year, most commonly meditation (31%). Practitioners reported higher psychological distress and greater use of mental healthcare than non-practitioners. After adjusting for sociodemographic differences, the association with distress disappeared for yoga and relaxation practitioners but remained for breathing techniques, which were linked to increased distress in all models. Among those with unmet healthcare needs, meditators and relaxation practitioners reported less distress than non-practitioners with unmet needs. The findings suggest contemplative practices may serve as complements to mental healthcare, but their complex relationships with mental health require further study.
Scientific Reports
April 15, 2026
Jacob S. Aday, Nicolas G. Glynos, Anne K. Baker et al.
A new questionnaire, the Psychedelic-related Major Life Changes Questionnaire (P-MLCQ), was developed to capture major life changes following psychedelic use that standard clinical measures miss. In a survey of 581 people who used psychedelics naturally, 83% reported at least one major life change influenced by their use, averaging 3.29 changes per person. The most common changes were in goals (54%), values (54%), and religion or spirituality (49%). These changes were rated highly positively on average. More frequent psychedelic use over the past five years was linked to more reported life changes. Women were 21% more likely than men to report changes, while older age and higher education were associated with fewer changes. The authors note that results may be influenced by positive bias and need replication in representative samples.
Scientific Reports
March 26, 2026
Y. J. Gordon, Golan Karvat, Noa Dagan et al.
Listening to drumming at four beats per second (theta frequency) can induce altered states of consciousness (ASC), marked by shifts in perception and awareness. In a study with 40 participants, ten-minute sessions of theta-range drumming produced stronger ASC reports than delta- or alpha-range rhythms. EEG recordings showed that individuals whose brains tracked the theta rhythm more closely reported more intense altered experiences, and this neural tracking predicted higher ASC across all drumming rhythms, suggesting a personal susceptibility. The findings indicate that theta brain activity may actively modulate conscious states, not just accompany them. Rhythmic stimulation offers a non-pharmacological way to alter consciousness, with possible uses in cognitive neuroscience and therapy.
Scientific Reports
March 18, 2026
Jonas T. T. Schlomberg, Daniel Meling, Robin Grylka et al.
The acute subjective effects of psychedelics are thought to be key to their therapeutic benefits, but conventional measurement methods may be biased. Using natural language processing to analyze phenomenological interviews from a randomized trial of DMT/harmine versus placebo during meditation in experienced meditators, the study found that meditation under DMT/harmine produced different thematic content and greater experiential diversity than meditation under placebo, though semantic overlap existed. The analysis detected well-known primary effects and subtle language patterns, including frequent use of Buddhist concepts and spiritual jargon regardless of condition. Findings suggest shared features between meditative and psychedelic states, a strong drug-context interconnection, and potential synergistic effects.
Scientific Reports
March 9, 2026
Saad M. Alshahrani
Computational modeling shows that a zinc-doped fullerene (ZnC19) is a promising candidate for real-time electrochemical and colorimetric sensing of the psychedelic compound N,N-dimethyltryptamine (N,N-DMT). When N,N-DMT adsorbs onto ZnC19, the material's electrical conductivity decreases significantly and its absorption wavelength shifts from 455 nm to 523 nm, with a practical recovery time of about 3.70 × 10⁴ seconds. In contrast, an aluminum-doped fullerene (AlC19) exhibits stronger adsorption energy (-49.57 kcal/mol), making it better suited for capturing and removing N,N-DMT rather than sensing. These findings, based on density functional theory calculations, suggest that doped fullerenes could be tailored for either detection or removal of this substance in medical or forensic settings.
Scientific Reports
February 13, 2026
Romanos Konstantinos Antonopoulos, Evangelos Dadiotis, Kostas Ioannidis et al.
Ergot alkaloids from the fungus Claviceps purpurea can be converted into psychoactive compounds using a simple lye solution, supporting the hypothesis that kykeon, the sacred drink of the Eleusinian Mysteries, was psychedelic. Pulverized ergot sclerotia were boiled in lye (pH 12.5) and distilled water. Nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrometry showed that toxic ergopeptides were absent after treatment, while lysergic acid amide (LSA) and isolysergic acid amide appeared. Quantification yielded 0.54 mg LSA and 0.48 mg iso-LSA per gram of ergot after 120 minutes. The transformation using ancient technology demonstrates a plausible chemical pathway for producing psychoactive compounds in ancient Greece.
Scientific Reports
February 10, 2026
Michelle Olofsson, Kasim Acar, Otto Simonsson et al.
Lifetime MDMA use was not significantly associated with meaning in life overall, but a significant interaction emerged: among Swedish adults with a history of childhood trauma, those who had ever used MDMA reported higher meaning in life than those who had not. Meaning in life was measured using the presence subscale of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire. The findings suggest MDMA use may relate to psychological resilience in trauma-exposed populations, though further longitudinal and experimental research is needed to test causal direction.
Scientific Reports
January 28, 2026
Nicholas A. Carlisle, Otto Simonsson, Sarah Maccarthy et al.
About one in five people who have used psychedelics report at least one major life change they attribute to the experience. Common changes involve relationships (6.9%), diet and exercise (6.2%), quitting alcohol, tobacco, or other substances (5.5%), and religious beliefs (5.5%). In a larger, more diverse sample, higher religiosity, younger age, and greater lifetime psychedelic use were strongly associated with reporting such changes. The findings suggest that major life changes after psychedelic use are not rare and may vary by demographic factors, but more longitudinal research is needed to understand their persistence, valence, and health impact.
Scientific Reports
December 12, 2025
Gisela Lima, Carla Soares, Marta Teixeira et al.
Reward processing involves learning, liking, and wanting, and its disruption in mesolimbic and mesocortical pathways underlies many disorders. In a preliminary pharmacoimaging study, 11 healthy participants with prior psychedelic experience self-administered inhaled DMT immediately before MRI scanning, with a no-administration control condition. DMT decreased connectivity between the right nucleus accumbens and left ventral tegmental area, increased connectivity between the right nucleus accumbens and anterior cingulate cortex, and increased connectivity between medial prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex. These connectivity changes correlated with altered volition and perception. Reduced midbrain-NAc connectivity, often increased in addiction, suggests potential therapeutic value for reward-related disorders.