Psilocybin: Psychotherapy or drug?

Psilocybin: Psychotherapy or drug?

Individual Experiences in Four Cancer Patients Following Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy

A growing body of evidence shows that existential and spiritual well-being in cancer patients is associated with better medical outcomes, improved quality of life, and serves as a buffer against depression, hopelessness, and desire for hastened death. Historical and recent research suggests a role for psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy in treating cancer-related anxiety and depression. A double-...

Clinical Interpretations of Patient Experience in a Trial of Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy for Alcohol Use Disorder

After a hiatus of some 40 years, clinical research has resumed on the use of classic hallucinogens to treat addiction. Following completion of a small open-label feasibility study, we are currently conducting a double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial of psilocybin-assisted treatment of alcohol use disorder. Although treatment effects cannot be analyzed until the study is complete, descri...

Implications for psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study with psilocybin

pharmacologically related to the prototypical psychedelic, lysergic acid diethylamide. Psychedelic drugs were used extensively in psychotherapy in the 1950s to lower psychological defences and facilitate emotional insight. In cognitive terms, the ‘lowering of defences’ may be thought of as a decrease in top-down emotional control. There are several reports in this literature of spontaneous auto...

Implications for psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy: functional magnetic resonance imaging study with psilocybin.

BACKGROUND Psilocybin is a classic psychedelic drug that has a history of use in psychotherapy. One of the rationales for its use was that it aids emotional insight by lowering psychological defences. AIMS To test the hypothesis that psilocybin facilitates access to personal memories and emotions by comparing subjective and neural responses to positive autobiographical memories under psilocyb...