Psychedelic Research Recap: February 2026

February added 19 psychedelic research papers to the Blossom database. The month was weighted towards clinical and patient-facing work, with several depression and PTSD studies, a small cluster on microdosing and belief, two linked ibogaine analyses in veterans, and broader papers on trial design, facilitation and implementation.

Clinical Trials And Patient Care

The first group sits closest to care, with controlled trials, open-label pilots and follow-up studies across PTSD, depression, post-treatment Lyme disease, childbirth and serious illness.

In a multicentre, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2 trial, once-weekly oral TSND-201 reduced clinician-rated PTSD symptoms more than placebo in adults with chronic PTSD. Functioning and depressive symptoms also improved, while adverse events were mostly transient, including headache, nausea, dizziness, lower appetite and blood-pressure increases. The trial is one of the more direct clinical signals this month, though blinding remained a concern.

An open-label phase 2 study tested a single 10 mg intranasal dose of BPL-003, a 5-MeO-DMT formulation, in people with treatment-resistant depression. Depression scores fell quickly and the treatment was usually well tolerated, with most adverse events mild or moderate and clustered on the dosing day. Because there was no control group, the paper is best read as a feasibility and signal-finding study rather than proof of efficacy.

The ESCAPE-LTE study followed people with treatment-resistant depression who had remitted on esketamine nasal spray plus an antidepressant. Over 136 weeks, relapse rates were low and no new long-term safety concerns stood out. The open-label, single-arm design means the results are not a clean test against usual care, but they are useful for questions about longer-term maintenance.

A randomised controlled trial tested a single low-dose esketamine infusion after fetal delivery during caesarean section. Women in the esketamine group had lower early postpartum depression scores, better recovery quality and faster return to milestones such as walking, flatus and breastfeeding, with similar adverse event rates between groups. It is a practical perioperative signal that needs larger follow-up.

An open-label pilot study gave psilocybin-assisted treatment to 20 people with post-treatment Lyme disease. Symptom burden, mood, sleep, fatigue, pain and quality of life improved over follow-up, and no serious treatment-related adverse events were reported. The design cannot separate psilocybin from support, expectancy or time, but the population is under-studied and has substantial unmet need.

A seven-month follow-up of MDMA-assisted therapy for major depressive disorder found that depression and functioning gains were largely maintained after treatment. Most post-treatment responders kept their gains, and suicidal ideation did not rise overall. The sample was very small and open-label, but it adds needed durability data for MDMA work outside PTSD.

An open-label LSD microdosing trial in major depressive disorder reported that twice-weekly microdoses over eight weeks were feasible and generally well tolerated, with depression scores falling and benefits reported out to six months. The paper follows earlier work from the same trial on mood and pharmacokinetic outcomes. Without a placebo group, the clinical signal remains hard to separate from expectancy and study contact.

A caregiver analysis from an LSD microdosing plus meaning-centred psychotherapy trial in advanced cancer looked beyond the patient alone. Caregivers were mostly supportive, though sometimes hesitant at first, and described hope, reduced existential distress and changes in the patient-caregiver relationship. The paper makes a simple but important point: trials in serious illness affect families, not only enrolled participants.

Microdosing, Belief And Meaning

These papers look at everyday use, healthy-volunteer microdosing and changes in religious or spiritual belief. The evidence is mixed, and most of it should not be read as causal.

Two double-blind, placebo-controlled trials found little evidence that psilocybin microdosing improved cognitive control, memory, social cognition or subjective wellbeing in healthy volunteers. One effect on difficult social-cognition items appeared, but most outcomes were null after accounting for practice effects and multiple testing. The findings cut against simple claims that microdosing reliably improves performance.

A national US study estimated that about 1 in 15 young adults reported past-year hallucinogen microdosing. Microdosing clustered strongly with alcohol, cannabis, nicotine and other substance use, which makes it look less like an isolated wellness behaviour and more like part of wider polysubstance patterns.

A waitlist-controlled study of clergy from several major religions found that two supported psilocybin sessions were associated with lasting increases in religious practices, attitudes, perceived leadership confidence and wellbeing. The participants were psychedelic-naive and already religious professionals, so selection and expectancy matter, but the paper is a rare controlled look at psilocybin in a group for whom spiritual meaning is central.

A retrospective survey of veterans reported shifts towards stronger belief in God or a higher power after memorable psychedelic experiences, alongside a decline in explicit non-belief. Formal religious affiliation changed less. The study adds to the literature on meaning-making after psychedelics, but retrospective self-report and selection bias limit what can be concluded.

Ibogaine And Brain Measures

This section covers linked veteran analyses and one imaging paper comparing 2C-B and psilocybin.

Two papers reported secondary analyses from the same open-label MISTIC cohort of special operations veterans with blast-related traumatic brain injury. An MRI analysis of a magnesium-ibogaine protocol found increased cortical thickness, larger subcortical volumes and a lower estimated brain age one month later. A companion mystical-experience analysis found that stronger mystical experiences were associated with larger reductions in PTSD symptoms and changes in peak alpha frequency. Both papers are interesting, but the shared open-label design means causality is still uncertain.

A 7T fMRI study compared 2C-B and psilocybin in a double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover design. Both drugs altered resting-state connectivity in partly overlapping ways, with effects related to 5-HT2A receptor density, but the spatial patterns were not identical. The paper is a useful reminder that similar subjective effects do not always mean the same brain-level effects.

Reviews And Trial Context

The final group steps back from single studies, focusing on synthesis, facilitation, mechanisms and an adjacent ketamine pain literature.

A meta-analysis of psychiatric trials found that psychedelic treatment arms generally outperformed controls for depression, PTSD and anxiety, but control groups also improved in clinically meaningful ways. The authors argue that expectancy, therapeutic contact and psychotherapy may account for a large share of apparent benefit, especially when blinding is difficult.

A pooled analysis of psilocybin studies found that session facilitators substantially influenced psychedelic experiences in clinical trials, but not in healthy-volunteer studies. That suggests support is not just background context when participants are patients, and it strengthens the case for reporting facilitator and therapy variables more clearly.

A state-of-the-art review summarised mechanisms, clinical evidence, safety and translation issues in psychedelic medicine. It placed the strongest current evidence around psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression and MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD, while stressing familiar problems around unblinding, safety reporting, access and scalable delivery.

A systematic review of oral ketamine for chronic cancer and non-cancer pain found lower mean pain scores across 30 to 90 days, but only a small subset of studies had dosing data consistent enough for quantitative analysis. The authors proposed an evidence-based oral dosing range, though the review also shows how uneven this literature remains.