Anxiety DisordersHealthy VolunteersSchizophreniaDepressive DisordersSubstance Use Disorders (SUD)Neuroimaging & Brain MeasuresPsilocybin

Emotions and brain function are altered up to one month after a single high dose of psilocybin

In an open‑label pilot with 12 healthy volunteers, a single high dose of psilocybin (25 mg/70 kg) produced transient reductions in negative affect and amygdala reactivity at one week, while increases in positive affect and reduced trait anxiety persisted at one month, accompanied by increased resting‑state functional connectivity. These preliminary results suggest psilocybin enhances emotional and neural plasticity and support targeting negative affect in therapeutic applications.

Authors

  • Roland Griffiths
  • Frederick Barrett
  • Nathan Sepeda

Published

Scientific Reports
individual Study

Abstract

Psilocybin is a classic psychedelic compound that may have efficacy for the treatment of mood and substance use disorders. Acute psilocybin effects include reduced negative mood, increased positive mood, and reduced amygdala response to negative affective stimuli. However, no study has investigated the long-term, enduring impact of psilocybin on negative affect and associated brain function. Twelve healthy volunteers (7F/5M) completed an open-label pilot study including assessments 1-day before, 1-week after, and 1-month after receiving a 25 mg/70 kg dose of psilocybin to test the hypothesis that psilocybin administration leads to enduring changes in affect and neural correlates of affect. One-week post-psilocybin, negative affect and amygdala response to facial affect stimuli were reduced, whereas positive affect and dorsal lateral prefrontal and medial orbitofrontal cortex responses to emotionally-conflicting stimuli were increased. One-month post-psilocybin, negative affective and amygdala response to facial affect stimuli returned to baseline levels while positive affect remained elevated, and trait anxiety was reduced. Finally, the number of significant resting-state functional connections across the brain increased from baseline to 1-week and 1-month post-psilocybin. These preliminary findings suggest that psilocybin may increase emotional and brain plasticity, and the reported findings support the hypothesis that negative affect may be a therapeutic target for psilocybin.

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Research Summary of 'Emotions and brain function are altered up to one month after a single high dose of psilocybin'

Introduction

Earlier research has shown that psilocybin, a classic 5-HT2A receptor partial agonist, can produce acute reductions in negative mood, increases in positive mood, and decreased amygdala responses to negative emotional stimuli, and small clinical studies suggest antidepressant and anti-addiction effects that can persist for months after one or a few administrations. However, the mechanisms that might underlie any enduring therapeutic effects remain unclear. Two candidate, potentially interacting mechanisms are modulation of negative affect (and related affective biases) and changes in large-scale brain network plasticity; both amygdala reactivity and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) function figure prominently in models of mood and substance use disorders and in prior psychedelic neuroimaging findings. Barrett and colleagues therefore conducted an open-label, within-subjects pilot study to test whether a single high dose of psilocybin (25 mg/70 kg) produces enduring changes in affect, personality, task-evoked neural responses to emotional stimuli, and resting-state functional connectivity. Participants were assessed one day before, one week after, and one month after psilocybin using a battery of self-report affect and personality measures and functional MRI during three emotion tasks and resting state. The study aimed to determine whether post-acute changes in affect and brain function persist after drug elimination and could point to trans-diagnostic mechanisms relevant to mood and substance use disorders.

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