Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy improves psychiatric symptoms across multiple dimensions in patients with cancer

Introduction

Patients with cancer commonly experience a broad range of psychiatric symptoms beyond anxiety and depression, including interpersonal sensitivity, hostility, somatic symptoms and obsessive worrying, all of which can reduce quality of life and worsen clinical outcomes. Previous clinical research has documented high prevalence of psychological distress in oncology populations and has explored treatments ranging from psychotherapy to antidepressants, stimulants and ketamine; however, many pharmacological options have delayed onset, problematic side-effect profiles or limited durability. Early clinical work with classic psychedelics and more recent Phase II trials of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy (PAP) suggest rapid and sustained reductions in anxiety and depression, but PAP’s effects across other psychiatric symptom domains have not been systematically analysed. Petridis and colleagues sought to fill that gap by pooling individual participant data from two Phase II, randomised, placebo-controlled crossover trials of PAP in patients with cancer. The study aimed to test whether PAP produces multidimensional psychiatric improvements by analysing nine symptom domains from the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI): anxiety, depression, interpersonal sensitivity, hostility, obsession–compulsion, somatisation, phobia, paranoia and psychosis. The investigators hypothesised that PAP would reduce multiple dimensions of psychiatric distress in this population when measured before and after medication sessions and at up to six months of follow-up.