Psilocybin and Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy
Psilocybin produces lasting antidepressant and anxiolytic effects through serotonin 2A receptor activation and default mode network suppression. Clinical trials show single high-dose sessions rival SSRIs for treatment-resistant depression. Psilocybin also upregulates BDNF and promotes synaptic plasticity, suggesting neurobiological mechanisms beyond acute serotonergic effects.
Viewpoints
Roland Griffiths, Ph.D. on Psilocybin, Psychedelic Therapies & Mystical Experiences
Roland Griffiths
“High-dose psilocybin produces profound mystical experiences that correlate strongly with lasting reductions in depression and anxiety — even in cancer patients facing death — and rates among the most meaningful experiences of participants' lives.”
Dr. Charles Raison on Depression, the Immune-Brain Interface & Whole-Body Hyperthermia
Charles Raison
“Psilocybin's antidepressant effects may work through resetting maladaptive inflammatory and neural patterns underlying treatment-resistant depression, complementing its action on the serotonin 2A receptor and default mode network.”
Key Moments
Can Psilocybin Treat Depression?
Rhonda Patrick
“Clinical trials demonstrate psilocybin produces rapid, durable antidepressant effects — outperforming SSRIs in some studies — through mechanisms including BDNF upregulation, neuroplasticity, and suppression of the default mode network.”
Roland Griffiths, Ph.D. on Psilocybin, Psychedelic Therapies & Mystical Experiences
Roland Griffiths
“Psilocybin-occasioned mystical experiences are reliably produced at high doses, are meaningfully distinct from ordinary consciousness, and their intensity predicts positive therapeutic outcomes across depression, addiction, and end-of-life distress.”
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Roland Griffiths, Ph.D. on Psilocybin, Psychedelic Therapies & Mystical Experiences
Rhonda Patrick
“…context and pharmacology. This is not just an effective of psilocybin. And in fact, there are risks associated with just taking psilocybin that we really shouldn't minimize. Those are some of the risks that resulted in the deep cultural misunderstanding of th”
Roland Griffiths, Ph.D. on Psilocybin, Psychedelic Therapies & Mystical Experiences
Rhonda Patrick
“…lot study in cigarette smokers, 15 smokers. We embedded the psilocybin manipulation in the context of a cognitive behavior therapy for smoking cessation. And remarkably, we had 80% abstinence rates at 6 months which in the smoking world is just completely unhe”
Can Psilocybin Treat Depression?
Rhonda Patrick
“standards expected of mainstream science the effects of psilocybin on our brain are complex the effect most people may be familiar with is its distinctive auditory and visual hallucinations it causes when ingested scientists think psilocybin does this primaril”
Can Psilocybin Treat Depression?
Rhonda Patrick
“…e were crossed over between essentially an inactive dose of psilocybin to an active dose or vice versa so so the strongest conclusion we can make comparing our our placebo condition and our active condition is this effect lasted out to five weeks but uh in fac”
Dr. Charles Raison on Depression, the Immune-Brain Interface & Whole-Body Hyperthermia
Rhonda Patrick
“…t illegal and unethical, I could give you a big old dose of psilocybin right now, put you on the couch over there, and it would be very likely you’d have a profound mystical experience, right?”
Dr. Charles Raison on Depression, the Immune-Brain Interface & Whole-Body Hyperthermia
Rhonda Patrick
“…showed that, you know, a single exposure to something like psilocybin, which is a psychedelic substance in magic mushrooms, you know, tends to induce you to very unusual states of mind, that often have a kind of mystical characteristic to them. A single expos”
Cold-Water Immersion and Cryotherapy: Neuroendocrine and Fat Browning Effects
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“…cts on our bodies but it can also act as a neurotransmitter and may influence brain function animal studies have found that chronic cold exposure also promotes the release of norepinephrine from the locus ceruleus region of the brain in the brain norepinephrin”
Cold-Water Immersion and Cryotherapy: Neuroendocrine and Fat Browning Effects
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“…heir circulating norepinephrine after each exposure session and temperature does matter in a study where healthy young men underwent one hour head out immersions in three different temperatures of water only the coldest of the three increased norepinephrine by”