A new systematic review highlights the potential of psychedelic-assisted therapy for substance use disorders, finding psilocybin to be the most promising treatment for alcohol use disorder (AUD).
Psilocybin mushroom.
Researchers from King’s College London, the University of Birmingham, and the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust reviewed 37 studies involving 2,035 participants, assessing treatments with LSD, mescaline, psilocybin, ayahuasca, ketamine, ibogaine, and MDMA.
According to the study, published in the journal Addiction, “A two-centre, placebo-controlled, phase 2 superiority RCT of psilocybin for AUD, and a two-centre, double-blind, four-arm, placebo-controlled phase 2 RCT of ketamine for AUD yielded the best evidence of efficacy.”
The study concludes by stating:
Psilocybin-assisted treatment for alcohol use disorder appears to have the best evidence of efficacy among all major psychedelic-assisted treatments for alcohol, tobacco, and other substance use disorders. Future research of psychedelic-assisted treatment should report all safety events; screen for person-level characteristics indicating that psychedelic-assisted substance use disorders treatment is contraindicated; strive to mitigate blinding of participants to interventions; use factorial designs for drug and psychotherapy randomised controlled trials; and build consensus for a field-specific Core Outcome Set.
