Question-based Drug Development for psilocybin - Authors' reply.
Lancet Psychiatry September 1, 2016 Robin L Carhart-Harris, David J Nutt 1 citation
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Robin L Carhart-Harris
International Computer Science Institute, University of California, San Francisco
54 papers in the library · 5,976 citations · publishing 2015-2026
Papers
Exploring the potential psychological predictors associated with changes in depression, anxiety, and well-being following naturalistic psychedelic use.
Journal of psychiatric research November 1, 2025 Felipe M Herrmann, Grant Jones, Daniel M Low et al.
Increases in meaning in life, agreeableness, mindfulness, and extraversion are the psychological changes most strongly linked to future improvements in well-being after naturalistic psychedelic use. Increases in mindfulness, emotional stability, and extraversion are most associated with later reductions in anxiety, while increased self-esteem is most tied to decreased depression. Mindfulness was the only variable ranking among the top three predictors for all three outcomes—well-being, anxiety, and depression. These differing psychological changes may explain the mental health benefits observed after psychedelic use.
Human neuroimaging: fMRI.
International review of neurobiology January 1, 2025 Matthew B Wall, Robin L Carhart-Harris
Functional MRI has been central to recent psychedelic research in healthy and clinical populations. Classic psychedelics such as psilocybin, LSD, and DMT acutely and profoundly disrupt normal resting-state brain connectivity, an effect likely linked to their subjective experiences and longer-term positive emotional impacts. This chapter outlines fMRI methodology and reviews current knowledge from task and resting-state studies in both non-clinical and clinical groups. Current limitations include small datasets and lack of standardization; future work should provide more data, standardize acquisition and analysis, conduct multi-modal imaging, and share data openly. fMRI remains a key tool for understanding psychedelic mechanisms and developing psychedelic-based treatments.
The entropic brain - revisited.
Neuropharmacology November 1, 2018 Robin L Carhart-Harris
The entropic brain hypothesis proposes that the entropy of spontaneous brain activity, within certain limits, indexes the informational richness of conscious states. Four years after its original publication, evidence from separate studies increasingly supports the principle that brain entropy is elevated in the psychedelic state, and evidence for greater brain criticality under psychedelics is also highlighted. Heightened brain criticality may make the brain more sensitive to intrinsic and extrinsic perturbations, translating as a heightened susceptibility to 'set' and 'setting'. This updated hypothesis offers more concrete information on specific measures of brain entropy and suggests new studies to scrutinize its utility for conditions such as depression and disorders of consciousness.