One psilocybin session held antidepressant effects for 52 weeks in a new follow-up study

Key Findings

🌊 Float Tanks Produce Psychedelic-Adjacent States—Without Any Drug

• In a randomized trial of 75 adults with anxiety and depression, floatation therapy produced altered states characterized by oceanic boundlessness, disembodiment, and experience of unity—a profile that overlapped with psilocybin and ketamine along boundary-dissolution dimensions.
• Effects were strongest among participants who chose longer, more flexible sessions, and oceanic boundlessness specifically was linked to increases in positive affect.

💊 Ketamine for OCD: Promising but Short-Lived

• A systematic review evaluated ketamine for moderate-to-severe obsessive-compulsive disorder, a condition where 40–60% of patients fail standard serotonergic and behavioral therapies.
• Results suggested efficacy signals, but durability and long-term safety remain unresolved—a recurring theme for glutamate-based treatments.

🏥 Oncology Providers Want to Help—But Feel Unprepared

• A survey across six institutions found that 49% of oncology providers had received patient inquiries about psychedelic-assisted therapy, yet 80% did not feel comfortable counseling patients on its use.
• Willingness to recommend it was tied to familiarity with the emerging data and knowledge of legal status—not to provider age, specialty, or other demographic factors.

🧪 High-Dose THC vs. Psilocybin: Not the Same Trip

• A pilot study compared high-dose THC to high-dose psilocybin and placebo in the structured context of a classic psychedelic therapy session, examining whether THC can occasion genuinely psychedelic-like experiences.
• The study aimed to characterize both the doses required and the phenomenology of those experiences—suggesting the two compounds produce meaningfully different experiential profiles.

🔬 Salvia's Active Compound: Fast, Strange, and Understudied

• A systematic review of 12 clinical trials covering 174 participants found that salvinorin A—the psychoactive compound in Salvia divinorum—produces effects that peak within 1–2 minutes and resolve within 30 minutes when inhaled, with no serious adverse events reported.
• Its mechanism is kappa-opioid receptor agonism, making it pharmacologically distinct from serotonergic psychedelics and a potential tool for studying opioid receptor-mediated alterations of consciousness.

⚖️ Oregon, Colorado, New Mexico: Three Bets on Psilocybin Policy

• A legal analysis compared the three state regulatory frameworks currently governing psilocybin: Oregon prioritizes broad access outside the healthcare system, Colorado blends regulated services with decriminalization, and New Mexico limits use to a clinician-directed medical model for qualifying patients.
• The analysis argues that New Mexico's model offers the strongest foundation for future regulation, while Colorado's framework provides the best protections for Indigenous community practices.