Incremental efficacy systematic review and meta-analysis of psilocybin-for-depression RCTs.

ABSTRACT:

Rationale

Psilocybin is a potentially paradigm-shifting depression intervention. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of psilocybin-for-depression randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

Objectives

Systematically assess harm reporting, risk of bias, action mechanism specification, and incremental therapeutic effect sizes in the psilocybin-for-depression RCT literature.

Methods

Assessed databases included PsycINFO, CINAHL, Embase, Medline, Web of Science, and Scopus. Search terms "Psilocybin" or "Psychedelic" were paired with "Depression", and "Randomized Controlled Trial" or "RCT".

Results

We identified k = 9 RCTs (k = 10 subgroups) involving n = 602 participants (56% psilocybin). Five studies had low/very low harm quality reporting, opposed to two w

SUBMITTER: Borgogna NC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12449434 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature