Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32369828›Full record

ArticleNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2020

Psilocybin and LSD have no long-lasting effects in an animal model of alcohol relapse.

Marcus W Meinhardt, Cansu Güngör, Ivan Skorodumov, Lea J Mertens, Rainer Spanagel

Open access · bronzeAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
34citing papers in PubMed, 5 pooled it
3.0field-weighted citation impact, top 6% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

34 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 65 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
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  6. Trial
  7. The 5-HTPharmacology research & perspectives · 2021
    Trial
  8. Review
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Review
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. The Emergence of Psilocybin in Psychiatry and Neuroscience.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025
    Review
  15. Article
  16. Review
  17. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Marcus W Meinhardt *Institute of Psychopharmacology, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany. marcus.meinhardt@zi-mannheim.de.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5103-0731
Cansu Güngör *Institute of Psychopharmacology, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
Ivan SkorodumovInstitute of Psychopharmacology, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6749-9745
Lea J MertensDepartment of Molecular Neuroimaging, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
Rainer SpanagelInstitute of Psychopharmacology, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
Heidelberg University · DE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

For most psychiatric disorders, including alcohol use disorder (AUD), approved pharmacological treatments are limited in their effectiveness, and new drugs that can easily be translated into the clinic are needed. Currently, great hope lies in the potential of psychedelics to effectively treat AUD. The primary hypothesis is that a single session of psychedelic-guided psychotherapy can restore normal brain function in AUD individuals and thereby reduce the risk of relapse in the long run. Here we applied three different treatment schedules with psilocybin/LSD in order to investigate relapse-like drinking in the alcohol deprivation effect (ADE) model. In contrast to the primary hypothesis, psychedelics had no long-lasting effects on the ADE in male and female rats, neither when administered in a high dosage regime that is comparable to the one used in clinical studies, nor in a chronic microdosing scheme. Only sub-chronic treatment with psilocybin produced a short-lasting anti-relapse effect. However, it is not a translatable treatment option to give psychedelics sub-chronically for relapse prevention. In conclusion, our results in the ADE model do not support the hypothesis that microdosing or high doses of psychedelic reduce relapse behavior. This conclusion has to be confirmed by applying other animal models of AUD. It could also well be that animal models of AUD might be unable to fully capture the therapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs and that only future large-scale clinical trials will be able to demonstrate the efficacy of psychedelics as a new treatment option for AUD.

Indexed as

HallucinogensPsilocybinAnimalsDisease Models, AnimalFemaleLysergic Acid DiethylamideMaleRatsRecurrenceHallucinogensLysergic Acid DiethylamidePsilocybin

Identifiers

PMID32369828
PMCPMC7298021
OpenAlexW3020950088

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.