ArticleNeuroscience of consciousness2023
Pattern breaking: a complex systems approach to psychedelic medicine.
Article in Neuroscience of consciousness, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
What it found
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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.
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.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 57 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neural complexity is increased after low doses of LSD, but not moderate to high doses of oral THC or methamphetamine.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Trial
- Reduced task-switching flexibility in parietal-cingulate and frontal circuits associated with brooding.Cognitive neurodynamics · 2026Article
- Setting digital psychiatry in motion: towards dynamic digital markers for digital phenotyping.NPP - digital psychiatry and neuroscience · 2026Review
- Accelerated recovery using magnesium ibogaine: characterizing the subjective experience of its rapid healing from neuropsychiatric disorders.Npj mental health research · 2026Article
- Structured Dynamics in the Algorithmic Agent.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Heterogeneous and higher-order cortical connectivity undergirds efficient, robust, and reliable neural codes.iScience · 2025Article
- Can psychedelic use benefit meditation practice? Examining individual, psychedelic, and meditation-related factors.PloS one · 2025Article
- Shifting boundaries, extended minds: ambient technology and extended allostatic control.Synthese · 2025Article
- Meditation and complexity: a review and synthesis of evidence.Neuroscience of consciousness · 2025Review
- From taboo to treatment: The emergence of psychedelics in the management of pain and opioid use disorder.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2024Review
- Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Training: An Argument in Support of Firsthand Experience of Nonordinary States of Consciousness in the Development of Competence.Psychedelic medicine (New Rochelle, N.Y.) · 2024Review
- Exploring psychedelic-assisted therapy in the treatment of functional seizures: A review of underlying mechanisms and associated brain networks.Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) · 2024Review
- The potential of 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine in the treatment of alcohol use disorder: A first look at therapeutic mechanisms of action.Addiction biology · 2024Review
- Neural Geometrodynamics, Complexity, and Plasticity: A Psychedelics Perspective.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- The library is open: a scoping review on queer representation in psychedelic research.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Deep CANALs: a deep learning approach to refining the canalization theory of psychopathology.Neuroscience of consciousness · 2024Article
- Special Issue: Experiencing Well-BeingPlayfulness and the meaningful life: an active inference perspective.Neuroscience of consciousness · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 4 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Recent research has demonstrated the potential of psychedelic therapy for mental health care. However, the psychological experience underlying its therapeutic effects remains poorly understood. This paper proposes a framework that suggests psychedelics act as destabilizers, both psychologically and neurophysiologically. Drawing on the 'entropic brain' hypothesis and the 'RElaxed Beliefs Under pSychedelics' model, this paper focuses on the richness of psychological experience. Through a complex systems theory perspective, we suggest that psychedelics destabilize fixed points or attractors, breaking reinforced patterns of thinking and behaving. Our approach explains how psychedelic-induced increases in brain entropy destabilize neurophysiological set points and lead to new conceptualizations of psychedelic psychotherapy. These insights have important implications for risk mitigation and treatment optimization in psychedelic medicine, both during the peak psychedelic experience and during the subacute period of potential recovery.
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Registered trials
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.