Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy Is Effecting In Treating Methamphetamine Addiction, New Study Says

A new study on the use of psilocybin-assisted therapy to treat methamphetamine use disorder says the treatment “was feasible to implement in an outpatient setting, did not appear to generate safety concerns, and demonstrated signals of effectiveness warranting further investigation.”

The report, which has not been peer reviewed, was published by The Lancet as a preprint late last month. It found that among a small group of people in a stimulant treatment program, “Methamphetamine craving decreased while quality of life, depression, anxiety, and stress improved from baseline to day 28 and 90 follow-up.”

The eight-author team, based out of Australia, noted that there are currently few effective treatments for methamphetamine use disorder.

Fourteen people received psilocybin-assisted therapy, all of whom were 25 or older and used methamphetamine at least four days per month. None had serious mental illness or medical conditions that disqualified them from psilocybin use.

After three preparatory sessions over the course of two weeks, they received a single, 25 milligram oral dose of psilocybin followed by two psychotherapy sessions over the course of a week. Thirteen of the 14 participants completed a 90-day, post-dose follow-up evaluation.

No serious adverse events were reported, though some participants reported headache, nausea and noise sensitivity in the week after administration of psilocybin.

Self-reported methamphetamine use fell from a median of 12 days over the past 28 days at baseline to a median of zero days a month after taking psilocybin. After 90 days, median methamphetamine use was two of the past 28 days.

Notably, 57 percent (eight people) were abstained entirely from methamphetamine use during the 28-day period after psilocybin administration—a result corroborated through a urine drug screening. After 90 days, 29 percent (four people) had still not used methamphetamine.

“Of the 14 participants who completed the intervention, the measures of [methamphetamine] craving, mental wellbeing, depression, anxiety and stress all improved from baseline to days 28 and 90 follow up,” the report says.

Authors said the study is the first to explore psilocybin-assisted therapy for the treatment of methamphetamine use disorder.

“These findings demonstrate likely feasibility of conducting such treatment in a public outpatient treatment setting and of conducting larger trials of [psilocybin-assisted therapy] for this indication,” says the paper, adding that the results align with prior research suggesting psilocybin can help manage tobacco and alcohol use disorders.

The team acknowledged that the small sample size and other limitations—such as a gender imbalance and exclusion of people with stimulant-induced psychosis and hypertension—limit the generalizability of the findings but concluded that the study “provides early signals [psilocybin-assisted therapy] is feasible and safe to deliver in an outpatient setting.”

Decades after early research showed that psychedelic-assisted therapy might offer profound benefits to people suffering from substance use disorder, more investigation is now being done.

Last summer, for example, two studies—including one with contributions from a top federal drug official—examined psychedelics and alcohol use disorder (AUD).

One found that a single dose of psilocybin “was safe and effective in reducing alcohol consumption in AUD patients,” while the other concludes that classic psychedelics like psilocybin and LSD “have demonstrated potential for treating drug addiction, especially AUD.”

The National Institutes of Health last year also announced that it would put $2.4 million toward funding studies on the use of psychedelics to treat methamphetamine use disorders—funding that came as federal health officials noted sharp increases in deaths from methamphetamine and other psychostimulants in recent years, with fatal overdoses involving the substances rising nearly fivefold between 2015 and 2022.

In 2023, meanwhile, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) announced a $1.5 million funding round to further study psychedelics and addiction.

Other recent research has also suggested that psychedelics could unlock promising new pathways to treat addiction. A first-of-its-kind analysis in 2023 offered novel insights into exactly how psychedelic-assisted therapy works for people with alcohol use disorder.

Last year, meanwhile, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), which is part of the National Institutes of Health, identified the treatment of alcohol use disorder as one of a number of possible benefits of psilocybin, despite the substance remaining a Schedule I controlled substance under U.S. law.

The agency highlighted a 2022 study that “suggested that psilocybin may be helpful for alcohol use disorder.” The research found people who were in psilocybin-assisted therapy had fewer heavy-drinking days over 32 weeks than the control group, which NCCIH said “suggests that psilocybin may be helpful for alcohol use disorder.”

Outside of psychedelics, research from 2019 indicated that the cannabinoid CBD may also have the potential to treat substance use disorders involving cocaine, amphetamine and methamphetamine—adding to earlier research showing the cannabinoid has the potential to help people battling substance use disorders involving alcohol and opioids.

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