Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy might help to reduce attachment anxiety

Scientists have begun to examine whether the psychedelic drug psilocybin, the active component of “magic” mushrooms, can help people who feel insecure in their attachments to others. Their preliminary research, published in ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science, suggests that psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy might help to reduce attachment anxiety.

People can be secure or insecure in their attachments, and insecure individuals can be either anxious or avoidant. People with an anxious attachment style are fearful of rejection and abandonment, while people with an avoidant attachment style tend to distrust others and shun intimacy. Though attachment styles tend to be relatively stable, there is evidence that they can change over time.

“Therapeutic changes toward more secure attachment often correlate with reduction in psychiatric symptoms. An intervention that could rapidly and durably revise maladaptive working models of attachment are also likely to reduce the symptoms of a broad range of psychiatric disorders,” study author Christopher S. Stauffer and his colleagues wrote in their study.
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