In a laboratory at the University of Southern California, a quiet question is being asked of a very old kind of experience: whether the disciplined practice of attention can shape what a psychedelic leaves behind. Roughly seventy-two middle-aged Los Angeles adults, none of whom have prior experience with psychedelics or meditation, are being enrolled to test psilocybin alone against psilocybin paired with eight weeks of mindfulness training. The work springs from a long human hope that the mind can be helped to loosen its unhelpful stories, and it is supported by a federal research agency aimi
USC Launches First Psychedelic Therapy Trial, Testing Psilocybin Paired With Mindfulness Training
Does teaching people to meditate make psilocybin therapy work better?
Mark
So what is actually new here? Psilocybin has been studied before.
Mimi
Not at USC. This is the university's first psychedelic therapy trial. And the question isn't only whether psilocybin helps, it's whether eight weeks of mindfulness training makes the therapy work better.
Mark
Who are the participants?
Mimi
About 72 middle-aged adults from Los Angeles, with no current psychiatric or medical pathology and no prior psychedelic or meditation experience. They're healthy volunteers.
Luke
That's worth pausing on. Healthy volunteers means this can't tell us whether the combination treats depression or addiction. The reporting describes the aims as well-being, spirituality, cognition, brain activity and biomarkers.
Mimi
Right, and the measures are broad: EEG, MRI and fMRI, saliva, blood and stool samples, plus follow-ups at three months, six months and a year.
Mark
Why does the meditation piece matter?
Mimi
Rael Cahn's idea is that mindfulness helps people deconstruct unhelpful narratives, and psilocybin may amplify that. The brain measures include activity related to self and narrative processing.
Luke
But that's a hypothesis. The source says researchers hypothesize better outcomes, not that they've shown it. And the trial is open label, so everyone knows their assignment, which leaves room for expectation to color self-reports.
Mark
And the funding?
Mimi
ARPA-H, through its EVIDENT program. De-identified data goes into a national repository.
Luke
Nothing in the reporting says when results will arrive. The one-year follow-up sets a floor on the timeline, but no publication date is given.
Il Polso
- USC's first psychedelic therapy trial is now recruiting, a notable shift for an institution that has never run one before.
- Psilocybin remains a Schedule 1 substance even as the FDA has granted it breakthrough designation for depression, a tension the study must work within.
- Researchers are testing whether eight weeks of mindfulness can strengthen the lasting effects of a single psychedelic session.
- Measurements run from EEG and brain scans to saliva, blood and stool samples, with follow-ups at three months, six months and one year.
- Results will flow into a national repository, and the coming year will reveal whether the combined approach holds.
In a laboratory at the University of Southern California, a quiet question is being asked of a very old kind of experience: whether the disciplined practice of attention can shape what a psychedelic leaves behind. Roughly seventy-two middle-aged Los Angeles adults, none of whom have prior experience with psychedelics or meditation, are being enrolled to test psilocybin alone against psilocybin paired with eight weeks of mindfulness training. The work springs from a long human hope that the mind can be helped to loosen its unhelpful stories, and it is supported by a federal research agency aiming to speed treatments for mental health. Its answer, which will unfold over a year of follow-up, may clarify how a compound once found only in folk tradition might be made to last.
At the University of Southern California, a laboratory at the Brain and Creativity Institute has begun enrolling volunteers for the university's first psychedelic therapy study. The compound is psilocybin, the substance found in certain mushrooms, and the question is precise: does teaching people to meditate make psilocybin-assisted therapy work better?
The project joins the Keck School of Medicine, the Brain and Creativity Institute, and the Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. It is co-led by Rael Cahn, who directs the USC Center for Mindfulness Science, and Caryn Lerman, director of the Norris Cancer Center. Funding comes from ARPA-H through its EVIDENT initiative, which aims to speed more personalized treatments for mental and behavioral health.
About 72 middle-aged Los Angeles adults, with no current psychiatric or medical illness and no prior experience with psychedelics or meditation, will be split into two groups. One receives supervised psilocybin alone. The other receives psilocybin plus an eight-week mindfulness program. The trial is open label, and the researchers expect mindfulness to add benefit beyond the drug itself.
Participants will undergo brain scans, EEG, cognitive and psychological testing, and biological sampling before and after treatment, with follow-ups at three months, six months and one year. Cahn's reasoning is that meditation equips people to dismantle unhelpful narratives, and psilocybin may amplify that process. Lerman noted growing evidence of value for people facing serious illness, and the data will feed a national repository looking for patterns in rapid mental health change.
At the University of Southern California, a laboratory at the Brain and Creativity Institute has begun enrolling volunteers for the first psychedelic therapy study in the university's history. The drug under study is psilocybin, the compound found in certain mushrooms that grow around the world. The question is a specific one: does teaching people to meditate make psilocybin-assisted therapy work better?
The project brings together the Keck School of Medicine of USC, the Brain and Creativity Institute at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, and the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. It is co-led by Rael Cahn, MD, PhD, who directs the USC Center for Mindfulness Science, and Caryn Lerman, PhD, director of the Norris Cancer Center. Both hold appointments in the Department of Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at Keck. The work will take place in Cahn's lab, alongside other institute researchers: Assal Habibi, PhD, of the USC Center for Music, Brain and Society; Jonas Kaplan, PhD, co-director of the USC Dornsife Cognitive Neuroimaging Institute; and John Monterosso, PhD, a professor of psychology at USC Dornsife.
Funding comes from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, known as ARPA-H, through its Evidence-Based Validation & Innovation for Rapid-Acting Treatments initiative, called EVIDENT. The program is meant to speed the development of more effective, more personalized treatments for mental and behavioral health disorders.
The design is straightforward. About 72 middle-aged adults from the Los Angeles community will be enrolled. All are people with no current psychiatric or medical pathology and no earlier experience with either psychedelics or meditation. They will be randomized into two groups: one receiving supervised psilocybin alone, the other receiving psilocybin along with an eight-week mindfulness meditation training program. The trial is open label, so both participants and researchers will know who is in which group. The researchers hypothesize that mindfulness training, which has been linked to significant mental and physical health benefits, will improve outcomes beyond psilocybin-assisted therapy by itself.
The measurements are extensive. Before and after treatment, participants will undergo EEG, brain MRI and fMRI scans, and give saliva, blood and stool samples, along with psychological and cognitive testing. Follow-up surveys will come at roughly three months, six months and one year. The team will look for effects on psychological well-being, spirituality and cognitive functioning, on brain activity tied to self and narrative processing, and on biological markers of inflammation and brain health.
Cahn described the reasoning this way: mindfulness meditation gives people tools to take apart unhelpful narratives, and psilocybin-assisted therapy may amplify that process. Combining the two, he said, should help the team understand how they might strengthen both the immediate and longer-term effects of psychedelic medicine.
The backdrop is a drug that remains a Schedule 1 substance under the Controlled Substances Act, yet has recently received "breakthrough therapy" designation from the FDA for major depressive disorder and treatment-resistant depression. Psilocybin can profoundly alter perception, mood and cognition, sometimes distorting sights and sounds or erasing the sense of time and space. Preliminary evidence suggests it may improve depression substantially compared with other available treatments, and other research has shown promise in addiction. Lerman pointed to growing evidence of value for people facing serious illness and end-of-life challenges, and said the study will contribute data to a national research effort.
That effort is built into the EVIDENT program, which collects detailed clinical data using digital tools, brain measures and biological sampling. Studies in the program contribute de-identified data to a secure national repository, where researchers look for patterns tied to rapid changes in mental health. The follow-up points at three months, six months and a year will show whether pairing meditation with psilocybin produces benefits that last.
Citazioni salienti
Mindfulness meditation gives people tools to deconstruct unhelpful narratives, a process that may be amplified by psilocybin-assisted therapy.— Rael Cahn, MD, PhD, director, USC Center for Mindfulness Science
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