Abstract
Psychedelic drugs are creating ripples in psychiatry as evidence accumulates of their therapeutic potential. An important question remains unresolved however: how are psychedelics effective? We propose that a sense of connectedness is key, provide some preliminary evidence to support this, and suggest a roadmap for testing it further.
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Acknowledgements
RLC-H is supported by the Alex Mosley Charitable Trust. RW is supported by Compass Pathways.
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RW conceived of the notion and importance of connectedness through her follow-up to our recent psilocybin for TRD trial. RCH wrote this paper with feedback from RW, DE and MK. MK and EH provided the data for Fig. 1, and EH made the figure. DE provided intellectual input regarding the central construct plus editorial advice. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
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Carhart-Harris, R.L., Erritzoe, D., Haijen, E. et al. Psychedelics and connectedness. Psychopharmacology 235, 547–550 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-017-4701-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-017-4701-y