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Moreno FA, Wiegand CB, Taitano EK, Delgado PL. 
“Safety, Tolerability, and Efficacy of Psilocybin in 9 Patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder”. 
J Clin Psychiatry. 2006 Nov;67(11):1735-1740.
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  • Delgado PL
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  • Erowid RefID: 6735
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    Abstract

    BACKGROUND: Anecdotal reports suggest that psychedelic agents may relieve symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This modified double-blind study investigated the safety, tolerability, and clinical effects of psilocybin, a potent 5-HT1A and 5-HT2A/2C agonist, in patients with OCD.

    METHODS: Nine subjects with DSM-IV defined OCD and no other current major psychiatric disorder participated in up to 4 single-dose exposures to psilocybin in doses ranging from subhallucinogenic to frankly hallucinogenic. Low (100 µg/kg), medium (200 µg/kg), and high (300 µg/kg) doses were assigned in that order, and a very low dose (25 µg/kg) was inserted randomly and in double-blind fashion at any time after the first dose. Testing days were separated by at least 1 week. Each session was conducted over an 8-hour period in a controlled environment in an outpatient clinic; subjects were then transferred to a psychiatric inpatient unit for overnight observation. The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS) and a visual analog scale measuring overall obsessive-compulsive symptom severity were administered at 0, 4, 8, and 24 hours postingestion. The Hallucinogen Rating Scale was administered at 8 hours, and vital signs were recorded at 0, 1, 4, 8, and 24 hours after ingestion. The study was conducted from November 2001 to November 2004.

    RESULTS: Nine subjects were administered a total of 29 psilocybin doses. One subject experienced transient hypertension without relation to anxiety or somatic symptoms, but no other significant adverse effects were observed. Marked decreases in OCD symptoms of variable degrees were observed in all subjects during 1 or more of the testing sessions (23%-100% decrease in YBOCS score). Repeated measures analysis of variance for all YBOCS values revealed a significant main effect of time on Wilks lambda (F = 9.86, df = 3,3; p = .046), but no significant effect of dose (F = 2.25, df = 3,3; p = .261) or interaction of time and dose (F = 0.923, df = 9,45; p = .515). Improvement generally lasted past the 24-hour timepoint. Conclusions: In a controlled clinical environment, psilocybin was safely used in subjects with OCD and was associated with acute reductions in core OCD symptoms in several subjects.
    Notes # : dumbass locked PDF
    Comments and Responses to this Article
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    Status: display
    earth
    Apr 17, 2011 1:59
    Problematic Paper #
    This paper has some serious problems that weaken its findings. It should probably not have been written the way it was finalized. Its problems include:


    • 2 of 9 people quit because they didn't like the protocol
    • 1 quit for unspecified reasons
    • The Very Low Dose (VLD) was too high and caused effects too strong for the experimental design.
    • They only collected and reported data about symptom effects for 24 hours post treatment?!
    • The study ended up having no control condition because they used a VLD that was too high and there was no dose-response effect.


    These and other issues make this paper problematic. It is a pilot study, but is too flawed to be of much use. As an additional point of annoyance, the publishers of this piece chose to 'lock' the PDF and disallow copying and pasting from it. This is a shameful practice.
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