Paper. Paris A, Thoma F, Velentza A et al.. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 5 Oct 2026.
Tags: Psilocybin, MDMA, Depression, PTSD, Addiction.
News coverage of psilocybin is consistently more positive than the trial evidence behind it.
A systematic review in JAMA Network Open matched a decade of psilocybin clinical trials against contemporaneous media articles and compared tone, efficacy claims and safety content. Two accompanying pieces press the same point from inside the field: an implementation-science argument that current trials show proof of concept rather than readiness, and a commentary disputing how therapeutic alliance was analysed in COMPASS's treatment-resistant depression data.
How much weight it carries: A systematic comparison of published trials against media articles, plus two commentaries; descriptive, and cannot show that coverage changes patient behaviour. (Systematic review, Review, Peer reviewed)
