Safety and efficacy of psilocybin-assisted therapy for alcohol use disorder: Open-label extension of a phase II randomized controlled trial

Paper. Pagni BA, Ross S, Mennenga S et al.. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 15 Oct 2026.

Tags: Human, RCT, Psilocybin, Addiction.

Weekly Science Digest, 23 Oct 2026 to 29 Oct 2026, finding 2: Two re-looks at psilocybin trials already run

Open-label psilocybin after an AUD trial helped mainly the heaviest drinkers, and a sex-difference reanalysis found little.

Fifty-nine adults who completed the NYU alcohol trial got one open-label 25-40 mg/70kg dose; gains in heavy drinking days concentrated in those still drinking heavily at entry, with no serious adverse events. Separately, a Bayesian reanalysis of the 59-person psilocybin-vs-escitalopram trial found no overall sex difference, with a single signal: lower post-treatment anxiety in women on psilocybin.

How much weight it carries: Open-label extension of a phase 2 RCT with no blinded comparator, plus a post hoc Bayesian reanalysis with only 20 women; both are secondary, not confirmatory. (Humans, Open-label, No control group, Small sample, n = 59)

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