PMID- 38240068 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE DCOM- 20240208 LR - 20240208 IS - 1461-7285 (Electronic) IS - 0269-8811 (Linking) VI - 38 IP - 1 DP - 2024 Jan TI - Older adults in psychedelic-assisted therapy trials: A systematic review. PG - 33-48 LID - 10.1177/02698811231215420 [doi] AB - BACKGROUND: Growing clinical interest in psychedelic-assisted therapies has led to a second wave of research involving psilocybin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and other substances. Data suggests that these compounds have the potential to treat mental health conditions that are especially prevalent in older adults such as depression, anxiety, existential distress, and posttraumatic stress disorder. AIMS: The goal of this study was to quantify the prevalence of older adults enrolled in psychedelic clinical trials and explore safety data in this population. METHODS: A systematic review was conducted following the 2020 PRISMA guidelines. Search criteria included all trials published in English using psychedelic substances to treat psychiatric conditions, including addiction as well as existential distress related to serious illness. Articles were identified from literature searches on PubMed, EBSCO, and EMBASE. RESULTS: 4376 manuscripts were identified, of which 505 qualified for further review, with 36 eventually meeting eligibility criteria. Of the 1400 patients enrolled in the 36 studies, only 19 were identified as 65 or older, representing less than 1.4% of all trial participants. For 10 of these 19 older adults, detailed safety data was obtained. No serious adverse events (AEs) occurred in any older adults and only transient mild-to-moderate AEs related to anxiety, gastrointestinal upset, and hypertension were reported during the psychedelic dosing sessions. CONCLUSIONS: While existing data in older adults is limited, it suggests that psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy can be safe and well tolerated in older adults. Therefore, psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy should be more rigorously investigated for the treatment of psychiatric conditions in this population. FAU - Bouchet, Lisa AU - Bouchet L AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-7606-9894 AD - Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, Purpan University Hospital, Toulouse, France. AD - Faculte de Medecine Purpan, Universite Paul Sabatier Toulouse III, Toulouse, France. FAU - Sager, Zachary AU - Sager Z AD - Department of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA. AD - Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. FAU - Yrondi, Antoine AU - Yrondi A AD - Department of Psychiatry and Medical Psychology, Purpan University Hospital, Toulouse, France. AD - Faculte de Medecine Purpan, Universite Paul Sabatier Toulouse III, Toulouse, France. FAU - Nigam, Kabir B AU - Nigam KB AD - Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. AD - Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA. FAU - Anderson, Brian T AU - Anderson BT AUID- ORCID: 0000-0001-5023-660X AD - Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Weill Institute for Neurosciences, UCSF, San Francisco, CA, USA. AD - Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, CA, USA. FAU - Ross, Stephen AU - Ross S AD - Department of Psychiatry, NYU Langone Center for Psychedelic Medicine, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA. FAU - Petridis, Petros D AU - Petridis PD AUID- ORCID: 0000-0001-7608-5723 AD - Department of Psychiatry, NYU Langone Center for Psychedelic Medicine, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA. FAU - Beaussant, Yvan AU - Beaussant Y AD - Department of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA. AD - Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. LA - eng PT - Journal Article PT - Review PT - Systematic Review DEP - 20240119 PL - United States TA - J Psychopharmacol JT - Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) JID - 8907828 RN - 0 (Hallucinogens) RN - 8NA5SWF92O (Lysergic Acid Diethylamide) RN - 2RV7212BP0 (Psilocybin) RN - KE1SEN21RM (N-Methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine) SB - IM MH - Humans MH - Aged MH - *Hallucinogens MH - Lysergic Acid Diethylamide MH - Psilocybin MH - *N-Methyl-3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine/therapeutic use MH - Psychotherapy OTO - NOTNLM OT - LSD OT - MDMA OT - Psychedelic-assisted therapy OT - older adults OT - psilocybin OT - psychiatry COIS- Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: In the past three years, BA has received consulting fees from Journey Colab. Dr. Ross reported receiving grant support for clinical research from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Cancer Institute (NCI), Heffter Research Institute, Usona Institute, Council on Spiritual Practices (CSP), Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), and Reset Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Ross is Director of the NYU Langone Center for Psychedelic Medicine Research and Training Program, funded by MindMed. Dr. Ross is listed as a co-inventor in two provisional patent applications (N420838US and N419987US) related to the use of psilocybin to treat psychiatric and existential distress in cancer, filed by New York University Grossman School of Medicine and licensed by Reset Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Ross has waived all rights and has no prospect of financial gain in relation to these patent applications. LB, ZS, AY, KN, PP and YB. EDAT- 2024/01/19 06:42 MHDA- 2024/02/08 06:42 CRDT- 2024/01/19 04:13 PHST- 2024/02/08 06:42 [medline] PHST- 2024/01/19 06:42 [pubmed] PHST- 2024/01/19 04:13 [entrez] AID - 10.1177/02698811231215420 [doi] PST - ppublish SO - J Psychopharmacol. 2024 Jan;38(1):33-48. doi: 10.1177/02698811231215420. Epub 2024 Jan 19.