Psychedelics: A New Drug Candidate for Treating Mental Illness
A special issue of Pharmaceuticals (ISSN 1424-8247). This special issue belongs to the section "Pharmacology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 September 2025 | Viewed by 1182
Special Issue Editors
Interests: psychedelic; mental health; pharmacology; drugs during pregnancy and breastfeeding
Interests: organic synthesis; hemi-synthesis; green chemistry; sustainable solvents and processes; therapeutic molecules
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Psychedelics play a fundamental role in traditional, shamanic medicine, particularly in South American countries such as Peru and Colombia. They are once again being used in the development of medicines for mental health in the treatment of depression or anxiety in severe alcohol use disorders.
With the need to develop new drugs that are effective, safe, and have an acceptable risk–benefit balance, we have recently seen renewed interest in psychedelic research from both the scientific and pharmaceutical communities. “Magic" mushrooms contain natural psychedelics such as psilocybin and psilocin. Furthermore, compared with natural molecules, laboratories can synthesize the psychedelics essential for rational drug design.
This Special Issue, entitled "Psychedelics: A New Drug Candidate for Treating Mental Illness", aims to bring together both original articles and comprehensive reviews of research into psychedelics, including natural products of mycological origin, and focuses on their role in the shamanic history of South American countries, several millennia BC. Topics of interest for this Special Issue include pharmacokinetics of psilocybin and its active form, psilocin; hepatic and intestinal enzymatic interactions that may give rise to active psilocybin metabolites; preclinical studies in mice and the impact of psychedelics on neuronal growth; current human clinical trials and the proven effects of psilocybin on relapse prevention in the maintenance of alcohol abstinence; and possibilities of producing a stable, easy-to-absorb psilocybin to maximize pharmacokinetic parameters and limit drug interactions with other alcohol dependence medications.
Dr. Raphaël Serreau
Prof. Dr. Sabine Berteina-Raboin
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- psychedelics drugs
- psilocybin
- psilocin
- pharmacokinetic
- pharmacodynamic
- new drug candidate
- mental diseases
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