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Science & Medicine

Peer-reviewed research, FDA approvals, psychedelics, neuromodulation, genetics.

The Ego Goes Quiet, and So Does the Pattern: What Psychedelics Actually Do to the Psychology of Addiction

Psilocybin and MDMA don’t work by blocking receptors or replacing drugs. They interrupt the mental architecture that addiction builds over years.

Psilocybin suppresses the default mode network. MDMA reduces amygdala reactivity during trauma processing. Ibogaine resets mu-opioid signaling. Here’s what the science says about the psychology of psychedelic therapy for addiction.

Jun 1610 minRead

More in Science & Medicine

94 total in this section

02Science & MedicineJun 16

France Just Approved IV Ketamine for Suicidal Crisis. The US Has an Excuse, Not an Answer.

France’s ANSM became the first national regulator anywhere to authorize IV racemic ketamine for adult acute suicidal crisis. The US approved esketamine in 2019 but won’t standardize IV ketamine—because it’s a generic with no commercial sponsor.

03Science & MedicineJun 16

The FDA Just Cleared the First US Ibogaine Trial. It Took 30 Years.

DemeRx received FDA IND clearance for noribogaine—an ibogaine metabolite—for alcohol use disorder. Dr. Deborah Mash has been waiting three decades for this regulatory opening.

04Science & MedicineJun 15

Psychedelic and Dissociative Drugs as Medicines

At ASAM 2026, ketamine showed promise as a dual treatment for comorbid depression and alcohol use disorder. A concurrent Frontiers paper asks the question the field keeps avoiding: what about ketamine's own addiction liability?

05Science & Medicine

Earlier in Science & Medicine

Every piece in this section, most recent first.

Science & Medicine

The Ego Goes Quiet, and So Does the Pattern: What Psychedelics Actually Do to the Psychology of Addiction

More in Science & Medicine

France Just Approved IV Ketamine for Suicidal Crisis. The US Has an Excuse, Not an Answer.

The FDA Just Cleared the First US Ibogaine Trial. It Took 30 Years.

Psychedelic and Dissociative Drugs as Medicines

Naltrexone augmented with prazosin for alcohol use disorder: results from a randomized controlled proof-of-concept trial

The association between cannabis and depression: an updated Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Two Kinds of Wanting: How Methamphetamine Craving Actually Works in the Brain

Earlier in Science & Medicine

Semaglutide Just Outperformed Every Approved Alcohol Treatment on the Market

What Weed Cannot Fix: The Lancet Review on Cannabinoids and Mental Health

A 24% Drop in Overdose Deaths Is Real. So Is the Racial Gap That Didn't Shrink.

What Alcohol Does to the Brain, and What the Brain Has to Do to Come Back

The Drug Killing More Americans Every Year Has No Approved Medication. The One Thing That Works Is Funded in Five States.

COMPASS Pathways Is Filing an NDA for Psilocybin. The FDA Priority Vouchers Were the Signal.

Ozempic for Addiction: What the VA's 600,000-Person Study Actually Found

The Brain on Meth: New Research Maps How Craving Hijacks Attention Before You Know It’s Happening

Cocaine Killed 30,000 Americans Last Year. Scientists Just Found the Brain Switch Behind Relapse — and It Isn’t Willpower.

The FDA Just Cleared the First Human Trial of Kratom as an OUD Treatment

Ozempic Cut Alcohol Consumption by 70 Percent in the First Rigorous Clinical Trial

Cytisinicline Has 13 Days. So Does the Generation That Started Vaping in Eighth Grade.

Stress Makes You Want a Drink. But Not Everyone's Brain Works the Same Way, and the Treatment System Doesn't Know That Yet.

At the Clinical Threshold: MDMA Has a VA Trial, Ibogaine Has 71% Abstinence Data, and Psilocybin Has Two States. Insurance Has None of This.

GLP-1 Drugs Slashed Overdose Deaths by 50% in a New BMJ Study. Here's What It Actually Means.

What Ketamine Does to Your Brain — and Why Regulators Can't Agree on What to Do About It

Cannabis Has Been Legal in Thirty-Eight States. There Is Still No FDA-Approved Treatment for Cannabis Use Disorder.

Prescribed and Trapped: Medicare's Benzodiazepine Numbers Reveal a Crisis Built by Doctors

The FDA Fast-Tracked Three Psychedelic Drugs. That's Not the Same as Approving Them.

The Medication That Could Help 14.5 Million People — and That Fewer Than 5% of Them Ever Receive

Ozempic for Alcohol: What the May 2026 Lancet Trial Actually Proves

The Brain That Meth Built, and the Drug That’s Starting to Fix It

The First Drug That Works for Cocaine Use Disorder Is a Psychedelic

Medetomidine Is Not Xylazine. That's the Problem.

The Cheap High That's Killing Teenagers: Nitrous Oxide's 2026 Surge

Substance Spotlight: Nicotine & Tobacco — The Vaping Cessation Gap and the Drug That Could Fill It

FDA Grants Breakthrough Therapy Designation to LSD for Generalized Anxiety — What It Means for Addiction Treatment

42 Experts Agree: Here's How to Start Opioid Medications in Fentanyl-Era Hospitals

The Psychology Behind Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy for Addiction

FDA Clears First U.S. Ibogaine-Derivative Trial for Alcohol Use Disorder

Semaglutide Cuts Heavy Drinking by 41%: What The Lancet RCT Means for Alcohol Use Disorder Treatment

The Meth Treatment Gap: Why Stimulant Use Disorder Remains Hard to Treat — And What's Finally Changing

Semaglutide Cuts Heavy Drinking in Landmark Lancet Trial

Substance Spotlight: Benzodiazepines — The Overlooked Crisis, and a First Glimpse of a Pharmacological Solution

FDA Fast-Tracks Psilocybin and Methylone With New Priority Review Vouchers

The Lancet RCT: Semaglutide Reduces Heavy Drinking in Adults With Alcohol Use Disorder

San Francisco Launches First Human Trial of Semaglutide for Methamphetamine Use Disorder

Compass Pathways Eyes Q4 FDA Filing After Two Positive Phase 3 Trials for Psilocybin in Treatment-Resistant Depression

Cocaine and Methamphetamine Have Zero FDA-Approved Treatments. New FDA Guidance and Three Active Trials Are Finally Changing That.

The Largest Medicinal Cannabis Review Yet Finds No Benefit for Anxiety, Depression, or PTSD

Cytisinicline's FDA Decision Is 30 Days Away — and It Could Be the First New Quit-Smoking Drug in Two Decades

Contingency Management Just Got a Hard Number: 117 Lives Saved Per 1,000 People, $6,850 a QALY

Inhalants in 2026: The Quietest Drug Story of the Year — and the One With the Most Preventable Damage

A JAMA Study Just Tripled the Repeat-Overdose Risk Estimate. The First 30 Days After ED Discharge Are the Inflection Point.

JAMA Network Open: 42 Hospital-Addiction Experts Set Consensus on When and How to Start MOUD During an Admission

Where Psychedelics Stand Now: Compass at the FDA, Texas Funding Ibogaine, Kentucky Greenlights Research

Depressants in 2026: The Drug Class Without a Modern Playbook

Cannabinoids in 2026: Policy Is Sprinting. The Evidence Is Walking.

The First New Smoking Cessation Drug in 20 Years Reaches Its FDA Decision Date in Five Weeks

Lancet: Weekly Semaglutide Cuts Heavy Drinking Days 41% in AUD Trial

Inhalants Spotlight: The B12 Story Behind the Spinal Cord Damage — and Why Catching It Early Matters

A Johns Hopkins Study Sharpens the Link Between Youth Cannabis Use Disorder and Psychiatric Diagnoses

Substance Spotlight: Nicotine Pouches — The Paradox of an FDA-Authorized Product Whose Youth Use Is Still Climbing