Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42102823›Full record

Trial reportCell reports. Medicine2026

Neuroplastic white matter changes in patients with major depression following lysergic acid diethylamide treatment.

Mihai Avram, Aurore Menegaux, Felix Müller, Hannes Zaczek, Alexandra Korda, Helena Rogg, Anna M Becker, Laura Ley, Matthias E Liechti, Stefan Borgwardt

Registry-linked trialAbstract readRandomized Controlled Trial
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Trial report in Cell reports. Medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03866252 (LSD Therapy for Persons Suffering From Major Depression), which is not on this map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT03866252 phase2completednot on this map

LSD Therapy for Persons Suffering From Major Depression: A Randomised, Double-blind, Active-placebo Controlled Phase II Study

TypeinterventionalSponsorUniversity Hospital, Basel, SwitzerlandRan2019 to 2022Enrolled60ConditionsMajor Depressive DisorderArmsLSD
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Diffusion tensor imaging in chronic tension-type headache.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2026
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

10 authors.

Mihai AvramUniversity of Luebeck, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Luebeck, Germany. Electronic address: mihai.avram@uksh.de.
Aurore MenegauxInstitute for Neuroradiology, School of Medicine and Health, TUM University Hospital, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany; TUM-Neuroimaging Center, School of Medicine and Health, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.
Felix MüllerUniversity of Basel, Department of Psychiatry, Basel, Switzerland.
Hannes ZaczekUniversity of Basel, Department of Psychiatry, Basel, Switzerland.
Alexandra KordaUniversity of Luebeck, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Luebeck, Germany.
Helena RoggUniversity of Luebeck, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Luebeck, Germany.
Anna M BeckerUniversity of Basel, Department of Psychiatry, Basel, Switzerland; Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Department of Clinical Research, University Hospital Basel, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Laura LeyDivision of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Department of Clinical Research, University Hospital Basel, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Matthias E LiechtiDivision of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, Department of Clinical Research, University Hospital Basel, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Stefan BorgwardtUniversity of Luebeck, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Luebeck, Germany.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The clinical trial NCT03866252 investigates the antidepressant effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) in 61 patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) randomized to low-dose LSD (LD-LSD; 2 × 25 μg) or moderate-to-high-dose LSD (HD-LSD; 100 μg followed by 200 μg) 4 weeks apart. Although the trial reports positive clinical outcomes, underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we test whether LSD alters white matter (WM) microstructure, potentially reflecting enhanced neuroplasticity. Diffusion tensor imaging data from 35 patients (17 HD-LSD) include pre- and post-intervention scans. Voxel-wise permutation tests reveal group-by-time interactions, with increased fractional anisotropy (FA) in the internal and external capsule, sagittal stratum, and fornix/stria terminalis in the HD-LSD group. In this group, post-intervention FA values correlate with improvements in depressive symptoms at 2, 6, and 12 weeks, measured using the Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (IDS-clinician rated [C] and IDS- self report [SR]). These findings suggest that LSD-induced WM microstructural changes are associated with antidepressant effects in MDD.

Indexed as

Antidepressive AgentsLysergic Acid DiethylamideMajor Depressive DisorderNeuronal PlasticityWhite MatterAdultDiffusion Tensor ImagingFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedAntidepressive AgentsLysergic Acid Diethylamideantidepressant mechanismsdiffusion tensor imagingDTIFAfractional anisotropyLSDlysergic acid diethylamidemajor depressive disorderMDDneuroplasticitypsychedelicswhite matterWM

Identifiers

PMID42102823
PMCPMC13293959

What Socratic holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.