What is it about?
Symptoms of depression and burnout are common in healthcare workers and can negatively impact both personal well-being and quality of patient care. These symptoms have been amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous studies have shown that mindfulness training may help reduce depression and burnout, and there is growing interest as to whether psilocybin interventions may enhance these benefits. This study was designed to explore whether adding group-based psychedelic-assisted therapy to a mindfulness training program improves depression and burnout outcomes compared to mindfulness training alone.
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Why is it important?
Healthcare provider depression and burnout has significant effects both on the individual clinician but also downstream patient care. There is some evidence that mindfulness based interventions may be effective for this population but there is an urgent need for ways of addressing these conditions.
Perspectives
As a clinician myself this study is very close to my heart. Much gratitude towards the study team, our therapist team, and most importantly the courageous participants in this trial who trusted us with their suffering in the context of an intense and vulnerable intervention.
Benjamin Lewis
University of Utah
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Psilocybin-assisted group psychotherapy and mindfulness-based stress reduction for frontline healthcare provider COVID-19-related depression and burnout: A randomized controlled trial, PLoS Medicine, September 2025, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1004519.
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