Conflict Is the Unexpected Medicine You Actually Need

Good morning and welcome to another edition of The Drop In, DoubleBlind’s newsletter delivering independent journalism about psychedelics straight to your inbox!

Happy Monday! We love a trigger warning bright and early on a Monday, but we want to give everyone the grace to ground themselves before reading our lead news story today. It is about the early research suggesting psilocybin may offer a new path of relief for traumatic brain injuries from domestic violence. You can read this story below.

If you keep scrolling, you’ll find pieces on the importance of confrontation, how to make mushroom tea, Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica, trippy cartoons, and so much more.

Stay warm 🔥

Mary Carreón
Editor-in-Chief

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What Psilocybin Might Offer Survivors of Domestic Violence, According to Science

Early research suggests that psilocybin may help reverse chronic brain changes caused by the physical and emotional damage caused by DV, hinting at a future treatment for injuries long overlooked.

Researchers in Australia and Canada have published new findings suggesting that psilocybin may help repair long-term changes in the brain and behavior associated with traumatic injury linked to intimate partner violence (IPV). In a study published November 5 in Molecular Psychiatry, Josh Allen and colleagues report that female rats exposed to repeated mild traumatic brain injuries and non-fatal strangulation — designed to approximate the patterns of head trauma often experienced in IPV — showed improvements in anxiety-like behavior, motivation, and cognition after a single dose of psilocybin.

“These findings suggest psilocybin’s antidepressant, pro-cognitive, anti-inflammatory, and neuroplasticity-enhancing effects hold promise for improving chronic IPV-BI outcomes,” the authors wrote.

The team focused on IPV-related brain injuries, which the study describes as a significant but historically overlooked medical issue that disproportionately affects women and femme-presenting individuals. To model this, researchers exposed female rats to repeated impacts and brief oxygen restriction — an ethically difficult aspect of the study, but one they used to reflect the pattern of recurrent injury seen in survivors. After a 16-week recovery period — intended to mimic the chronic stage of injury — the animals received either psilocybin at 1 mg/kg or saline and were evaluated 24 hours later.

To better understand serotonin’s role, another group of rats received a selective 5-HT2A receptor antagonist (M100907) before psilocybin. According to the paper, psilocybin “recovered mTBI+NFS-induced abnormalities in the elevated plus-maze,” increased sucrose preference when given without M100907, and improved reversal learning in the water maze as well as spatial memory in the Y-maze. Together, the findings point to antidepressant-like and pro-cognitive effects that rely on 5-HT2A receptor activation. Broadly, the results hint that psychedelics could someday help address the long-term neurological and psychological consequences that many IPV survivors live with — areas where current treatments remain painfully limited.

The authors also examined the dorsal hippocampus, a region associated with mood and memory. Injured rats that received saline showed signs of chronic neuroinflammation, including an increased number of microglial cells, along with reduced reelin-positive cells linked to neuroplasticity. These changes were not seen in injured rats that received psilocybin, suggesting the compound may reduce or even prevent certain chronic inflammatory and neuroplasticity-related alterations.

While this study is limited to animals and does not test psilocybin in people, the combination of behavioral recovery and hippocampal changes provides early support for exploring psychedelic compounds as potential treatments for acquired brain injuries.

“Psilocybin recovered mTBI+NFS-induced abnormalities,” the authors noted — pointing to a possible new therapeutic pathway for survivors living with the chronic neurological aftermath of violence.

Are Psychedelics the New Performance Drug for the Attention Economy?

When aspiring running influencer Joe Collinson washed down a mushroom chocolate and “effortlessly” clocked nearly 20 miles in under three hours, he wasn’t just chasing a runner’s high; he was live-broadcasting a new kind of psychedelic spectacle. From Ibiza to English country roads, a wave of would-be fitness creators are tripping on camera, turning psilocybin into both pre-workout and content engine.

This week’s Friday Feature follows this emerging subculture of mostly young men using psychedelics not for quiet introspection, but to prove stamina, flirt with danger, and (of course!) rack up views. There are mushroom-powered marathons, nine-gram Walmart “challenges,” a man livestreaming 19 grams from his car, and “Mushroom Matt” pushing toward a 100-gram mega-dose he describes as feeling “possessed.”

Alongside the absurdity, the story asks harder questions: What happens when psychedelics move from sacrament to stunt? How do social platforms reward the most extreme, emotional trip reports? And what does this new archetype of the mushroom-fueled masculinity say about the psychedelic renaissance itself?

Upgrade your subscription to read the full story when it drops this Friday.

DoubleBlind Digs

JOB OPP: The intercollegiate Psychedelics network is hiring for its leadership team! The IPN is a global, student-led organization that empowers the next generation of leaders in psychedelic science policy and community development. They are looking for motivated, curious, and compassionate individuals who want to grow personally and professionally while contributing to a mission that matters. Apply by December 7 for priority consideration. Apply here.

LISTEN: The Soft Dark by Nutritious is out on Liquid Culture Records: It’s a place of lift and weight: “Ether” channels open skies, Cenote brings in the energy of emotive waters, and Humanity brings in the beauty of longing horizons. Listen here.

READ: For Native American Heritage Month, Grandmothers’ Wisdom invites readers into the lives and teachings of thirteen Indigenous elder women whose stories span continents, ceremonies, and generations. In its collective voice, the book becomes a radiant testament to ancestral knowledge, cultural resilience, and the sacred responsibility to protect the Earth for those yet to come. Buy and read it here.

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