More studies are treating meditation not as an add-on to therapy research, but as a subject of investigation in its own right. On 7 October, a research team at the Keck School of Medicine of USC announced it was launching a clinical trial in which adults with depression will receive psilocybin therapy alongside eight weeks of mindfulness, loving-kindness and compassion meditation. The US Department of Health and Human Services’ Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) is providing up to $4 million in funding. The announcement marks the start of the trial, not the publication of results.
Psilocybin is a hallucinogenic compound found in some mushrooms. In South Korea, it is controlled as a narcotic under the Narcotics Control Act, so individuals cannot obtain or use it. In the US, it is also a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law, the most restrictive category. This study will be conducted at an authorised research institution under medical supervision.
Only 40 of the 80 participants will meditate for eight weeks, allowing researchers to isolate meditation’s contribution
The study is called EVIDENT-MAP. The research team will recruit 80 adults with depression who live in Los Angeles. One notable eligibility requirement is that participants must have no previous experience with either psychedelics or meditation. They will be divided into two groups. One will receive psilocybin therapy alone; the other will receive the same treatment alongside an eight-week mindfulness meditation programme.
Both groups will follow the same treatment process. Before their first psilocybin session, participants will have six hours of preparatory psychotherapy, followed by two sessions about a month apart. Three integration counselling sessions will take place between the sessions, and another three after treatment ends, to help participants process their experiences. The meditation group will also learn mindfulness — paying attention to the present moment — as well as loving-kindness and compassion practices, which involve cultivating warmth towards oneself and others. They will meditate at home each day. The first psilocybin session is scheduled between weeks two and three of the meditation programme. The design gives participants time to become familiar with meditation before beginning treatment.
A tool for dismantling unhelpful narratives: why the principal investigator included meditation
The study is led by Professor Rael Cahn, director of the USC Center for Mindfulness Science and a clinical associate professor of psychiatry and the behavioural sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. He also designed the meditation programme for the trial. When he first announced this line of research in June, Professor Cahn said mindfulness meditation gives people tools to dismantle narratives that do not serve them. The hypothesis is that meditation can help people with depression recognise the self-stories they repeatedly return to, and develop the ability to step back from them. USC said the study builds on earlier research involving experienced meditators, which found that meditation may enhance responses to psychedelics.
The atmosphere in the treatment room has also been designed with meditation in mind. Professor Cahn said that during sessions, rather than actively intervening, the therapist serves as a supportive presence alongside the participant. Co-principal investigator Professor Assal Habibi of the USC Brain and Creativity Institute worked with clinicians and music therapists to create a playlist of music without lyrics for the sessions. The tracks, selected from a range of musical traditions, are arranged to match the progression of psilocybin’s effects, with a deeply emotional piece played at the most intense point. After treatment, the research team plans to scan participants’ brains while they listen to the same music, to see whether the music alone produces brain signals associated with the treatment experience. Professor Habibi said she wanted to find out whether music itself could have therapeutic value without psychedelics.
There are no results yet: why researchers are collecting everything from brain waves to gut microbes
This trial has not proved the treatment works. The research team is now recruiting participants and will collect a broad range of information, including electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data, saliva, blood and stool samples, psychological and cognitive assessments, and records from wearable devices. ARPA-H’s EVIDENT programme gathers real-time clinical data to accelerate mental health research. Studies receiving support will contribute de-identified data to a national repository. Professor Shrikanth Narayanan, an engineer, is also a co-principal investigator.
The team is also studying psilocybin alongside mindfulness in people without mental health problems. USC has said only that early results from the first 24 participants are encouraging, without releasing specific figures. In 2019, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) designated psilocybin-based therapy as a Breakthrough Therapy for major depressive disorder. This means the FDA will expedite its review of development; it is not the same as approval.
For readers in South Korea, the takeaway is the eight-week practice, not the drug
For readers in South Korea, the point to watch in this study is not the substance, but the role of meditation. A university hospital in the US has designed a mental health treatment study that makes eight weeks of meditation a separate comparison condition. The researchers will investigate whether meditation is the key to making treatment more effective and its benefits longer-lasting. This can be read as a sign that meditation is moving beyond a lifestyle practice for soothing the mood and becoming one of the elements of treatment to be tested in research.
The practices used in the study can be learnt by anyone, without special equipment. Mindfulness, which involves noticing the breath and bodily sensations, and loving-kindness meditation, in which people direct kind thoughts first towards themselves and those close to them, then towards strangers, are readily available through meditation centres and online courses in South Korea. If sitting for long periods is difficult, you could start with a body scan while lying down or slow walking meditation.
Depression, however, is not something to tackle with meditation alone. If low mood persists or disrupts daily life, the first step is to consult a psychiatrist. It is safer to treat meditation as a tool to accompany that process. The trial’s findings will not be known for several years. Science has begun to address in earnest the question of whether meditation can make the effects of treatment deeper and longer-lasting.
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