Meta-analysis · 2025
Review pools 30 studies of psychedelics and ketamine for substance use disorder
- Original title
- A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Investigating the Efficacy of Various Psychedelic Drugs for the Treatment of Substance Use Disorder.
- Authors
- Keighley EE, Abo Hamza E, Bedewy DA, et al.
- Journal
- Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 2025
- Molecules
- LSD, Psilocybin, Ketamine, Ibogaine
- Conditions
- Substance use disorder
- Evidence grade
- Low
- Source
- Read the original paper
The question
Do psychedelic drugs and ketamine help people with substance use disorder, and does one of them work better than the others?
What they did
The authors searched two research databases, PubMed and PsycINFO, and found 1278 articles. After applying their filters, 30 papers were kept for analysis. Included studies had to test LSD, psilocybin, ketamine or ibogaine in people with a substance use disorder; animal studies, case studies, unfinished trials and studies without enough numerical data were left out. The authors combined results using a statistical method designed to pool findings across differing studies, looking at each drug separately and all of them together.
What they found
Overall, the pooled results favoured psychedelic treatment for reducing substance misuse. Ibogaine showed the most prominent effect among the drugs examined. The authors also compared psychedelic treatment combined with psychotherapy against psychedelic treatment on its own and found no statistically significant difference between the two approaches. The abstract does not report effect sizes, confidence intervals or the total number of people included.
The fine print
The abstract gives no numbers for the pooled results, no total participant count, and does not say how many of the 30 studies were randomized or placebo-controlled, so the strength of the underlying evidence cannot be judged from it. Combining four very different drugs and many different substance use disorders into one analysis can hide important differences. Ibogaine in particular has known cardiac risks that this abstract does not address. This summary is based on the abstract alone.
What it means
A pooled review suggests psychedelics and ketamine may reduce substance misuse, with ibogaine standing out, but the abstract reports no supporting numbers, so this should be treated as a signal for further research rather than proof of benefit.
Evidence grade: Low. A pooled review of 30 studies of unstated and probably mixed designs, and the abstract reports no effect sizes, confidence intervals or total number of participants.
This summary is based on the study’s published abstract.