Psychedelics for OCD: Promising New Avenues for Treatment
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is one of the least understood mental health conditions today.
One issue is that people may not know if they have OCD. While someone may have intrusive thoughts or believe they are “obsessed” about something, they may not necessarily meet the diagnostic criteria for the disorder.
OCD is a serious condition that affects around 1.2% of American adults, with mixed efficacy from talk therapy and pharmaceutical interventions. [1]
In this article, we explore the nuances of OCD and present an alternative healing paradigm through psychedelic therapy and microdosing.
What are Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and OCD Symptoms?
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder can present in several ways.
Broadly, people who have OCD tend to do two things:
Give unhelpful meanings to obsessions
Use unhelpful strategies to control obsessions
While everyone has unwanted thoughts from time to time, OCD arises when the meaning assigned to that thought becomes excessive or an "obsession". This can become an intense, even debilitating experience.
When someone sees their unwanted, intrusive thought as a threat, it can trigger anxiety.
To quell the anxiety, they may try to avoid the issue, check on it regularly, or seek constant reassurance.
These tactics typically provide just a temporary solution, with anxiety resurfacing soon after. All the while, efforts to control the thought can actually increase how much one thinks about the obsession.
The subject or the “what” of obsession varies greatly from person to person. Here are some common ones:
Doubts about one's decisions or actions, even every day things like locking a door
Unpleasant sexual thoughts
Thoughts of harming self or others
Similar to obsessive thoughts are compulsive behaviors or actions, such as:
Constant hand washing
Recounting money
Checking locked doors or other safety things
The cause for OCD is unknown, but researchers think the answer lies in serotonin and serotonin receptors in the brain.
The conventional medicine to treat mental health symptoms for the last four decades has been antidepressants. Yet, psychedelics are another form of medicine that also target serotonin receptors.
We will next explore the status of OCD treatment today.
OCD Treatment Today
The two most common forms of treatment are antidepressants and talk therapy, also referred to as psychotherapy. Many OCD patients pursue both of these things at the same time.
Antidepressants can help people cope with stress. This mechanism can be helpful for OCD symptoms, but ultimately these medicines tend to take longer to work for OCD and a high dosage is required.
Antidepressants like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), were first created when psychedelics were made illegal. Psychedelic research is what first brought psychiatry's attention to serotonin as an important neurotransmitter associated with mood and well-being. Once these medicines became illegal, drug developers created chemicals that could alter serotonin in a different way and this is how SSRIs were first synthesized.
As one might imagine, these medicines have some limitations:
Efficacy varies from person to person
Tapering or stopping these medications can be difficult
Talk therapy is a common, promising treatment for OCD. There are two primary forms of therapy used for OCD:
Exposure and response therapy - This therapy involves exposing individuals to their triggers and helping them respond to them in healthy ways.
Cognitive behavioral therapy - This therapy helps people challenge distressing thoughts and negative thought loops, gradually lessening the association with harm and promoting more accurate and healthy thoughts.
These methods are gaining traction as more people become aware of OCD and treatment options for OCD symptoms.
However, these treatments do not work for everyone. Some people experience persisting symptom severity even after intensive therapy and pharmaceutical treatments. [2]
Can anything be done for folks with treatment-resistant OCD?
An increasing number of people are turning to psychedelics as potential healing options.
Psilocybin for OCD
Psychedelics have been found effective for a variety of mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, addiction, and ADHD. They offer healing potential for physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellness.
While these psychedelic drugs were made illegal in America, their use has continued as people seek their therapeutic effects.
So do people use them to treat OCD?
There is a growing interest in using psychedelics, particularly psilocybin (found in magic mushrooms), for relieving OCD symptoms and addressing other mental health conditions.
The use of psychedelics as OCD treatment is not new, and researchers have been studying it for the last few decades.
While there are no established medical interventions that use psychedelics to treat OCD, people are often pursuing psilocybin treatment and other psychedelics to achieve healing. The two most common methods are guided psychedelic therapy and microdosing.
Guided Psychedelic Therapy for OCD
When an individual consumes a large amount of a psychedelic, it can trigger powerful perceptual changes.
This altered state of consciousness can have a variety of effects on our brains and bodies. Some common temporary effects include:
Altered sense of time
Altered sense of self or ego
Dreamlike visualizations
Intensive processing of emotions
New thought patterns
After the medicine wears off, the person returns to a baseline "normal", albeit with lots of insights and learnings.
Most people say that these experiences are immensely beneficial, offering a unique window to take on new ideas and perspectives. Some people claim the experience to be as meaningful as the birth of a child. [3].
One of the key reasons why psychedelics may help OCD symptoms lies in the scientifically accepted idea that psychedelics disrupt the default mode network (DMN).
The DMN is in many ways responsible for our waking behaviors and thoughts. The onset disruption from a psychedelic can lead to a decrease in rigid thinking and an increase in flexibility.
Suddenly, people exposed to their typical triggers may find they can engage with them with much more ease.
Engaging with psychedelics in this way is most often done with a therapist or a guide in psychedelic-assisted therapy.
Having an experienced professional facilitate your journey can help you reduce negative experiences and maximize therapeutic benefits.
Microdosing for OCD
An increasingly popular way to use psychedelics for mental health conditions like OCD is through microdosing.
As the name suggests, this practice involves taking a small amount of the psychedelic, like magic mushrooms.
The goal is for the experience to be "sub-perceptual", so that the psychedelic experience is not felt or minimally felt.
And while the effects should be tiny, there are often some reported changes to one's sense of being and mood.
Here are some commonly reported effects of microdosing:
Heightened sense of connection to self and others
Greater cognitive flexibility, including the ability to think about things differently
Improvement in mood and affect
As you might expect, these experiences could greatly help OCD symptoms.
People may find microdosing helps them work through negative emotions more easily. Others may find they are more open to new ways of thinking.
As people pursue psychedelics to help with OCD and other mental health conditions, they may do so to alter thought patterns or to experience deep emotional release and restoration.
The potential with psychedelics is promising, but options through medical providers is minimal. For example, psilocybin remains federally illegal in the U.S. and only a handful of states and cities have decriminalized possession.
Despite these limitations, people are choosing to engage with these medicines on their own.
Whether one chooses to work with psychedelics in therapeutic settings or microdosing capacities, it is important to consider the science behind psychedelics and OCD.
Clinical Research on OCD and Psychedelics for Mental Health
While OCD is not the most well studied condition alongside psychedelics, there are several indicators that these medicines have therapeutic potential for the indication.
Research on OCD and psychedelics began in the 20th century. Researchers found the use of both LSD and psilocybin/psilocin effective for improving OCD symptoms. [4] [5]
In 2006, clinical researchers administered psychedelic treatments to nine participants and found OCD symptom severity decreased from 23% to 100%. [6]
One patient with OCD had a clinically meaningful reduction in overall OCD symptoms after using psilocybin. [7]
A similar 2022 study found psychedelics helped decrease OCD symptoms in the target patient. Additionally, they had broader life improvements in their relationship, emotions, social life, and work. [8]
These and other studies are encouraging for the efficacy of psychedelics to treat OCD.
And the benefits of psychedelics extend beyond helping with OCD symptoms. Many people, including those with comorbid mental health issues, like major depressive disorder, have expressed profound positive benefits from psychedelic treatment.
Clinical research for psychedelics and other mental health conditions is even stronger.
Studies have found psilocybin therapy effective for treating major depressive disorder. [9]
In a 2016 study, researchers found psilocybin therapy helped cancer patients with depression and anxiety. [10]
Many scientists believe we are only uncovering the tip-of-the-iceberg, when it comes to the potential of psychedelics. Pairing psychedelic drugs with therapy seems to be the most effective treatment for a variety of mental health issues.
Future Directions and Options
Safety and legality are key considerations for psychedelics.
It is always advised to check with one's physician or a medical professional to ensure that psychedelics are a safe option for them. Important factors like mental health conditions, physical health disorders, and medication should be considered.
Additionally, not all psychedelics are legal, and the status of a medicine can vary by state and jurisdiction.
With this in mind, many people are warming up to the idea of psychedelic treatments to address OCD symptoms and depressive symptoms.
As discussed there is a need for more effective treatments solutions for people with an OCD diagnosis and a greater understanding of the underlying conditions that impact people with this indication.
If you are looking to explore psychedelic healing options like guided experiences and/or microdosing, one option is to connect with us at Pivot Psychedelics.
We bring a holistic, therapeutic, and compassionate lens to our work to help you in your discovery process.
References:
National Institute of Mental Health. (n.d.). Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. Retrieved August 25, 2025, from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/obsessive-compulsive-disorder-ocd
Fineberg, N. A., & Robbins, T. W. (2021). The neurobiology and treatment of OCD: Accelerating progress. Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences, Vol. 49. Springer Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75393-1
Yaden, D. B., & Griffiths, R. R. (2020). The subjective effects of psychedelics are necessary for their enduring therapeutic effects. ACS pharmacology & translational science, 4(2), 568–572. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsptsci.0c00194
Moreno, F. A., & Delgado, P. L. (1997). Hallucinogen-induced relief of obsessions and compulsions. The American journal of psychiatry, 154(7), 1037–1038. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.154.7.1037b
Leonard, H. L., & Rapoport, J. L. (1987). Relief of obsessive-compulsive symptoms by LSD and psilocin. The American journal of psychiatry, 144(9), 1239–1240. https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.144.9.1239b
Moreno, F. A., Wiegand, C. B., Taitano, E. K., & Delgado, P. L. (2006). Safety, tolerability, and efficacy of psilocybin in 9 patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. The Journal of clinical psychiatry, 67(11), 1735–1740. https://doi.org/10.4088/jcp.v67n1110
Lugo-Radillo, A., MD, PhD, & Cortes-Lopez, J. L., MD (2021). Long-term amelioration of OCD symptoms in a patient with chronic consumption of psilocybin-containing mushrooms. Journal of psychoactive drugs, 53(2), 146–148. https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2020.1849879
Kelmendi, B., Kichuk, S. A., DePalmer, G., Maloney, G., Ching, T. H. W., Belser, A., & Pittenger, C. (2022). Single-dose psilocybin for treatment-resistant obsessive-compulsive disorder: A case report. Heliyon, 8(12), e12135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e12135
Carhart-Harris, R., Giribaldi, B., Watts, R., Baker-Jones, M., Murphy-Beiner, A., Murphy, R., Martell, J., Blemings, A., Erritzoe, D., & Nutt, D. J. (2021). Trial of psilocybin versus escitalopram for depression. The New England journal of medicine, 384(15), 1402–1411. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2032994
Ross, S., Bossis, A., Guss, J., Agin-Liebes, G., Malone, T., Cohen, B., Mennenga, S. E., Belser, A., Kalliontzi, K., Babb, J., Su, Z., Corby, P., & Schmidt, B. L. (2016). Rapid and sustained symptom reduction following psilocybin treatment for anxiety and depression in patients with life-threatening cancer: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of psychopharmacology, 30(12), 1165–1180. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269881116675512
