Psilocybin or Nicotine Patch for Smoking Cessation: A Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide), published as a randomized controlled trial.

To compare prolonged smoking abstinence rates in smokers receiving psilocybin plus cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) with those receiving the nicotine patch plus CBT.

Why It Was Studied

Most smoking cessation interventions result in modest long-term success.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

In this pilot randomized clinical trial, participants and investigators were unblinded to treatment condition, including an optional crossover after completion of the primary end point.

Data were collected from psychiatrically healthy adult smokers from January 20, 2015, to May 8, 2023, at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, an academic medical center and teaching hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, crossover and pilot study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Each person switched between Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) and the comparison at some point, usually with a gap in between.

It is described as a pilot, a small early test of whether a larger Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) study would be practical.

Both groups received a 13-week manualized CBT program for smoking cessation.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Nicotine Replacement Therapy, Pilot Projects, Psilocybin, Smoking Cessation and Tobacco Use Cessation Devices.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, crossover and pilot study of Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide).

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 6 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2026 (JAMA network open), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) compound page, all human trials.