Promising experimental results are revealing the psychedelic compound to be remarkably effective in treating an assortment of mental health issues, from major depression to anxiety related to a terminal illness diagnosis. Other research is also finding the compound potentially quite effective in helping treat drug dependence issues.

Underlying all this research is the idea that single doses of psilocybin result in enduring and positive psychological changes, persisting past the acute phase of intoxication. How the drug is generating these long-lasting effects is motivating a great deal of current research, for if these medicines become legal and widely deployed, we need to understand how they fundamentally work and what the best way is to administer them in clinical settings.

A new study, led by psychopharmacology researchers from Maastricht University in the Netherlands, has delivered a fascinating insight into the longer-term, sub-acute effects of a single psilocybin dose on creative thinking. The experiment revealed unexpected temporal alterations to different creative thinking constructs that could lead to a therapeutic "window of opportunity" in the days following a single dose, whereby certain follow-up therapy interventions could be most clinically effective.