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Not all psychedelics are created equal

Nature Mental Health volume 3, pages 1465–1467 (2025)Cite this article

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Psychedelics act on multiple receptors beyond 5-HT2A, but their contribution to subjective and behavioral effects is poorly defined. A receptor-informed, neuroimaging-integrated framework can better capture this complexity and guide more-personalized, mechanism-based psychedelic therapies.

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Fig. 1: Binding affinities and phenomenological effects of various serotonergic psychedelics.
Fig. 2: Three steps of a comparative neuroimaging approach.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands

    Johannes G. Ramaekers, Pablo Mallaroni & Natasha L. Mason

  2. Translational Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Lübeck, Lubeck, Germany

    Mihai Avram

Authors
  1. Johannes G. Ramaekers
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  2. Pablo Mallaroni
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  3. Natasha L. Mason
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  4. Mihai Avram
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All authors contributed to the conception of this Comment, participated in writing and editing the manuscript, and approved the final version of the text.

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Correspondence to Johannes G. Ramaekers or Mihai Avram.

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Ramaekers, J.G., Mallaroni, P., Mason, N.L. et al. Not all psychedelics are created equal. Nat. Mental Health 3, 1465–1467 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-025-00551-y

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