Psilocybin-assisted exposure sessions for GAD with claustrophobia (elevator / enclosed-space fear)

Source note

Anonymised summary of a Research Square preprint case (DOI 10.21203/rs.3.rs-2859973/v1). Names and clinic identifiers are omitted. Preprint status means peer review may still be pending.

Participant profile (non-identifying)

• Sex: male (age not reliably extractable from the public abstract summary used here)
• Conditions: generalised anxiety disorder with claustrophobia (elevators, planes, closed spaces)
• Prior care: inadequate response to conventional psychotherapy; concurrent SSRI use continued during the reported pathway

Intervention pattern

• Three sessions of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy
• Combined with imaginal exposure and classic in vivo elevator exposure during/around dosing support
• Integration/debrief with therapist after sessions

Reported outcome

Improvements on Beck Depression Inventory-II, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and Fear Questionnaire scores, with reported generalisation (greater willingness to confront feared situations and a shift in appraisal of fearful stimuli).

Limitations

• Single case; concurrent SSRI and exposure work confound attribution to psilocybin alone
• Preprint / not a randomised trial
• Not a primary panic-disorder protocol

Why included

Documents an anxiety-domain anecdotal pathway that pairs psychedelic sessions with structured exposure methods — relevant to GAD/phobic anxiety while remaining low on the evidence hierarchy.