“Magic Mushrooms” Help Against Severe Depression – But There’s A Caveat

As an ingredient in “Magic Mushrooms”, psilocybin not only induces a psychedelic high, but also relieves anxiety. The little brother of the hippie drug LSD has therefore been increasingly researched in psychiatry for several years now. Indeed, a number of smaller studies fueled hopes of a panacea for treatment-resistant depression.

An international research team has now presented the results of a larger study funded by British company Compass Pathways.

The 233 study participants were divided into three groups with different doses of psilocybin: 1 milligram, 10 milligrams or 25 milligrams.

Like the researchers around the emeritus professor of psychiatry Guy Goodwin report in the journal “The New England Journal of Medicine,” an improvement occurred only in those patients who received the highest dose, which was 25 milligrams.

This is a psychoactive dose that usually makes you feel high. In this group, depressive symptoms decreased significantly in almost a third.

Side effects such as headache, nausea and dizziness were only slightly more common than in the other groups. A few people who received the two higher doses of psilocybin also reported suicidal thoughts, suicidal tendencies, and self-harming behavior.

The results show that psilocybin is even more effective than a placebo in some patients. But the euphoria from previous studies had been dampened.

The fact that not all patients benefit equally from therapy is not surprising in psychiatric conditions, says de Neuropsychologist Katrin Preller from the University of Zurichwho were not involved in the study. In the future, better research needs to be done on who benefits from the therapy and who does not. In any case, the research shows that it makes sense to further clinically test the active ingredient.

According to the Federal Statistical Office (FSO), nine percent of the population in Switzerland suffers from depression. Treatment-resistant depression is when there is no improvement after treatment with at least two antidepressants. In such cases, doctors resort to electroconvulsive therapy or magnetic stimulation, among other things.

The active ingredient psilocybin, which is found in more than 100 species of mushrooms, is not yet part of an approved drug and can only be used in approved studies. In Switzerland, there is also the possibility of so-called “compassionate use,” says Preller. “For this, the relevant practitioner must apply for a special permit, after which each case is examined individually.”

How psilocybin works in the brain to relieve depression is not known for sure. Brain scan studies suggest that the hallucinogen promotes connectivity between different brain regions. This makes the brain more flexible and less stuck in negative thinking patterns.

For psilocybin to be approved, a longer and larger study must show that the drug can treat depression when other therapies fail.

Compass Pathways recently announced that it would start a phase 3 study with more than 900 test subjects at the end of this year. It would be the first time in the world that psilocybin therapy would enter this study phase.

(aargauerzeitung.ch)