Health
What is really needed is a comparison of the long-term effect of psilocybin with another treatment (an antidepressant) or a placebo.
by Johan Lundberg, Guusje Haver and The Conversation Mindhive/Shutterstock
Psilocybin, the psychedelic substance found in magic mushrooms, is a promising new treatment for psychiatric disorders, especially depression. The beneficial effects on mood and anxiety of psilocybin are rapid and pronounced after just a single treatment . A small study even suggested that these benefits remain after a year .
But what is really needed is a comparison of the long-term effect of psilocybin with another treatment (an antidepressant) or a placebo. Ideally, neither participants nor staff should be aware of who was given what — this is known as “double-blind” and is used to remove bias in studies. Recently, the first such attempt was summarized in a published report . It is a six-month follow-up of a short psilocybin trial published in 2021 .
The original study ran for six weeks and included a group of 59 depressed patients, who were randomly allocated to receive either two doses of psilocybin or daily escitalopram, a commonly prescribed antidepressant. After six weeks, both groups showed reduced depression symptoms, without a difference between the groups.
Now, outcomes at six months have been reported. Depressive symptoms were not found to be different between the psilocybin group and escitalopram at the end of this period. However, some differences were found between the groups, such as greater social functioning and increased meaning in life in the patients receiving psilocybin.
Social functioning was measured using a questionnaire where participants could indicate how much their mental health interfered with their ability to work, manage their home, be sociable and enjoy hobbies. Psilocybin seemed to mainly improve social functioning, but not the ability to work.
Similarly, “meaning in life” was also measured with questionnaires, where the participants indicated how much they agreed with statements like: “My life has a clear sense of purpose” and “I have discovered a satisfying life purpose.” Patients who were treated with psilocybin answered these questions more positively than those treated with escitalopram. Escitalopram is an SSRI antidepressant. George Mdivanian […]
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