New study bolsters support for ‘magic mushroom’ treatment for depression

Psilocybin, a psychedelic drug derived from magic mushrooms, may be more effective than one of the most commonly prescribed antidepressants.

Previous research carried out by a team based at NYU Grossman School of Medicine has shown that psilocybin has promise in alleviating treatmentresistant depression and anxiety in cancer patients. Now, a team based at the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London has shown that the treatment could be at least as effective as escitalopram, a type of antidepressant known as a selective serotonin uptake inhibitor (SSRI).

The researchers studied 59 people with moderate-to-severe depression over six weeks. Of those, 30 were given a high dose of psilocybin and a daily placebo, while the others were given daily escitalopram and a dose of psilocybin so low that it was unlikely to have an effect.

Both groups went through two sessions, in which they were given the drugs and played a curated music playlist, while being guided by a psychological support team.

“Context is crucial for these studies and all volunteers received therapy during and after their psilocybin sessions,” said Dr Rosalind Watts, clinical lead of the trial. “Our team of therapists were on hand to offer full

support through sometimes difficult

emotional experiences.”

All participants were assessed using a standard depression score which grades sleep, feelings of sadness, appetite and

suicide ideation. The team did not find a statistically significant difference

between the two groups in terms of how their depression scores changed over the six weeks. However, they also looked at two additional measures at an individual level: response and remission. Response

is defined as when a person’s depression

score reduces by at least 50 per cent; 70 per cent of people in the psilocybin group met this requirement, whereas only 48 per cent of the people in the antidepressant group did. They also found that 57 per cent of the psilocybin group were in remission at the end of the study, compared to 28 per cent in the antidepressant group.

“These results comparing two doses of psilocybin therapy with 43 daily doses of one of the best performing SSRI antidepressants help contextualise

psilocybin’s promise as a potential

mental health treatment. Remission rates were twice as high in the psilocybin group than the escitalopram group,” said Dr Robin Carhart-Harris, head of the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial, who designed and led the study.

“One of the most important aspects of this work is that people can clearly see the promise of properly delivered psilocybin therapy by viewing it compared with a more familiar, established treatment in the same study. Psilocybin performed very favourably in this head-to-head.”

“People can clearly see the promise of properly delivered psilocybin therapy”