Substantive Research into Benefit to Depressed Patients from Magic Mushrooms #Sience

Magic mushrooms contain psilocybin, a psychoactive compound that led to reduction in depressive symptoms when given to patients in trials.

Photograph: Peter Dejong/AP


Magic mushrooms may effectively “reset” the activity of key brain circuits known to play a role in depression, the latest study to highlight the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics suggests.

Psychedelics have shown promising results in the treatment of depression and addictions in a number of clinical trials over the last decade. Imperial College London researchers used psilocybin – the psychoactive compound that occurs naturally in magic mushrooms – to treat a small number of patients with depression, monitoring their brain function, before and after.

Images of patients’ brains revealed changes in brain activity that were associated with marked and lasting reductions in depressive symptoms and participants in the trial reported benefits lasting up to five weeks after treatment.

The Guardian:  Magic mushrooms 'reboot' brain in depressed people – study

My own recreational experience with magic mushrooms was only limited by my ability to find it but my experience wasn't the same at of the depressives when they took it and those differences turn out to be surprisingly effective.


For the study, published in Scientific Reports on Friday, 20 patients with treatment-resistant depression were given two doses of psilocybin (10 mg and 25 mg), with the second dose a week after the first. Of these, 19 underwent initial brain imaging and then a second scan one day after the high dose treatment. The team used two main brain imaging methods to measure changes in blood flow and the crosstalk between brain regions, with patients reporting their depressive symptoms through completing clinical questionnaires.

Immediately following treatment with psilocybin, patients reported a decrease in depressive symptoms, such as improvements in mood and stress relief.

MRI imaging revealed reduced blood flow in areas of the brain, including the amygdala, a small, almond-shaped region of the brain known to be involved in processing emotional responses, stress and fear.

- Guardian

I'm not sure that 10 mg will get you to full-out trippin' with hallucinations and the whole package but 25 mg will definitely do it.

Zen Yogi:  and it's got to be better than electroshock treatment to do the same thing

“Psilocybin may be giving these individuals the temporary ‘kick start’ they need to break out of their depressive states and these imaging results do tentatively support a ‘reset’ analogy. Similar brain effects to these have been seen with electroconvulsive therapy.”

- Guardian


That's a novel situation when your psychiatrist may suggest magic mushrooms but it seems they already suggested them as medicine.