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We May Finally Know How Magic Mushrooms Work to Relieve Depression
| "For the first time we find that psilocybin works differently from conventional antidepressants – making the brain more flexible and fluid, and less entrenched in the negative thinking patterns associated with depression."
In a 2018 brain-imaging study of 20 people with depressive symptoms, psilocybin also appeared to enhance people's emotional response, rather than blunting it like antidepressants tend to do.
| Analyzing brain scans of nearly 60 people with clinical depression involved in two previous trials, they found people receiving psilocybin had greater connectivity between brain regions that are rich in serotonin receptors and usually segregated in depressed patients.
The effect was "rapid, sustained" and strongest in people who reported their depressive systems had eased.
| Their brain networks were more interconnected and flexible, one day after treatment and, in some people, three weeks later.
No such changes were observed in people on antidepressants, which also target serotonin receptors.
The findings echo a recent 2020 study that similarly reported changes in brain network connectivity up to a month after a single dose of psilocybin.
| While the findings are intriguing – especially for those among us who wrestle with ruminating thoughts, manage mental health problems, or are just curious about how our brains work – we also need to remember this is early research, where people were given psilocybin in a controlled environment, supported by mental health professionals who helped them talk through any hallucination experiences.
| It's also just one possible interpretation, from two small but high-quality trials, of what can be a profoundly life-altering and possibly frightening experience. Other studies looking at how psilocybin works in the brain have hinted it could dissolve ego.
The researchers are hopeful these findings might lay the groundwork for more research investigating psilocybin's potential to treat other mental illnesses, ones also marked by rigid thought patterns.
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| New brain mapping research from a leading group of psychedelics researchers deepens our understanding of how psilocybin works in the brain, first 'dissolving' and then expanding brain connections.
Certain parts of depressed people's brains becomes more interconnected and flexible after two doses of psilocybin, and these changes lasts up to three weeks after treatment.
https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-have-finally-figured-out-how-magic-mushrooms-might-relieve-depression