For treatment-resistant depression, magic mushroom drug holds promise

(credit: Alan Rockefeller)

Psilocybin, the psychedelic compound in ‘magic’ mushrooms, may be an effective way to treat depression in patients that have seen no benefit from other, standard forms of treatment, early results suggest.

In a pilot study involving just 12 people with treatment-resistant depression, two doses of the mushroom compound cleared symptoms in eight participants—67 percent—after one week. After three months and no other doses, seven participants still reported reduced depressive symptoms, including five—42 percent—who reported complete remission of their depression.

But the finding, published Tuesday in the Lancet Psychiatry, is just a first step to assess the safety of using the hallucinogenic drug. With such a small study, no controls, and non-randomized participants, it is not possible to determine if the promising efficacy results will stand.