Magic Mushrooms Are a Promising Treatment For Depression, New Study Finds

Psilocybin, the naturally occurring psychedelic compound found in certain types of mushrooms, appears to offer relief to people suffering from depression, on a par with common antidepressants—and with fewer side effects, according to a new study.

The report, published Saturday in medical and health news outlet Medical Xpress by researchers from the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology, said psilocybin and standard selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants show similar improvement in depressive symptoms.

Better yet, psilocybin offers additional longer-term benefits, the study revealed.

"This work shows that psilocybin outperformed escitalopram [Lexapro] in several measures of well-being, meaning in life, work, and social functioning,” Tommaso Barba, lead researcher and a Ph.D. candidate from the Imperial College in London, wrote.

The results appeared to last during a six-month follow-up.

“In previous work, we had found that psilocybin also improves sexual drive, in contrast to SSRIs, which tend to lower libido in many patients, Barba added, "So overall, it seems psilocybin might give additional positive mental health benefits."

Some doctors were impressed with the speed with which psilocybin took effect.

“The interesting thing about it is that our typical antidepressant, the most common antidepressant, is an SSRI medication,” Dr. Ozan Toy, founder and chief medical officer of the Maryland-based PsychTMS, told Decrypt.

“These are medications that you have to take every day, and it usually takes about six weeks for you to see any effect," Toy said. "Researchers are seeing an effect with [psilocybin] within a week or two.”

A former resident doctor at Boston Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Toy said he launched PsychTMS to offer patients rapid antidepressant treatment options, including transcranial magnetic stimulation and ketamine IV therapy treatments.

Both treatments of SSRI drugs and psilocybin were found to be equally effective in reducing depression symptoms over six months, per the report.

“SSRI drugs, such as Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft, are one of the main types of drugs used to treat depression,” the report reads. “However, around a third of patients don't respond to SSRI treatment, so for them, psilocybin may offer an alternative, although this was not studied in this trial.”

As Toy explained, studies show a patient taking a one-time dose of psilocybin continues to see a reduction in depression symptoms or anxiety symptoms months after taking the compound.

Interest in psilocybin and other psychedelics gained steam because of research related to post-traumatic stress disorder, Toy said, adding that patients with PTSD could greatly benefit from therapy using psilocybin.

PTSD is a mental health condition triggered by experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event, with symptoms that include flashbacks, nightmares, severe anxiety, and intrusive thoughts about the event.

Toy pointed out that there’s “a lot of overlap between depression and anxiety in certain patients, and sometimes how we distinguish these patients is unclear.” As more diagnostic research is done, it may be the case that some patients “respond better to a psychedelic treatment.”

Toy cautioned that psilocybin causes the patient to experience something similar to a dissociation event, and it could cause them to lose contact with reality.

“So the issue I think we would be worried about is could patients develop what we call psychosis, where they're losing touch with reality,” he said, emphasizing this is likely to happen in people who abuse the drug. “They can have persistent psychotic symptoms, where maybe they are seeing or hearing things that are not there, and that persists for a long period of time.”

While psilocybin studies are promising, Toy said more research is needed.

Edited by Josh Quittner and Sebastian Sinclair