Study raises new possibilities of treating depression with magic mushroom compound

Scientists are hopeful that a psychedelic compound unique to magic mushrooms could one day be used to treat people suffering from depression, after a new study showed it performed at least as effectively as a leading antidepressant currently prescribed to patients. Psilocybin also appeared to be more effective in preventing recipients from relapsing back into their former state of depression, but the study found its overall effects were not “statistically significant” in their difference from escitalopram. “There’s a revelatory quality where people report that they understand why they're depressed more fully.” He described the trial’s findings as promising and “tantalisingly suggestive” of psilocybin’s potential to provide an alternative treatment for depression. open image in gallery Dr Carhart-Harris says the trial’s findings are ‘tantalisingly suggestive’ In the escitalopram arm of the study, 29 people received 1mg of psilocybin at the dosing sessions. Imperial College said it was likely the research would progress to a larger-scale trial by 2024 at the earliest Fifty-seven per cent of volunteers who received psilocybin also reported that these symptoms had not returned at the end of the six-week course, as against 28 per cent in the escitalopram group.