Magic mushrooms ‘promising’ in depression

A hallucinogenic chemical in magic mushrooms shows promise for people with untreatable depression, a short study on just 12 people hints.

Eight patients were no longer depressed after the “mystical and spiritual” experience induced by the drug, according to BBC.

The findings, in the Lancet Psychiatry, showed five of the patients were still depression-free after three months.

Experts cautiously welcomed the findings as “promising, but not completely compelling”.

There have now been calls for the drug to be tested in larger trials.

At the start of the trial, nine of the patients had at least severe depression and three were moderately depressed.

In one patient, symptoms had lasted for 30 years.

All of them had tried at least two different treatments for depression, without success.

One had tried 11.

The study, at Imperial College London, initially gave patients a low dose of psilocybin, the hallucinogenic chemical in magic mushrooms, to test for safety.

They were then given a very high dose equivalent to “a lot of mushrooms”, the researchers said.

The psychedelic experience lasted up to six hours, peaking after the first two, and was accompanied by classical music and followed by psychological support.

The researchers told the BBC “it is possible” all the improvement was down to the placebo effect although the duration of the benefit and change in outlook suggested something else was going on.

H.Z