Taking Psilocybin Just Once Eases Treatment-Resistant Depression in Study

A new study suggests that a single dose of a synthetically-made version of magic mushrooms can ease the most severe symptoms of depression.

The results from this randomized and double-blind clinical trial were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

According to CNN, the creator of the synthetic drug is a professor of Psychiatry at Oxford University and the Chief Medical Officer of the company that makes the compound.

"magic mushrooms can be used to extract the drug, but that's not the way it's created," he said. It's produced in a chemical process.

The post-trip afterglow, which the researchers described as being the highest the day after taking 25 grams, appears to be the same effect as eating stems or crushed up mushrooms.

Treatment-resistant depression is a diagnosis given when an individual doesn't respond to two or more types of antidepressants. All people who were on antidepressants were told to stop taking their medication before the trial because the drugs can affect the benefits of the drug.

The participants' depression levels were measured just before their "trips", and then at various points in the days and weeks after. The researchers found that 37 percent of the trial patients had an improvement in their symptoms, and 29 percent were in a state of remission three weeks after the study.

A professor at King's College London who was not involved in the study told CNN that the maximum effect was seen the day after the treatment. Standard antidepressants take weeks to reach their maximum effect.

The people who experienced an easing of their depression symptoms said it began to return.

The effects began to wear off by three months, and we need to know how to prevent it from happening again.

An associate professor of educational psychology at University College London who was not involved in the study told CNN that this is not a spectacular response rate for a psychiatric treatment.

There is a lot more research that needs to be done to figure out how much of these treatments should be used and how much should be avoided.

This large, first-of-its-kind study has huge implications for the power of mental health treatment and the support of institutions like Oxford and the NEJM.

Musk has reportedly been telling friends about the benefits of mushrooms and MDMA.