It appears that the key active ingredient in magic mushrooms may help people with treatment-resistant depression.
New brain mapping research from a group of researchers deepens our understanding of how the drug works in the brain, first and foremost dissolving and then expanding brain connections.
The study found that the parts of the brain that were depressed became more connected and flexible after two doses of the drug.
David Nutt of the Imperial College London says that the findings are important.
For the first time, we have found that the brain can be more flexible and fluid with the help of the drug psilocybin.
Many Indigenous peoples use magic mushrooms and other plants for their healing and hallucinogenic properties.
In the last two decades or so, there has been a resurgence in clinical research to understand the effects of drugs on the brain.
A small landmark trial from Nutt and colleagues showed that the combination of psychological therapy and the drug psilocybin was more effective than taking a common antidepressants.
In a brain-imaging study of 20 people with depressive symptoms, the drug appeared to enhance their emotional response, rather than blunting it.
It is one thing to observe positive benefits among small groups of people, but it is another thing to untangle what is happening in the brain.
Nutt and colleagues analyzed brain scans of nearly 60 people with clinical depression and found that people receiving the drug had better connections in their brain regions that are rich in a brain chemical called Serotonin.
The effect was "rapid, sustained" and strongest in people who reported their depressive systems had eased. Their brain networks were more interconnected and flexible, one day after treatment and, in some people, three weeks later.
There were no changes in people on antidepressants.
This supports our initial predictions and shows that psilocybin could be a real alternative approach to depression treatments.
A recent 2020 study that reported changes in brain network connections up to a month after a single dose of psilocybin is related to the findings.
We don't know how long the changes in brain activity seen with psilocybin therapy last, and we need to do more research to understand this.
We know that some people come back, and it may be that after a while their brains start reverting to the patterns of activity we see in depression.
The findings are intriguing, especially for those who wrestle with ruminating thoughts, manage mental health problems, or are just curious about how our brains work, but we also need to remember this is early research.
There are two small but high-quality trials that can give an interpretation of what can be a profoundly life-changing and frightening experience. There are studies looking at how the brain works with the drug, and they show it could be used to break ego.
Some people with a history of psychosis were excluded from the trials for safety reasons.
The researchers are hopeful that these findings will lead to more research on the potential to treat other mental illnesses, which are marked by rigid thought patterns.
One exciting implication of our findings is that we have discovered a fundamental mechanism via which psychedelic therapy works not just for depression, but also other mental illnesses, such as anorexia or addiction.
We need to test if this is the case, and if it is, we have found something important.
Nature Medicine published the study.
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