Home > Anti-aging Research > Psilocybin

Psilocybin

News & Research:

• Psilocybin - Wiki - "As a prodrug, psilocybin is quickly converted by the body to psilocin, which has mind-altering effects similar, in some aspects, to those of LSD, mescaline, and DMT. In general, the effects include euphoria, visual and mental hallucinations, changes in perception, a distorted sense of time, and spiritual experiences"
• How psilocybin, the psychedelic in mushrooms, may rewire the brain to ease depression, anxiety and more - CNN, 6/11/22 - "Small clinical trials that have shown that one or two doses of psilocybin, given in a therapeutic setting, can make dramatic and long-lasting changes in people suffering from treatment-resistant major depressive disorder, which typically does not respond to traditional antidepressants ... Psilocybin, which the intestines convert into psilocin, a chemical with psychoactive properties, is also showing promise in combating cluster headaches, anxiety, anorexia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and various forms of substance abuse ... The data are strong from depression to PTSD to cluster headaches, which is one of the most painful conditions I'm aware of ... With psychedelics such as psilocybin and LSD, however, scientists can see changes in brain neuron connectivity in the lab "within 30 minutes ... There's more. Researchers say psychedelic drugs actually help neurons in the brain sprout new dendrites, which look like branches on a tree, to increase communication between cells"
• Psilocybin Effective Up to 12 Weeks in Severe Depression - Medscape, 6/2/22 - "synthetic formulation of psilocybin, COMP360 (COMPASS Pathways) ... After a 2-week washout period following the discontinuation of antidepressants, the patients were randomized to one of three groups: A single dose of 25 mg (n = 79), 10 mg (n = 75), or a subtherapeutic comparison of 1 mg (n = 79) ... The psilocybin was administered in the presence of specially trained therapists who provided psychological support before, during, and after the 6- to 8-hour session ... Sustained responses, defined as at least a 50% change from baseline in MADRS total score, were further observed up to week 12 among 20.3% in the 25-mg group and among 5.3% in the 10-mg groups versus 10.1% in the 1-mg group ... On the day of psilocybin treatment, the treatment-emergent side effects that were reported were headache, nausea, and dizziness, with event rates of 83.5% in the 25-mg group, 74.7% in the 10-mg group, and 72.2% in the 1-mg group"
• Emerging research about psychedelic mushrooms pushes legalization efforts - 10News, 5/12/22 - "So far they say the data regarding benefits to mental health has been pretty strong
• Psilocybin rewires the brain for people with depression, study finds - Science Daily, 4/11/22 - "Scientists analyzed fMRI brain scans from nearly 60 people who had participated in two psilocybin trials. In the first one, all the participants had treatment-resistant depression and knew they were being given psilocybin. In the second one, the participants were depressed but not as severely, and they were not told whether they had been given psilocybin or a placebo that turned out to be escitalopram, an SSRI antidepressant. In addition to the drugs, all the participants received the same type of psychotherapy ... The scans, which were done before and after treatment, showed the psilocybin treatment reduced connections within brain areas that are tightly connected in depression, including the default mode, salience, and executive networks, and increased connections to other regions of the brain that had not been well integrated ... Participants were also less emotionally avoidant and their cognitive functioning got better. The improvement in their depressive symptoms correlated with changes to their brains, and these changes lasted until the study ended three weeks after the second psilocybin dose. No such changes were seen in the brains of those who received escitalopram, suggesting that psilocybin acts differently on the brain than SSRIs"
  • Oregon legalizes magic mushrooms: 5 things to know  - Oregon Online, 11/4/20 - "Psilocybin won’t be available to purchase and take home. Only license holders will be able to cultivate psilocybin or provide the therapy or own a psilocybin service center under the new law ... And it does not allow people to take or grow psychedelic mushrooms in their homes, or leave a treatment facility while still under the influence of psilocybin."
• Research helps provide scientific framework for psilocybin use in therapeutic settings - Science Daily, 4/11/22 - "There are currently more than 60 psilocybin clinical trials overseen by the National Institutes of Health. Preliminary data suggest psilocybin therapies are effective in treating major depressive disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, smoking cessation and alcoholism ... Results of psilocybin ingestion outside of clinical trials have found an increased connection to nature, enhanced creativity, greater enjoyment of music and increased positive mood"
• Little evidence on how psilocybin therapy interacts with existing psychiatric treatments, review finds - Science Daily, 3/18/22 - "They found a total of 40 studies dating back to 1958, including 26 from randomized controlled studies, 11 case reports and three epidemiologic studies ... one study that examined how psilocybin interacts with antidepressant medications. Further, Sarparast noted that all of the clinical trials were conducted with healthy volunteers who were administered a psychiatric medication and a psychedelic at the same time -- a clear sign of the need for further research on the clinical outcomes of combining pharmaceutical medications with psilocybin ... Patients with mental health conditions may well benefit from psilocybin therapy, but Sarparast said he worries about the implications of stopping existing psychiatric treatment in order to receive psilocybin services. This may force vulnerable people into choosing between their existing medical treatment or psilocybin services ... people attempting to navigate Oregon's psilocybin services in the context of ongoing psychiatric treatment should work closely with knowledgeable professionals"
• Psilocybin's Antidepressant Effects Rapid, Durable - Medscape, 2/17/22 - "For most participants, GRID-HAMD scores decreased from 22.8 at baseline to 8.7 at 1 week, 8.9 at 4 weeks, 9.3 at 3 months, 7 at 6 months and 7.7 at 12 months after treatment ... Compared to standard antidepressants, which must be taken for long stretches of time, psilocybin has the potential to enduringly relieve the symptoms of depression with one or two treatments"
• Follow-up study finds a single dose of one drug can ease anxiety and depression for five years - Hill, 4/23/21 - "At the four-and-a-half year follow-up, 71 to 100 percent of participants credited improvements in levels of anxiety and depression to the single-dose psilocybin and therapy combination of the study. The participants further “rated it among the most personally meaningful and spiritually significant experiences of their lives.” ... Though further research needs to be done, it’s thought that because psilocybin can affect mood and perception to “regulate arousal and panic responses,” the drug interacts with the networks of the brain to shape it into being more amenable to entertaining new thought patterns."
• Psilocybin Matches SSRI for Moderate-to-Severe Depression in Phase 2 Study - Medscape, 4/14/21 - "Patients in the psilocybin cohort did show a much more rapid improvement in the main measure than those taking escitalopram, but this gap narrowed over the span of the trial until it was no longer statistically significant .... Investigators found that psilocybin bested escitalopram in several secondary outcomes, including feelings of well-being, the ability to express emotion, and social functioning ... The researchers said that the results, while promising, should not encourage anyone to self-medicate with psychedelic substances, which are still illegal in most jurisdictions"
• Magic Mushrooms Guide: Where Shrooms Are Legal and How To Take Psilocybin - Newsweek, 7/3/19 - "psilocybin mushrooms continue to be illegal on the federal level, and are listed as a Schedule 1 narcotic"

Abstracts:

• The Use of Psilocybin in the Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders with Attention to Relative Safety Profile: A Systematic Review - J Psychoactive Drugs 2022 Feb 28 - "Oral psilocybin is showing itself to be clinically efficacious by producing statistically significant reductions in depression and anxiety symptoms over time versus control in multiple clinical trials. It has also been shown to reduce cigarettes per day and drinks per day in patients with substance use disorders. Thus far, there have been no significant adverse clinical events from psilocybin and there also have been no verifiable recorded deaths reported. Larger studies need to be performed before the drug can potentially become approved for use in the general population"