Prolonged action

Psilocybin relieves depression for at least a year

Svetlana Maslova, Hi-tech+

"Our results add to the evidence that, under carefully controlled conditions, this promising therapeutic approach can lead to significant and sustained improvements in depression," according to the Johns Hopkins University website. The new experiment involved 27 patients who were observed for a year after treatment.

Article by Gukasyan et al. Efficacy and safety of psilocybin-assisted treatment for major depressive disorder: Prospective 12-month follow-up published in Journal of Psychopharmacology – VM.

The average age of the participants was 40 years, most of them had been living with depression for two years. The treatment consisted of two doses of psilocybin with an interval of about two weeks.

Scientists noted a significant reduction in symptoms of depression in all participants. The effect persisted throughout the year of observations.

Depressive symptoms were measured before and after treatment using the Hamilton scale, according to which 24 points indicate severe depression. For the majority of participants, the indicators decreased from 22.8 before treatment to 8.7 after one week, 8.9 after four weeks, 9.3 after three months, 7 after six months and 7.7 after 12 months after treatment.

Approximately 75% of participants responded to treatment and 58% were in remission 12 months after therapy, the authors said.

"Compared to standard antidepressants that need to be taken for a long time, psilocybin has the potential to permanently relieve symptoms of depression in one or two doses," said co—author Roland Griffiths.

The team will continue to monitor patients to study the likely much longer-lasting effect of the treatment.

In another study, scientists from Yale University showed that psilocybin stimulates the growth of new neural connections.

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