Benefits of the compound, found in psychedelic mushrooms, lasted a month
Hallucinogenic mushrooms’ key ingredient, psilocybin, can swiftly and dramatically ease depression in the right therapeutic setting, a small study suggests.Because the study was small and lacked participant diversity, it’s unclear whether the positive results would extend to wider populations. Still, “the current results are clear,” says Jay Olson, a psychology researcher at Harvard University who wasn’t involved in the study. “At least for some people, psilocybin can reduce depression better than several common treatment options.”
Existing antidepressant drugs don’t work well for an estimated 30 to 50 percent of the people who try them; when they do work, the effects can take weeks to kick in. Psilocybin, a compound that can profoundly alter consciousness and perceptions of reality, might be a powerful alternative, says coauthor Roland Griffiths, a neuropsychopharmacologist at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
