A single dose of psilocybin, coupled with therapy sessions, significantly improved symptoms of depression within days and lasting for a period of months, according to a first-of-its-kind study out of Sweden that was published by the American Medical Association.
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and the Brain Stimulation Clinic in Stockholm conducted the phase 2 randomized clinical trial, which involved 35 participants with moderate-t0-severe depression who received either a 25 milligram dose of psilocybin or a placebo of niacin.
For the study, published in JAMA Psychiatry last week, patients also underwent five psychotherapy sessions to supplement the psychedelic or placebo experience.
The psilocybin cohort, on average, showed clinically observable improvement in their symptoms compared to the placebo group at day 8.
“This finding implies that psilocybin can be an option to standard treatments when rapid symptom relief is important,” the paper says.
“A single dose of psilocybin was associated with rapid antidepressant effects.”
By the sixth week of the trial, 53 percent of the psilocybin cohort were considered to be in remission for depression, while just 6 percent of the placebo group said the same by that point.
However, researchers found that the overall effect seemed to subside after a year.
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