A Case for the Magic Mushroom

A small case study administering psilocybin on people with depression has health clinicians’ hopeful in establishing it as a new form of treatment.

In a six-week study at the Imperial College London’s Centre for Psychedelic Research experts undertook an exploratory, randomized, double-blind clinical study with 59 participants who suffered from depression.

Thirty were assigned psilocybin, the ingredient found in magic mushrooms, and the other 29 were provided with conventional antidepressants. Both groups underwent psychotherapy. Two doses of psilocybin at 25 mg each were given three weeks apart along with placebo capsules to one group while the other received the recommended escitalopram along with one mg of psilocybin increased to 20 mg for the following three weeks.

At the end of the study, it was concluded that there was little difference between conventional medicines and psilocybin. However, psilocybin signaled numerous advantages with secondary outcomes. For instance, on a clinical rated depression scale the change from baseline at week six on the Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale showed a 7.2-point treatment difference.

Statistics for the use of antidepressants have suggested a consistent rise in its use particularly as the populations age. Recent anti-anxiety and anti-insomnia prescriptions were filled at a 21% increase between February and March of 2020 according to MarketWatch. Between 2019 and 2020, antidepressant medication use increased 7.9% in the United States noting that nearly 32% of people taking the medication had no prior history of its use six months before.