Psilocybin, a drug found in magic mushrooms, fosters greater connections between different regions of the brain in depressed people, according to study by researchers at University of California San Francisco and Imperial College London.
Certain psychiatric conditions affect the brain's functioning. Brain functioning of people with depression follows fixed patterns of thinking and reinforces rigid thought patterns. Brains that function this way create patterns of rumination and excessive self-focus that affect well-being.
Scientists analyzed fMRI brain scans from study participants who were given psilocybin and compared them to those who had received a placebo, which was the SSRI antidepressant escitalopram. A total of nearly 60 people participated, and all also received the same type of psychotherapy.
The study found that participants who received psilocybin treatment had reduced connections within brain areas that, in depressed brains, are tightly connected, and increased connections to other regions of the brain that were previously not used effectively. Those who received escitalopram had no change in brain activity.
Participants given psilocybin became less emotionally avoidant and had improved cognitive functioning. These changes lasted until the study ended three weeks after the last dose of psilocybin.
Previous studies had seen a similar change of brain activity when studying those who were scanned while actively on a psychedelic.
"[The study] confirms psilocybin could be a real alternative approach to depression treatments," said Dr. David Nutt, head of the Imperial Center for Psychedelic Research.
Scientists involved in the study warn that patients with depression should not attempt to self-medicate with psilocybin, stressing that the trials took place under controlled and clinical conditions and involved extensive psychological support throughout the process.