Depression? Chew the mushrooms!

Psilocybin was suggested to treat depression

Copper newsPsilocybin, a bioactive component of Psilocybe mushrooms, traditionally used by Mexican Indians as a hallucinogen, has the ability to reduce the sensitivity of the amygdala, an area of the brain that plays a key role in the formation of emotions, to negative stimuli.

Normalization of amygdala activity leads to an improvement in mood and opens up new opportunities in the therapy of depression. The work was published in the journal Biological Psychiatry (Kraehenmann et al., Psilocybin-Induced Decrease in Amygdala Reactivity Correlates with Enhanced Positive Mood in Healthy Volunteers).

Emotions, such as fear, rage, sadness, joy, are a tool for human adaptation to the phenomena of the surrounding world, thanks to a spontaneous mental reaction to stress and tension, the stability of cognitive and physiological processes, the adequacy of social behavior is ensured. The central role in the formation of emotions, both positive and negative, is played by such a key structure of the serotonin-ergic system as the amygdala (amygdala). It is known that hyperactivity of the amygdala in response to external stimuli, the consequence of which is the formation of predominantly negative emotions, underlies the development of depressive and anxiety disorders.

Specialists from the psychiatric clinic at the University of Zurich (Switzerland) have found that the psychedelic psilocybin, stimulating serotonin receptors, is able to interfere with this mechanism, reduce the reactivity of the amygdala and thereby improve mood. A double-blind randomized study involved 25 healthy volunteers who received 0.16 milligrams per kilogram of psilocybin or placebo for two weeks. The amygdala's response to negative external stimuli was assessed using MRI, and changes in the participants' mood were monitored using standard tests. As a result, it was recorded that even small doses of psilocybin weaken the sensitivity of the amygdala to unpleasant experiences compared to placebo. This effect was directly related to the overall mood increase in participants who took psychedelic drugs.

In the future, the authors plan to test the results obtained on patients with depression. Confirmation of the effect, the authors believe, will be of great clinical importance, since the drugs currently used for depression and anxiety disorders have many negative side effects and are not suitable for all patients.

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