If antidepressants don't help
Psilocybin helped patients with depression to experience negative emotions
Ksenia Malysheva, Naked Science
British doctors continue to explore the possibilities of psilocybin (the active substance of hallucinogenic mushrooms) in the treatment of depression that cannot be treated with known medications. New experiments have shown that the action of psilocybin is fundamentally different from the action of traditional antidepressants.
Last year, a group of researchers from Imperial College London conducted an experiment with 12 patients suffering from depression that could not be treated with known antidepressants. Taking psilocybin had a noticeable effect on most of the patients; the participants of the experiment noted an improvement in their emotional state, in some the effect after two doses of psilocybin lasted five weeks. The researchers noted in patients who took the drug, increased activity of the amygdala – a part of the brain, the suppression of which is associated with many symptoms of depression, such as depressed mood and lack of motivation.
The new study involved 20 patients with depression who did not respond to standard antidepressants – selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Before, during and after taking psilocybin, the patients' brains were monitored using functional magnetic resonance imaging, a technique that allows real-time monitoring of blood supply to various parts of the brain.
While the patients were in the fMRI scanner, they were shown images of human faces - happy, scared and with a neutral expression. The scan showed that after taking psilocybin, the activity of the amygdala increased when contemplating faces expressing joy or fright; this effect persisted for at least a week after the experiment.
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, on the contrary, weaken the amygdala's response to emotional stimuli. Patients noted that after taking the drug, they experienced both pleasant and negative emotions more strongly, but they coped with both more easily, and generally felt easier than before taking psilocybin.
The authors of the study suggested that the therapeutic effect of psilocybin is based on a mechanism different from the mechanism of action of SSRIs; psilocybin exacerbates emotional reactions, but allows patients to cope with experiences, while SSRIS dulls emotional reactions. "I believe that psychoactive substances have great potential, perhaps they will become a new means of dealing with the consequences of deep emotional shocks," one of the authors of the work Leor Roseman commented on the results of the experiment.
However, before psilocybin-based antidepressants enter clinical practice, scientists will have to describe the mechanism of their action at the molecular level and conduct clinical studies, establishing recommended doses, contraindications and side effects.
The results of the study are published in the journal Neuropharmacology.
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