Can ‘Magic Mushrooms’ Kick-Start Depression Treatment?

So-called “magic mushrooms” are being tested as a treatment for people with depression. During the study, twenty participants were given psilocybin, the key ingredient in the hallucinogenic mushrooms. Of those twenty participants, nineteen said they felt less depressed, and continued to feel that way for up to five weeks after the treatment. Some people explained the way that felt as their brain being “reset” or “defragged.” This result is promising and there has been long suspected ties between magic mushrooms and the treatment of psychiatric disorders. However, there will need to be much further testing and experimentation before psilocybin is accepted as a true treatment for depression. There will also need to be studies including a placebo group to truly test the effectiveness. Also, it should be mentioned that all of the participants in the study had tried depression treatments before but were ineffective. So overall, magic mushrooms have a potentially promising future in the treatment of depression cases that are unresponsive to traditional treatments, but much further testing and trials will need to be completed before it can be said for certain that psilocybin truly does have a positive effect on the brains of depressed individuals. In the meantime, however, depressed individuals should not try to self medicate with psilocybin.