Are magic mushrooms just the start of a really weird trip?
Or are they the solution to the world’s growing mental health crisis?
This year saw the first ever trial that directly compared hallucinogenic fungi to traditional medications for depression,
and the results mean that our future might be about to get lots more fungus-y.
Globally, rates of mental illness are surging.
And the existing medications we have to treat things like depression aren’t perfect —
some people experience crappy side effects or just don’t find them effective at all,
so having more tools in our toolbox to treat mental health issues would be great.
And researchers have found a pretty cool tool in…mushrooms.
Magic mushrooms, that is.
Now ’shrooms can actually be any of over 180 species of mushroom that contain these hallucinogenic compounds.
You may have heard of psilocybin as the active compound in shrooms but actually, your body breaks psilocybin down into psilocin.
This is actually the chemical that affects your brain —
it’s what induces increased sensory perception, heightened emotions, even euphoria, and hallucinations.
And it’s very interesting to neuroscientists because structurally, it’s very similar to serotonin.
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter and hormone that controls a bunch of things all over your body.
And apparently, the serotonin system in your brain — how it’s taken up by your neurons
and how it helps different parts of your brain communicate with each other — is really complex, and we still don’t fully understand it.
But generally, the consensus seems that low levels of serotonin are linked to depression and anxiety.
This is why one of the most commonly prescribed medications for depression and anxiety
are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs.
These drugs boost the levels of serotonin in the brain, improving the symptoms of these mental illnesses.
The scientific community has been looking at hallucinogens for therapeutic use in mushrooms specifically
because their potential side effects are generally considered less extreme than LSD or ecstasy.
There’s less of an extreme peak and then crash, and research shows they have less potential to be addictive.
Which is why, in 2021, researchers at Imperial College London used it in their study,
comparing it to SSRIs as a treatment for depression.
A group of 59 participants with major depressive disorder, was divided in two.
Some received: 25 mg dose of psilocybin, a daily placebo pill, and psychotherapy.
The rest received: 1 mg dose of psilocybin, a daily dose of an SSRI, and psychotherapy.
The participants were grouped totally randomly, and everyone was told they would be receiving psilocybin.
This was to make sure that the participants’ expectations didn’t affect their outcome —
like, “I was told I would be receiving mushrooms and that’s why I felt weird."
These two aspects are what make this study what scientists call a ‘randomized controlled trial’.
So…how’d it go?
Participants self-reported their mental wellbeing via standardized forms, and the results were pretty trippy.
Overall, 70% of the psilocybin-only group responded positively to the treatment, compared with 48% of the SSRI group.
The psilocybin group felt the effects of treatment more quickly, showed a much greater reduction in suicidality,
and more improvement in their ability to feel pleasure.
Now, it’s important to note that even with these differences,
both groups did experience improvement in their symptoms,
and SSRIs can take several weeks or even months to make a noticeable difference.
So the fact that the study was only six weeks long may mean that the full effect of the SSRIs wasn’t measured by this study.
None of the participants experienced any major adverse side effects, which is great.
But this is at least partially because the study screened out people with preexisting psychiatric conditions like psychosis,
which might make an adverse event like a ‘bad trip’ more likely.
Another study, the largest trial yet of psilocybin’s positive impact on depression,
was published in 2021 with equally encouraging results.
Many more studies are currently underway worldwide to keep assessing the efficacy and safety
of hallucinogenic mushrooms for therapeutic uses.
Because we’re really just starting to understand how they work.
Thanks to tools like functional MRIs, we’ve found that mushrooms affect the activity of brain areas like the claustrum and the amygdala.
We think the claustrum connects the parts of our brain that take in sensory information
and it plays a role in consciousness.
Psilocin’s alteration of claustrum function may change our brain’s connectivity and alter our perception of the world around us.
In the amygdala, psilocin ramps up the activity, allowing for increased emotional processing.
This could be one of the reasons mushrooms can improve depressive symptoms.
But psilocybin is highly restricted and criminalized in many countries.
Even though it’s not considered addictive, it’s in the same restrictive category as other narcotics with ‘a high potential for abuse’,
like heroin.
Many indigenous cultures have used them in spiritual, physical, and mental well-being practices for centuries,
but the mainstream is gonna need some more convincing.
So the more data we have on its therapeutic activity in the brain —
and how the heck the brain works in the first place —
the more we could see mushrooms on the menu for mental health.
If you want more on mental health topics, then check out our series Mindset, hosted by Dr. T on Seeker's TikTok.
Keep coming back to Seeker for your fungus 411 and as always, thanks for watching. I’ll see you next time.