With depression, the brain can get stuck in a rut and locked into a particular negative way of thinking, he said. But when given psilocybin, people’s brains opened up and became “more flexible and fluid” up to three weeks later. This could be seen in increased connections between regions of the brain when patients were scanned. These patients were more likely to experience an improvement in mood months later. Similar changes were not seen in the brains of people treated with a standard antidepressant.
The results, published in Nature Medicine, are taken from two studies. In the first, everyone received psilocybin; and in the second — a randomized controlled trial – some were given the drug while others were given a different antidepressant. All participants also received talking therapies with registered mental health professionals. Brain scans were taken before, and then one day or three weeks after taking the therapy.
