Psilocybin is one of the psychedelics that is explored as a potential therapy for psychiatric disorders. Various studies have revealed promising results of the drug in treating depression and anxiety.
However, conventional antidepressant (called escitalopram) failed to show similar changes in brain connectivity. This suggests that the psychedelic works differently in treating depression.
“These findings are important because for the first time we find that psilocybin works differently from conventional antidepressants – making the brain more flexible and fluid, and less entrenched in the negative thinking patterns associated with depression. This supports our initial predictions and confirms psilocybin could be a real alternative approach to depression treatments,” says Professor David Nutt, Head of the Imperial Centre for Psychedelic Research.
“One exciting implication of our findings is that we have discovered a fundamental mechanism via which psychedelic therapy works not just for depression – but other mental illnesses, such as anorexia or addiction. We now need to test if this is the case, and if it is, then we have found something important,” says the paper’s senior author Professor Robin Carhart-Harris, former Head of the Imperial Centre for Psychedelic Research who is now based at University of California, San Francisco.
Source: Medindia
