New results have demonstrated treating major depressive disorder (MDD) with psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy is effective for up to a year in some patients.
Under controlled conditions, psilocybin-assisted therapy given with supportive psychotherapy can lead to “considerable improvements” in depression. The study followed on from studies that demonstrated treating MDD with psilocybin relieved symptoms for up to a month.
There is currently a global mental health crisis that has now been compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is estimated that 5 per cent of adults across the globe live with depression and a massive 75 per cent of these do not receive treatment for it. To add to this, current treatments such as SSRI’s can be ineffective and come with other unwanted side effects, highlighting the desperate need for new treatments.
Natalie Gukasyan, MD, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, commented: “Our findings add to evidence that, under carefully controlled conditions, this is a promising therapeutic approach that can lead to significant and durable improvements in depression.”
The rise of research into the potential efficacy of psilocybin and other psychedelic drugs for the treatment of mental health conditions is shaping up to be a revolution for psychopharmacology and psychiatry. However, the headlines this promising research can garner may sometimes lead to dangers of their own – with many people self-administering substances with out prior health screening, support from trained professionals or long-term follow up and integration.
Gukasyan cautions that results from this study, like other studies looking at psychedelic treatments for mental health conditions, are carried out “in a research setting and require quite a lot of preparation and structured support from trained clinicians and therapists, and people should not attempt to try it on their own.”
The study was funded in part by a crowd-sourced campaign organised by Tim Ferriss and by grants from the Riverstyx Foundation and Dave Morin, was conducted by researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine.
The results have been published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.
How was the study carried out?
For this study, 27 participants with a long-term history of depression were recruited, most of whom had been experiencing depressive symptoms for approximately two years before recruitment. A total of 88 per cent of the participants had previously been treated with standard antidepressant medications, and 58 per cent reported using antidepressants in their current depressive episodes.
The patients were screened and then randomised into one of two groups. One group received the intervention either immediately, the other after an eight-week waiting period.
At the time of treatment, all participants were provided with six to eight hours of preparatory meetings with two treatment facilitators. Following preparation, participants received two doses of psilocybin, given approximately two weeks apart between August 2017 and April 2019 at the Behavioral Biology Research Center at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.
Participants returned for follow-up one day and one week after each session, and then at one, three, six and 12 months following the second session; 24 participants completed both psilocybin sessions and all follow-up assessment visits.
The researchers reported positive results, noting that the treatment reduced depression in both groups.
They also stated that depression severity remained low one, three, six and 12 months after treatment and that participants had stable rates of response to the treatment and remission of symptoms throughout the follow-up period, with 75 per cent response and 58 per cent remission at 12 months.
A useful new treatment for depression
The researchers highlighted that compared to standard antidepressants, psilocybin could be a useful new treatment for depression.
They also emphasised that further research is needed to explore the possibility that the efficacy of psilocybin treatment may be substantially longer than 12 months.
“Psilocybin not only produces significant and immediate effects, it also has a long duration, which suggests that it may be a uniquely useful new treatment for depression,” commented Roland Griffiths, PhD, the Oliver Lee McCabe III, PhD, Professor in the Neuropsychopharmacology of Consciousness at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and founding director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research.
“Compared to standard antidepressants, which must be taken for long stretches of time, psilocybin has the potential to enduringly relieve the symptoms of depression with one or two treatments.”
Johns Hopkins is one of the sites of a national multisite randomised, placebo-controlled trial of psilocybin for major depressive disorder. Other researchers who contributed to the study are Alan Davis, Frederick Barrett, Mary Cosimano, Nathan Sepeda and Matthew Johnson from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
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