Study: Depression Symptoms Lessened Within 48 Hours of Psilocybin Dose

A small clinical trial in Sweden recently found that a single dose of psilocybin reduced depression symptoms among participants, with some reporting improvements after just two days, SciTechDaily reports.

The double-blind and randomized study, conducted by the Karolinska Institutet and published in JAMA Network Open, also found that the improvements lingered for weeks. The study recruited 35 adults aged 20-65 with moderate to severe symptoms of depression, and the participants were randomly given either 25 milligrams of psilocybin or a placebo.

Six weeks after the study, 53% of the participants who received psilocybin reported they were in remission, compared to just 6% from the control group. After one year, however, there was no statistical difference between the groups, according to the report.

“Our results suggest that psilocybin can provide rapid, clinically meaningful improvement in depression and may serve as an alternative to standard treatment when fast symptom reduction is important.” — Hampus Yngwe, lead author and PhD student at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, in the report

The researchers noted that due to the distinctive side effects of psychedelics, study participants were able to deduce whether they had been assigned a placebo or the drug, which could limit the findings.

Most participants described the side effects of psilocybin as mild to moderate and temporary, the report said, with two exceptions in which the individuals experienced severe and persistent anxiety.