What Do Hallucinating Mice Tell Us About Depression?

Scientists can block the psychedelic effects without affecting the anti-depressant effects of psilocybin in mice

The Aztecs considered magic mushrooms sacred, calling them teonanacatl, “God’s Flesh”. Spanish missionaries in the 16th century recorded their existence. For the next three hundred years, the existence of these mushrooms became debated. No one could find any specimens.

In the 1950s, Gordon Wasson traveled to Mexico to find these mushrooms. He provided photographic evidence in his essay published in Life Magazine in 1957. Future expeditions allowed researchers to access and later cultivate these sacred fungi.

In the 1960s and 70s, magic mushrooms gained popularity, a treatment for any mental health disorder. It became banned in the 1970s due to “the perceived dangers and corrosive effects” it would have on society.

We’ve only recently begun exploring their medicinal properties in clinical settings. Among many professionals, there is still some stigma about researching and developing psychedelic therapies.

Magic mushrooms show promise in treating different mood disorders like anxiety and depression. The active ingredient, psilocybin, causes hallucinations. The psychedelic experience can help people open up during psychotherapy. One small study reported huge improvements in people with major depressive disorder. Two doses of psilocybin during therapy lead to drastic improvements over four weeks.

Psilocybin works much faster than standard anti-depressants, which takes 4–6 weeks to work. Standard anti-depressants increase the number of specific neurotransmitters in the brain. Psilocybin has many effects on a cellular and molecular level. This leads many to believe that these effects come from the psychedelic experience.

Could psilocybin reveal unknown mechanisms behind depression?

A Psychedelic Anti-Depressant?

Due to the potent nature of psilocybin, it’s currently provided in psychotherapy. This provides a safe environment for the person to hallucinate. Not everyone has positive hallucinations on magic mushrooms.

A research team wondered if the psychedelic experience itself is an anti-depressant. The senior author of a new study, Scott Thompson, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Department of Physiology at UMSOM explains:

“The psychedelic experience is incredibly powerful and can be life-changing, but that could be too much for some people or not appropriate.”

Psilocybin causes this psychedelic effect by binding a specific receptor in the brain. If this receptor is the key to its anti-depressant mechanism, blocking it would render psilocybin ineffective. However, even with the receptor blocked, psilocybin still proved effective.

This suggests the anti-depressant effects of psilocybin are separate from the psychedelic effects. Thompson is working on formulating a treatment combining the blocker and psilocybin. It could make it safer for people to treat their depression at home.

New Psilocybin Therapies Are On The Way

A new study compared a classic anti-depressant to two doses of psilocybin. Both treatments worked, but more people in the psilocybin group experienced remission. Taking doses three weeks apart is a lot more manageable than adhering to a daily medication regime.

But it’s hard to run a huge clinical trial because of the potential of bad psychedelic trips. It’s easier to get 60 people to visit a psychotherapist than 1000 people. The findings from Thompson’s team open the door to larger clinical trials. Combining the receptor blocker with psilocybin eliminates this risk. People living far from a therapist’s office can still receive their treatment.

First, we still need to check that these results translate into humans. If psychedelic properties aren’t needed, psilocybin will revolutionize the way we treat depression.

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