Mushroom compound might treat depression by reviving emotional responsiveness

The new study, published in the scientific journal Neuropharmacology, found that depressed people had increased neural responses to fearful faces one day after a psilocybin-assisted therapy session, which positively predicted positive clinical outcomes.

“I believe that psychedelics hold a potential to cure deep psychological wounds, and I believe that by investigating their neuropsychopharmacological mechanism, we can learn to understand this potential,” explained study author Leor Roseman, a PhD student at Imperial College London.

For the study, 20 patients with major depression underwent two psilocybin-assisted therapy sessions. The participants received fMRI brain scans before their first session and on the morning after their second session.