Increased amygdala responses after psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression

Joins other studies from NYU investigating psilocybin mitigation of anxiety in advanced stage cancer patients. As well as a comprehensive survey by psychiatrists at Johns Hopkins showing 84% of those who tripped describing the experience as somewhat beneficial:

Survey study of challenging experiences after ingesting psilocybin mushrooms

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/026988111666263...

As federal dollars may face a difficult path to providing the funding for psychedelic research. This represents an enormous opportunity for privately funded as well as citizen oriented science. Indeed, MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies was just gifted 111 BTC from two free thinking philanthropists as part of its Pinapple Fundraising campaign!

https://www.maps.org/

Anecdotally, one-time use of LSD(which acts similarly to psilocybin, primarily through 5-ht2a agonism) set me on a path to self improvement. I had depression for years during my puberty, teens, and early adulthood. I contemplated suicide regularly and had a pessimistic outlook on life. I dropped out of college in my first semester despite taking and passing multiple AP classes in high school because I didn't see the point of college.

Then I took a large dose of LSD once. It was a very unpleasant experience. The changes weren't immediate, but in the following months, my outlook started to change. I started caring about life again, quit smoking and started exercising, and went back to college. Now, I'm completely drug free, have a wife and a degree, and am optimistic for the future. I wouldn't recommend other people try it, because my experience made me understand why some people go insane from it. I believe, though, that it put me on a path of self-improvement, and should absolutely continue to be studied.

> psilocybin and SSRIs have similar mechanisms of action

This is incorrect. An SSRI is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor[1]. It works through decreasing the reuptake of serotonin from the synaptic cleft back into the presynaptic cell, effectively increasing utilization of existing serotonin. It has limited short-term psychoactive side-effects compared to psilocybin, which is mostly a powerful agonist of certain serotonin receptors and can have considerable psychoactive effects[2]. You can't really "trip" from an antidepressant, but you definitely can from psilocybin.

Also just so you know, while MDMA has promise in certain psychological issues, it is also neurotoxic when used regularly and can cause some severe long-term problems[3]. It's an interesting drug for sure, but just claiming it's "amazing" is being reductionist.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_serotonin_reuptake_i...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybin#Pharmacology

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MDMA

Contemporary clinical practice tends toward conservation of everyone's time. The days of weekly appointments with a Freudian analyst are largely past, if they ever were for anyone other than well off clients who could afford such things. Contemporary clinical practice for treating depression tends toward prescriptions for clinically tested anti-depressants. Many of the mild main stream anti-depressants have moderately positive effects quickly for many people (though not all of them and not for everyone).

Don't get me wrong, if you want to eat mushrooms it's fine by me. Just be clear that the abstract does not indicate clear clinical efficacy in treating depression and the possible evidence it suggests is in conjunction with psychological support. It does not suggest evidence of efficacy as self medication outside of a clinical setting.