For centuries, mushrooms have been regarded for its many uses from food to treatment of ailments, as well as some controversial varieties that have hallucinogenic effects, but researchers are now looking into the possibility of employing the use of mushrooms in the treatment of depression.
This, after a research team from the Imperial College of London claimed that they are seeing good headway into their studies of using a substance called psilocybin, which is commonly found in psychedelic mushrooms.
The scientific community is also trying to consider this seemingly controversial approach to the treatment of depression, as psilocybin has been often extracted and traded as an unregulated psychedelic drug known in the underground as magic mushrooms.
The treatment of depression has been a daunting challenge ever since, that has affected millions of people all over the world, with only one in five patients are responsive to treatment using antidepressants.
Finding the right type of antidepressant medication could take years and often end up with patients getting worse due to untreated symptoms prior to even finding the right treatment.
The substance, according to researchers, may be used to treat reactions in the brain among depression patients, where parts of their brain associated with self-reflection are more overactive and the use may contribute to some of the rumination and negative thinking that is commonly diagnosed with the condition.
The team, headed by research fellow Dr. Robin Carhart- Harris from the Center for Neuropsychopharmacology, pointed out that their test using the substance showed improvement for a dozen people who took part in the study who did not show any response to the initial treatment and another follow-up treatment administered to them.
The participants were provided with two doses of psilocybin and were asked to answer some questions regarding their condition and symptoms at the start of the study and regularly for the next three months.
After a week the participants showed significant improvement and two-thirds of them were even declared depression-free. Additional marked improvement was seen with 58% of the participants after three months, while five were in remission while another five relapsed.
The findings, according to Dr. Carhart- Harris, shows that this form of treatment may be doable and well-tolerated, but while it may take time to determine effects for the long-term, it gives hope for medicine that this could be an effective way to treat depression.
(Watch Video) How Magic Mushrooms Could Treat Depression – CNN
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