Katharina Buczek
Even though thirty-one antidepressants have been approved by the FDA and are currently on the market, these treatment options are, unfortunately, not always helpful in curbing feelings of depression.
Worldwide, about one hundred million people suffer from what’s known as treatment-resistant depression (TRD)– meaning that they did not respond to at least two different antidepressant treatments for major depressive disorder.
And studies have found that individuals with TRD end up facing a myriad of additional adverse outcomes– including worse quality of life, social and occupational disability, higher comorbidity, suicide-related behaviors, and worse therapeutic outcomes.
But, emerging treatment options– such as those that use psilocybin– may be offering TRD patients a new way to get back their mental health.
Psilocybin, sometimes referred to as magic mushrooms, is a hallucinogenic alkaloid that has prompted great medical interest over the last twenty years. Researchers are now investigating the compounds’ effects on various mental health disorders, including TRD.
And this past month, a collaborative study led by COMPASS Pathways has found that when administering just one twenty-five milligram dose of COMP360 psilocybin in conjunction with psychological support, TRD patients experienced a significant reduction of symptoms.
The research spanned twenty-two study sites in ten countries, including the United States, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The study also represents the largest clinical trial to date.
It included a total of two hundred and thirty-three participants who were diagnosed with TRD. The participants were randomly assigned to either receive a single psilocybin dose of twenty-five milligrams, ten milligrams, or one milligram. The participants who received a one-milligram dosage served as a control group. Finally, all participants were provided with psychological support alongside the drug administration.
Then, the researchers analyzed how participants’ depression severity changed from baseline via the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale for twelve weeks.
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