A study done by scientists from the UK has concluded that compound form magic mushroom is at least as good as antidepressant drugs. The study found out that the compound from magic mushroom is equally effective as any antidepressant drug.
According to the study, the compound is effective as the leading antidepressant drugs and it could be used to help more patients into remissions from falling into severe depression.
This was the first ever direct comparison of psilocybin therapy and the antidepressant escitalopram ever carried out. Robin Carhart-Harris, the scientist who designed and led the study says the psychoactive compounds gives immense hopes as a potential treatment of various mental health illnesses.
“Remission rates were twice as high in the psilocybin group than the escitalopram group. One of the most important aspects of this work is that people can clearly see the promise of properly delivered psilocybin therapy by viewing it compared with a more familiar, established treatment. Psilocybin performed very favourably in this head-to-head,” said Harris who is also the head of the centre for psychedelic research at Imperial College London.
The research involved a sample size of 59 patients with moderate to severe depressions. Some received a high dose of psilocybin and a placebo while others got escitalopram plus a low dose of psilocybin, the low psilocybin was so low to a point regarded an non-active to have any effect.
The treatment response was extremely high in the patients who received psilocybin dose this group recorded depression reduction rate of 70% while the group which received escitalopram recorded a depression reduction rate of 48%.
However, Harris says as much as these results are encouraging to patients undergoing depression the patients should not try self-medication with magic mushrooms at it would be an error of judgment.
