At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, frontline workers—physicians, nurses, and other health professionals were under incredible stress and working crazy hours to care for patients. Many of those providers are still struggling with depression, burnout, and post-traumatic stress disorder caused by their experiences. In a new clinical trial, researchers from the University of Washington studied whether psilocybin therapy could help. It did.
According to the study published in the journal JAMA Network Open, a single trip on 25mg of psilocybin—the active ingredient in magic mushrooms—followed by three sessions of talk therapy "resulted in a significant, sustained reduction in symptoms of depression."
Jane C Hu writes in UC Berkeley's The Microdose:
Overall, the researchers say that this trial, the first to use psilocybin to treat COVID-19 frontline healthcare workers' depression symptoms, suggests that psychedelic-assisted therapy could be a helpful option for clinicians. "Clinicians described a sense of betrayal by health systems, leaders, and colleagues; guilt from feeling that they had not been able to do enough; and grief from witnessing innumerable deaths and suffering. The question that repeatedly came up, in different forms, was 'Do I matter?'" the researchers write. Psilocybin-assisted therapy helped these clinicians "take some time amid the urgency of their professional and personal lives to feel all of their feelings, find some perspective on their recent past, and come to terms with what they were unable to do—and what they were able to accomplish—for patients, families, colleagues, and society."
Previously:
• Smoking toad venom helps veterans with PTSD, addiction, and depression
• Ancient psychedelic wisdom for modern medicine
• FDA denies approval of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD
• A magician-psychologist designed a study to trick sober participants into thinking they were tripping on psychedelics
