Early clinical trials have shown that psilocybin, the main psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms, may be a promising new treatment option for anorexia.
In a small trial, 10 women with eating disorders psilocybin, with the support of a therapist, tolerated the short-term effects of the drug without experiencing serious side effects. Most patients reported a positive experience with the drug, improved quality of life, and more optimism. Four participants had symptom remission after 3 months.
The findings were published in the journal on Monday (24 July) natural medicineLarger trials need to be replicated to confirm that psilocybin can effectively alleviate the core symptoms of anorexia, the study authors noted.but without Currently Approved Medications for Anorexia On the market, these early results may indicate hope for new treatment options for this potentially deadly disease.
Anorexia nervosa “has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder and is notorious for its high cost and difficulty in treatment and recovery”, so new treatments “need to be developed urgently”. Rebecca ParkAn associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Oxford, who was not involved in the study, told Live Science by email.
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anorexia nervosa It is a serious mental illness in which people become obsessed with their weight and image, limit their food intake, and sometimes exercise excessively to encourage weight loss. The disease is notoriously difficult to treat, with half of patients hospitalized for the disease. Experienced recurrence within 1 year of discharge. Despite having an impact on 4% of women, 0.3% of men — can be male likely to be underratedlike other eating disorders, the condition has no approved treatments.
The hallucinogen psilocybin has already shown promise as a treatment for other mental health conditions, including: depression, alcohol use disorder and Obsessive-compulsive disorder. It is usually thought to work by switching on receptors in the brain that respond to the “feel good” hormone serotonin (also known as 5-HT2a). function can be reduced For patients with anorexia.
In the first-of-its-kind trial, scientists sought to determine whether psilocybin could be a safe and well-tolerated treatment for the disease. They gave 10 women aged 18 to 40 a single dose of 25 milligrams of synthetic psilocybin while providing psychological support from a trained therapist.
After treatment, 90% of the group reported having a more positive outlook on life, 80% rated the experience as one of their “top 5 most meaningful experiences of their lives,” and 70% said they felt their overall quality of life had improved. Most participants reported these positive experiences, but only four were in remission after 3 months. This means that characteristic symptoms of eating disorders, such as weight anxiety, have dropped to baseline levels experienced by the general population.
So what caused this improvement in symptoms?
“It’s just speculation.” Dr. Walter Kay“Psilocybin administration may reverse the alterations in serotonergic function in anorexia nervosa, giving patients a new perspective on their symptoms and behavior,” he, lead author and professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, told Live Science in an email.
The authors noted a limitation of the study, namely that all 10 patients identified as female and nine identified as “white,” and that the study “lacks gender, racial, and cultural diversity.” The exploratory study also lacked a control group of participants who received placebo but not psilocybin.
While these are “important preliminary positive findings,” Park stressed that psilocybin “remains an experimental treatment” and that more data are needed before the psychedelic drug is approved for use in anorexia.
Future studies should include larger patient groups, people with different severity of symptoms, and test different doses of psilocybin. Research needs to explore more how psilocybin can help reduce symptoms of eating disorders, she noted.
