The experimental effects of psilocybin on symptoms of anxiety and depression: A meta-analysis

Summary & key facts

Researchers combined results from several studies that gave people psilocybin in controlled settings and measured their anxiety and depression. Overall, the studies found fairly large drops in symptoms after treatment, and some of these improvements lasted for weeks or months. But most of the studies were small and many did not have strong control groups, so the results are promising but not definitive. More rigorous research is needed before we can know how well psilocybin works for most people.

Key facts:

• The paper combined results from multiple clinical studies that tested psilocybin’s effects on anxiety and depression.
• Across the pooled studies, people given psilocybin tended to show substantial reductions in symptoms of anxiety and depression after treatment.
• Some studies reported that these improvements lasted for weeks to months after psilocybin sessions.
• Many of the included studies were small and several lacked comparison groups or strong blinding, which makes the overall evidence less certain.
• Because of those limitations, the authors say the findings are encouraging but preliminary, and they recommend more rigorous, larger studies to confirm the effects.

Topics

Chemical synthesis and alkaloids Complementary and Alternative Medicine Studies Psychedelics and Drug Studies

Categories

Clinical Psychology Psychology Social Sciences

Tags

Adverse effect Alternative medicine Anxiety Clinical psychology Depression (economics) Economics Hallucinogen Internal medicine Macroeconomics Medicine Meta-analysis Pathology Placebo Psilocybin Psychiatry Psychological intervention Psychology Randomized controlled trial

Substances

Psilocybin

Conditions & symptoms

Anxiety Depression Anxiety or worry Sadness or low mood