Psilocybin still easing depression after five years
- World Half Full
- Sep 16
- 3 min read
LIFESTYLE
People with clinical depression being treated with psilocybin-containing mushrooms are still free of symptoms after five years. Two-thirds of participants in a clinical trial were in “complete remission” from their depression, as well as a self-reported lasting improvement across a range of wellbeing measurements.
The trial, which began in 2021, found that psilocybin was effective in treating major depressive disorders when combined with psychotherapy in adults.
“We found that 67% were in remission at five years compared to 58% at one year,” says study lead author Professor Alan Davis from Ohio State University. “We also saw that across the board, anxiety, depression, global functioning, self-reported depression, all of these measures were showing the same signal of continued improvement up to five years later. Most people continued to view this treatment as safe, meaningful, important, and something that catalysed an ongoing betterment of their life. I think this is a sign that regardless of what the outcomes are, their lives were improved because they participated in something like this.”
Of the 24 participants, 18 enrolled in the five-year follow-up, which consisted of a range of online questionnaires assessing depression, anxiety, and functional impairment; a clinician-administered depression rating; and interviews.
When analysing data at the five-year mark, the researchers assumed the very worst in order to avoid inflating their findings, and considered everyone who didn’t participate in the follow-up to have experienced complete relapse and had returned to their pre-treatment levels of functioning.
“Even controlling for those baseline estimates from the people who didn’t participate in the long-term follow-up, we still see a very large and significant reduction in depression symptoms,” says Davis. “That was really exciting for us because this showed the number of participants still in complete remission from their depression had gone up slightly.”
Only three participants in the follow-up had reported receiving no depression-related treatment since the trial. Others reported taking antidepressant medications, trying psychedelics or ketamine treatment, or undergoing psychotherapy.
Before the psilocybin-assisted therapy, the patients lived with debilitating depression that restricted their capacity to engage in life. But, after the trial, many described perceiving depression as “more situational and manageable”.
“They believed that overall, they had greater capacity for positive emotions and enthusiasm, regardless of whether their depression came back or not,” Davis explains. “A lot of folks reported that these shifts led to important changes in how they related to their experiences of depression.”
A few of the people who had tried psychedelics on their own in the intervening years reported their experiences were not as helpful because of the lack of a clinical support framework.
The follow-up results, published in the Journal of Psychedelic Studies, showed that 11 participants reported no adverse effects since the clinical trial, while three said they were unprepared for the heightened state of emotional sensitivity brought on by psilocybin. In general, people with psychiatric distress rank the therapy among the most profound and meaningful experiences they’ve ever had, alongside events such as religious conversions and the birth of children.
Davis acknowledges the study sample is small and says there’s still much to learn — but that this first look at the durability of the effects of psilocybin-assisted therapy offers a glimpse at the potential lasting positive effects of the treatment.
IMAGE Psilocybe ovoideocystidiata CC 4.0. BY-SA Alan Rockefeller
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