Growing Evidence Supports Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy for Depression

Recent clinical trial demonstrates significant and lasting reduction in depression after just two psilocybin sessions

When Lana[1] came to the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research in Baltimore, MD, she had been depressed for more than a decade. She had tried several treatments, but none had offered lasting relief from her symptoms and she was plagued by thoughts of ending her life. Living with an emotionally abusive father, she described herself as broken.

Over the course of eight weeks, Lana would undergo a novel psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy that would dramatically change her life. Her depression and anxiety dropped significantly, and soon she no longer qualified for a depression or anxiety diagnosis. Several months after treatment she moved out of her father’s household and secured a job she had been working toward. A year later, she remained in remission from her depression and had plans to go back to school.

Lana was one of 27 individuals participating in a recent randomized, waitlist-controlled clinical trial for psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy at Johns Hopkins University. Guided by two therapist facilitators, participants received supportive therapy interspersed with two day-long sessions during which moderately high (20mg/70kg) and high (30mg/70kg) doses of psilocybin were administered (for details on the treatment model, see here).

This trial found that over two thirds of participants with depression saw significant reduction in their symptoms within a month of treatment, and more than half no longer met criteria for depression. Ninety percent of participants reported that the high dose session on psilocybin was one of the top five or the most psychologically insightful and personally meaningful experiences of their lives. This builds on earlier research showing antidepressant effects of psilocybin for those with terminal illness or who have treatment-resistant depression, suggesting that this novel treatment may be effective in the broader population of adults with MDD. What’s more, these results were long lasting, with treatment benefits largely maintained one year later, despite no further psilocybin-assisted treatment.

Major depressive disorder affects one in ten adults in the U.S. each year, and is a leading cause of disability. Though traditional psychotherapy methods and antidepressant medications offer relief for some, many individuals fail to respond adequately—or respond at all—to these treatments. In comparison, this trial found that psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy had effects 2.5 times greater than traditional psychotherapy and four times greater than antidepressant medications.

This is why psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy—and other psychedelic-assisted treatments—represent such important and promising breakthroughs: clinical trial data suggests they offer the potential for rapid, transformative, and long-lasting effects for those struggling with a range of mental illnesses. To date, psychotherapeutic interventions using MDMA, psilocybin, and ketamine have shown impressive clinical trial results in treating anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and are being evaluated for other applications (e.g., eating disorders, addiction, autism).

SoundMind is committed to ensuring that these breakthrough treatments, once FDA approved, are accessible to those who need them most. Soundmind is a psychedelic therapy center in Philadelphia PA and has initiatives to provide training and therapy to people who represent marginalized populations, as well as free educational material such as the Animations for Access Project and the Solidarity Series, a free lecture series about mental health.

For more information, including further details of Lana’s experience, see the original paper in JAMA and this presentation by lead author, Alan Davis, Ph.D.