Politico December 13, 2024
THE NEXT CURES
Psychedelics could offer relief to doctors who provided frontline care during the pandemic and later became depressed.
That’s according to a small new study published in JAMA Network Open this month.
Inside the study: Of the 30 participants in the double-blind, randomized trial, half received two preparation sessions; one dose of synthetic psilocybin, also known as magic mushrooms; and three follow-up counseling sessions with a trained facilitator. The other half, the control group, received the same sequence of sessions, except a placebo was swapped for the psilocybin.
While both groups saw their depression symptoms improve, participants in the psilocybin group had faster, bigger and more long-lasting drops in their depression scores.
Because the study was small, its...