London, Oct 14 (PTI) Magic mushrooms may effectivelytreat depression by 'rebooting' the activity of key braincircuits in patients suffering from the disorder, a studyclaims.
Researchers from Imperial College London in the UK usedpsilocybin - the psychoactive compound that occurs naturallyin magic mushrooms - to treat a small number of patients withdepression in whom conventional treatment had failed.
They found that patients taking psilocybin to treatdepression showed reduced symptoms weeks after treatment.
The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports,showed patient-reported benefits lasting up to five weeksafter treatment.
Researchers believe the psychedelic compound mayeffectively reset the activity of key brain circuits known toplay a role in depression.
Comparison of images of patients' brains before and oneday after they received the drug treatment revealed changesin brain activity that were associated with marked andlasting reductions in depressive symptoms.
"We have shown for the first time clear changes in brainactivity in depressed people treated with psilocybin afterfailing to respond to conventional treatments," said RobinCarhart-Harris, Head of Psychedelic Research at Imperial, wholed the study.
"Several of our patients described feeling 'reset' afterthe treatment and often used computer analogies. For example,one said he felt like his brain had been 'defragged' like acomputer hard drive, and another said he felt 'rebooted',"Carhart-Harris said.
"Psilocybin may be giving these individuals the temporary'kick start' they need to break out of their depressivestates and these imaging results do tentatively support a'reset' analogy. Similar brain effects to these have beenseen with electroconvulsive therapy," said Carhart-Harris.
In the trial, the first with psilocybin in depression, 20patients with treatment-resistant form of the disorder weregiven two doses of psilocybin (10 milligrammes and 25 mg),with the second dose a week after the first.
Nineteen of these underwent initial brain imaging andthen a second scan one day after the high dose treatment.
Researchers used two main brain imaging methods tomeasure changes in blood flow and the crosstalk between brainregions, with patients reporting their depressive symptomsthrough completing clinical questionnaires.
Immediately following treatment with psilocybin, patientsreported a decrease in depressive symptoms - correspondingwith anecdotal reports of an 'after-glow' effectcharacterised by improvements in mood and stress relief.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) imagingrevealed reduced blood flow in areas of the brain, includingthe amygdala, a small, almond-shaped region of the brainknown to be involved in processing emotional responses,stress and fear. PTI SARSAR.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.