Psilocybin is one of a number of psychedelics under investigation as a potential therapy for psychiatric disorders. In the last 15 years, at least six separate clinical trials have reported impressive improvements in depressive symptoms with psilocybin therapy. Several studies have tested a synthesized a form of the drug to treat patients with depression and anxiety — with promising results.
However, the therapeutic action of psilocybin and other serotonergic psychedelics is still not completely understood, although it is known that they affect 5-HT2A receptors and are hypothesized to briefly disrupt these connections, allowing them to reform in new ways in the days and weeks following treatment.
New research points to a general mechanism that may explain how psychedelics act on the brain to alleviate depression and potentially other psychiatric conditions marked by fixed patterns of thinking, including rumination and excessive self-focus.
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