Psilocybin from “magic mushrooms” could aid in the long-term improvement of treating depression in a recent study.

The small study conducted by Imperial College of London and published in Nature Medicine on Monday concluded that psilocybin made participants’ “brains functional network become more functionally interconnected.” Two separate trials were tested on 60 people total. In the first one everyone received psilocybin, and in the second one half received psilocybin and half received an antidepressant.

"In both trials, the antidepressant response to psilocybin was rapid, sustained and correlated with decreases in fMRI brain network modularity, implying that psilocybin’s antidepressant action may depend on a global increase in brain network integration," the study said.

The study brings more light to psilocybin’s antidepressant potential and therapeutic actions as not much is yet understood about its controlled effects.

In December, Dr. Anthony Back of Harborview Medical Center started his research on the effects that psilocybin has on healthcare workers’ mental health following the pandemic. He hopes that the psychedelic drug derived from magic mushrooms will have a positive effect.

Psilocybin has shown positive effects on depression in other past studies.

According to a 2020 study by Johns Hopkins Medicine on how psilocybin affects adults with major depression, “researchers report that two doses of the psychedelic substance psilocybin, given with supportive psychotherapy, produced rapid and large reductions in depressive symptoms, with most participants showing improvement and half of study participants achieving remission through the four-week follow-up.”

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