New research for depression indicates promise of psilocybin-assisted therapy

The January 2018 issue of Neuropharmacology has provided the mental health community with a late gift this year:

Source Just my size! Socks are a pretty awesome gift to give around the holidays, but next time, won’t you consider gifting adequately-controlled, quantifiable research?

Increased amygdala responses to emotional faces after psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression

Researchers from Imanova’s Centre for Imaging Sciences and Psychadelic Research Group in London have released an early electronic full-text publication online (PDF file) of promising research for the application of psilocybin for people that have had difficulty managing their depression. The naturally-occurring psychedelic compound was administered, with constant psychological support provided, and its effects were observed via blood flow to identify neuronal activation (FMRIs). The participants’ amygdalae became more responsive to fearful faces, a predictor of positive clinical outcomes.

Unfamiliar with terms like psilocybin, amygdala and fMRI? I was impressed with the accuracy and wide accessibility of my friend @therightsideofup ‘s explanation in the post “The Science Behind the Trip”

Ma, 2015 collected imaging that indicates an untreated depressed brain is highly sensitive, amygdala region in particular, to negative emotions. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are a class of medication that is typically used to manage depression and anxiety disorders and had been understood to decrease the over-sensitivity of the amygdala, but research indicates chronic use can lead to overall decreased response to all emotions indiscriminately. This has major indications for the outlook for quality of life for these patients, detached from the emotions that we spend our existences seeking to share with one another.

Source

These results can serve to fortify the knowledge base of clinicians that regularly provide counseling to their patients about not only the benefits available from treatments including guided psychedelic-assisted therapy, but potential unintended consequences of more tranditional SSRI pharmacological treatment of depression. As with all good science, this study would benefit from further peer-review through reduplicated studies, to increase the evidence to support the results of this study. Legal implications, in particular, impact trusted scientific institutions ability to secure the funding necessary for pursuing experiments. The “cryptommunity” has provided staggering contributions to institutions like MAPS and these contributions will only have bigger impacts (if held ;)) as greater adoption of cryptocurrencies by the public is achieved.

And remember, the steem work makes the dream work! ;*

References for further reading

Drevets et al., 1992 W.C. Drevets, T.O. Videen, J.L. Price, S.H. Preskorn, S.T. Carmichael, M.E. Raichle. A functional anatomical study of unipolar depression. J. Neurosci., 12 (1992), pp. 3628–3641

Godlewska, R. Norbury, S. Selvaraj, P. Cowen, C. Harmer Short-term SSRI treatment normalises amygdala hyperactivity in depressed patients. Psychol. Med., 42 (2012), pp. 2609–2617

Ma, 2015 Y. Ma Neuropsychological mechanism underlying antidepressant effect: a systematic meta-analysis. Mol. Psychiatr., 20 (2015), pp. 311–319

Roseman, L., et al., Increased amygdala responses to emotional faces after psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression. Neuropharmacology (2017), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropharm.2017.12.041