There is an increasing amount of research indicating that psilocybin could possibly help against depression. Selah Sue had been taking microdoses of the antidepressant for several months, but recently turned to antidepressants again. For a while, however, psilocybin seemed to work wonders for her mood. New research now also claims it could help with excessive alcohol consumption.
In The Guardian, a neuroscientist from John Hopkins University calls the study the “first modern, rigorous and controlled study” on the effects of psilocybin on people struggling with alcohol abuse.
Goodbye, alcohol
For the study, 93 patients were given a capsule containing either psilocybin or a placebo during two separate sessions. There was a month between each session. Everyone also received 12 sessions of therapy.
What turned out? Within the first eight months after the first session, patients who received psilocybin outperformed the group who received the placebo. Those given psilocybin only drank one in ten days, while those given the placebo drank one in four days too much. Half of those who received psilocybin eventually stopped drinking completely, in the other group it was only a quarter.
More research
More research is needed to find out the exact effects of psilocybin and how long those effects last. Thanks to the therapy, for example, many patients without psilocybin stopped drinking. Yet the difference with the group that did receive psilocybin was large. The researchers believe that psilocybin may cause the brain to temporarily process information in a different way.