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Taipei – Treatment with the psychedelic drug psilocybin could be promising for the treatment of depressive symptoms. This is the conclusion reached by a Taiwanese working group after a meta-analysis of existing studies.

According to this, high doses of psilocybin appear to have a similar effect on depressive symptoms as the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) escitalopram. The researchers report in British Medical Journal about their analyses (BMJ 2024; DOI: 10.1136/bmj-2023-078607).

The research team searched scientific databases to find randomized controlled trials published by October 12, 2023, that examined the effects of psychedelics or escitalopram in adults with acute depressive symptoms. They included 811 people in 15 psychedelic studies and 1,968 people in 5 escitalopram studies.

According to the evaluation, high-dose psilocybin could be a promising approach to therapy: “Only high-dose psilocybin performed better than placebo on the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17) in escitalopram studies, with a small effect size comparable to that of current antidepressants,” the researchers write.

None of the interventions was associated with a higher rate of serious adverse events, including death, hospitalization or suicide attempt, or treatment discontinuation, than placebo.

The researchers point out that flaws in study design may have led to an overestimation of the effectiveness of psychedelics, but say that high-dose psilocybin “appears to have the potential to treat depressive symptoms.” © hil/aerzteblatt.de