A single psychedelic trip may cause physical changes in the brain that could explain why some people report psychological benefits from the experience, a small study suggests.The research, published Tuesday in Nature Communications, focused on psilocybin, the psychedelic compound found in so-called magic mushrooms. The drug has been the subject of a number of studies in people that have found it appears to alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety. It has also shown promise in addiction medicine.Exactly how it may exert those benefits is still under investigation.AdvertisementAdvertisementIt’s a question of growing scientific interest. Last month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to speed up psychedelic research on psilocybin and ibogaine, another psychedelic derived from the root bark of a plant native to the Congo Rainforest. Following the order, the Food and Drug Administration granted fast-track reviews to two companies studying psilocybin for depression.Researchers have generally fallen into two camps: those who hypothesize the psychedelic trips are vital to any benefits — and brain changes — the substances produce and those who think the specific compounds themselves, not the trips, are the key.The new study supports the former, suggesting the strength of the psychedelic experience does matter.The research “found that the bigger the scores on psychological insight, the bigger the improvements in therapeutic response,” said senior study author Robin Carhart-Harris, a professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.AdvertisementAdvertisementThe study included 28 people in London with an average age of 41 who had never taken psychedelics before and who had not been diagnosed with psychiatric conditions. Everyone was given a 1 milligram dose of psilocybin — considered a dose too small to induce a trip — which served as the placebo dose in the study. During that dose, Carhart-Harris and his team recorded their brain activity using an EEG, or electroencephalogram. They followed up with additional brain scans, including MRIs, over the following four weeks.One month after the placebo dose, everyone got a 25 milligram dose. That dose is considered the industry standard for therapy, and it is the amount of psilocybin used by the drug companies seeking FDA approval for psilocybin-assisted therapy. (The psilocybin in the study was provided by one of the companies that has been granted fast-track review, Compass Pathways, which is based in the U.K. Several of the study authors have worked as scientific advisers to companies researching psychedelics, including Compass.)At one hour, two hours and one month post-dose, the researchers tracked the participants’ brain activity. Before treatment and one month after, the participants also had a type of MRI called diffusion tensor imaging, or DTI, to measure the way water moves on neural fibers between different parts of the brain. In some of the so-called tracts between the prefr …
