Excellent new research showing the transformative effects of psilocybin for mental health. It's critical for anyone in a leadership position to live a life filled with meaning and connectedness. To show up with purpose and power, your inner life must be functioning and thriving. #leadership #psychedelic #thriving #mentalhealth
Our new paper in The Lancet EClinicalMedicine shows that #psilocybin has similar long-term antidepressant effects to the #SSRI escitalopram but might offer greater improvements in psychosocial functioning, connectedness, and life meaning. 🍄 This is the 6-month follow-up of the 2021 psilocybin vs. escitalopram trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study compared two 25mg doses of psilocybin to a 6-week course of the ssri escitalopram, with matched psychological support (around 20 hours). 💊 Both psilocybin therapy (PT) and escitalopram treatment (ET) reduced depressive symptoms similarly at all follow-up points, except at 1 month, where PT was more effective. 🍄 PT patients experienced greater improvements in work and social functioning, connectedness, and life meaning, suggesting more comprehensive mental health benefits. 💊 During the follow-up, 63% of patients reported using additional treatments (therapy, medications, psychedelics). No differences in treatment use were observed between groups, but their impact on outcomes cannot be ruled out. The sustained antidepressant effects in the ET group are intriguing and surprising, as prior research shows higher relapse rates after discontinuing SSRIs. We believe that the high-intensity therapeutic support likely had a strong role in maintaining these effects, probably more than the short course of escitalopram. Big congrats to all the team involved in this work David Erritzoe, Brandon Weiss, Professor David Nutt, Carhart-Harris Robin & all the others! https://lnkd.in/dU24Q_58 #pharmacology #mentalhealth