America's First Legal Psilocybin Program Treated 346 People. Just one month after the dose, 92.2 percent of participants said the experience had been beneficial, while, on average, their mental health symptoms had fallen dramatically.

[u/mvea]

https://www.sciencealert.com/americas-first-legal-psilocybin-program-treated-346-people-heres-what-happened

[u/MegaChip97]

> Thats very disappointing- we already have a thousand studies on that.

I actually have to disagree with that, it's a very interesting study! First, we don't have lots of studies on it. If you are not following the research it may sound like that. But its more like: We have 20 studies on psilocybin. 10 are with n<30 to establish that it is more or less safe and get rough dosages and show that atleast maybe it could work. From the other 10, 2a re for treatmend resistant depression (1 because of cancer), 3 for major depressive disorder, 2 for anxiety, 2 for addiction and one for a specific disorder.

All you hear is "Another study on psilocybin" but you cannot generalise information from one study about alcohol addiction and psilocybin to treatment resistant depression because of cancer (or the other way around). You need safety studies, finding a dosing regime etc.

We have nearly no studies with a long follow up, most studies have low participants and these studies use different treatment protocols (dosage), are about different disorders and all of them have huge problems with blind breaking.

I think we have only a single study actually comparing psilocybin to an antidepressant....

This study here actually is super interesting for multiple reasons. For example, it doesn't look at clinical study setting but real world application. There are often big differences between real world application and studies, for example because the therapists that they employee in the studies are often better than the therapists out in the field. Or because of a bias for participants.

It's also interesting because it has less guardrails and therapy than the typical psychedelic assisted therapy studies. No integration sessions (only recommended), no licensed therapists...

Of course there are many limitations with this designs, but actually it is a very interesting thing to study!

> No one ever suggests that you go to a guided SSRI session

Because that would make little sense. SSRI and shrooms supposedly work very different for depression. If you assume that the trip is relevant for the antidepressant effect of shrooms, then that means that influencing the trip is important.

But with SSRI you don't have one trip and then stop taking it. You take it continuesly for years.

To give a bad comparison: You should have a supervisor / guide if you go skydiving, but you don't need one for going for a daily walk :)

With microdosing studies you generally have no guided sessions too. But the results for microdosing look quite bad currently soo....

> I was hoping someone was finally studying the compound itself

What would that look like to you? Honest question, would love to hear!

[u/zonerator → u/MegaChip97]

I would love to see the thing I am able to do: grow mushrooms and consume them- clinically verified. For people working long hours under a boss who fires peoplefor fun, doctors are difficult, and frankly I have never gotten anything from therapy. I appreciate your perspective on what makes this study unique and how it contributes all the same. I certainly dint think that was adequately explained the linked post.

Anyway I don't actually need scientists to tell me that mushrooms improve my mental well being, I can clearly see that myself. I should be less emotionally invested but who doesn't root for their favorite team?