La psilocybine, la substance active des champignons magiques, pourrait jouer un rôle important dans le traitement de la dépression

Des études publiées récemment indiquent que la psilocybine pourrait aider à lutter contre la dépression et l’anxiété. Elles soulignent la nécessité de poursuivre la recherche.

Pour en savoir plus, en anglais, veuillez lire les informations ci-dessous.

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By Sarah Boseley

A single dose of psilocybin, the active ingredient of magic mushrooms, can lift the anxiety and depression experienced by people with advanced cancer for six months or even longer, two new studies show.

Researchers involved in the two trials in the United States say the results are remarkable. The volunteers had “profoundly meaningful and spiritual experiences” which made most of them rethink life and death, ended their despair and brought about lasting improvement in the quality of their lives.

The results of the research are published in the Journal of Psychopharmacologytogether with no less than ten commentaries from leading scientists in the fields of psychiatry and palliative care, who all back further research. While the effects of magic mushrooms have been of interest to psychiatry since the 1950s, the classification of all psychedelics in the US as schedule 1 drugs in the 1970s, in the wake of the Vietnam war and the rise of recreational drug use in the hippy counter-culture, has erected daunting legal and financial obstacles to running trials.

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Thumbnail: Flickr CC anataman