Depression is treated with hallucinogenic mushroom: psilocybin is being tested in Chieti

Hope for the treatment of drug-resistant depression passes through Chieti. Or rather, it comes from the Abruzzo province, which is taking the stage for an unprecedented trial: treating 'eligible' patients with Psilocybin, a psychedelic substance with a potential antidepressant effect. These days at the psychiatric clinic of the 'SS. Annunziata', the study went live with the first administration of a tablet containing the active ingredient to a 63-year-old woman. The procedure took place smoothly and no particular clinical criticalities were detected; the patient remains, however, under observation as required by the experimental protocol.

The exceptional interest associated with this study lies in the hallucinogenic effects produced by psilocybin, a natural compound found in certain species of mushrooms: once taken, it is transformed in the body into psilocin, which acts on serotonin receptors, modulating the activity of brain networks involved in mood, perception and thought. In recent years, several clinical trials conducted in the US, UK, Switzerland and Australia have shown that one or two administrations of psilocybin can produce rapid and long-lasting antidepressant effects, with significant clinical improvements persisting for up to six months in patients with depression resistant to traditional treatments.

The trial, financed with Pnrr funds and coordinated by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, is being conducted in Chieti by the team of Giovanni Martinotti, full professor at the 'D'Annunzio' University and director of the hospital's psychiatric clinic, and is aimed exclusively at patients suffering from drug-resistant depression, a complex clinical condition that does not respond adequately to conventional antidepressant therapies.

'This first treatment,' Martinotti emphasises, 'represents a historic step for Italian clinical research in the field of neuroscience and psychiatry, which opens up new perspectives for the study of innovative therapeutic approaches in mood disorders. The study design is randomised and double-blind: neither patients nor clinicians are aware of whether the active compound or a placebo is administered. The patient could therefore either have received psilocybin or a placebo tablet, a necessary condition to ensure the scientific soundness of the results.

The protocol involves a second administration of the same drug treatment three weeks later, followed by a close clinical follow-up to assess the evolution of depressive symptoms over time.