Summary: A recent pilot study found that people with Parkinson’s disease can drastically enhance their mood, thinking, and engine function thanks to the compound found in kaleidoscopic mushrooms. The compound’s gains persisted for weeks after taking the dosage and were well tolerated, with just minor side effects.
Researchers found that many symptoms had improved significantly over the course of the research, despite the study’s primary goal of ensuring safety. The findings suggest that psilocybin does promote neurogenesis and lessen inflammation, thereby assisting in brain healing itself.
Important Information
- Long-lasting Benefits: Improvements in feeling, consciousness, and movement continued for weeks.
- Safe and well tolerated: No serious adverse events, just minor side effects reported.
- Following Phase: A larger, multi-site test will look at actual mechanisms like neuroplasticity.
Origin: UCSF
Psilocybin, a naturally occurring substance found in some fungi, has shown promise for reducing anxiety and depression.
Researchers at UC San Francisco wanted to know if it could be used to treat Parkinson’s patients who frequently have crippling motor symptoms in addition to their engine symptoms and don’t also listen to antidepressants or other medications.
The outcomes were unexpected.
Participants did not only bear the drug without major side effects or worsening symptoms, which was what the captain investigation was intended to determine, but they also experienced clinically significant improvements in feeling, thinking, and engine function that lasted for weeks after the drug was removed from their systems.
For the first time have degenerative disease patients been subjected to a kaleidoscopic.
The paper’s first author, Ellen Bradley, MD, assistant professor and associate director of UCSF’s Translational Psychedelic Research Program ( TrPR ), said,” We are still in very early stages of this work, but this first study went well beyond what we expected.”
” Many people don’t realize this, but Parkinson’s feelings symptoms are linked to a faster natural decline,” she said.
And they are actually a stronger predictor of Parkinson’s patients ‘ quality of life than their motor symptoms.
This project was led by researchers working together in the TrPR Program, which is funded by an unnamed benefactor, within UCSF’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Department of Neurology.
The results were published electronically earlier this month in Neuropsychopharmacology.
Long-lasting feeling and motor effects caused by Psilocybin
About 1 million Americans are affected by Parkinson’s disease, a progressive neurological disorder that causes uncontrollable actions as a result of unusual mental exercise.
Although drug and other medications can help to reduce symptoms, there are no approved treatments to stop the progression or change the illness itself.
Although Bradley noted that anxiety and depression in patients without any prior history of medical problems frequently precede the beginning of engine symptoms by various years. Common first physical symptoms include tremors and foot dragging.
Although it’s not clear why conventional treatments frequently don’t function well for these patients, mood changes may be a result of the degenerative disease process.
The experts gave seven men and five people with mild to moderate Parkinson’s disease a 10 gram prescription, followed by a higher dose of 25 mg two weeks later, to examine the health of psilocybin in these individuals.
The patients underwent eight sessions of counseling before and after receiving the mushroom, where they underwent mood, cognition, and motor function changes.
While almost all individuals on mushroom experienced some adverse events, including nausea, anxiety, and elevated blood pressure, these were not severe enough to warrant medical attention.
At both their one-week and one-month follow-up meetings, the members saw significant enhancements in their feeling, thinking, and engine symptoms.
Three weeks after their psilocybin meetings, the team evaluated the participants ‘ feeling once more and determined it was still markedly improved.
The experts offered a variety of interpretations for the changes. Psilocybin’s beneficial effects on a patient’s feelings might have resulted in improved mental and motor features.
For instance, people feel better and this in turn helps them interact and engage in more activity, which are both essential components of Parkinson’s care.
Another theory claims that psi may help to treat a number of symptoms of the disease by reducing swelling and promoting neuroplasticity, which involves the development and synchronization of brain cells involved in the regulation of feeling, cognition, and movement.
an enlargement into unknown country
The experts are now enrolled in a larger, more diverse patient population in a larger randomized controlled trial at UCSF because the benefits of this pilot research were so encouraging.
Invasive mental stimulation, fmri, and other tools are used in the second study to understand how psilocybin affects inflammation and neuroplasticity.
With the intention of enrolling 100 students, it may have access to a second page at Yale University. The Michael J. Jackson Foundation and the same anonymous donor who paid for the safety pilot did both fund this project. Fox Foundation for Research in Parkinson’s.
The study’s top author, Joshua Woolley, MD, PhD, associate professor at UCSF and director of the TrPR Program, stated that” the vast majority of mental disorders also lack initiatives that change the course of illness.”
” We can often treat the symptoms, but we don’t change the trajectory or stop decline. That is beginning to change right now. These findings point to the intriguing possibility that psilocybin may aid in brain repair itself.
Authors: Kimberly Sakai, BA, Gisele Fernandes-Osterhold, MFT, Balázs Szigeti, PhD, Connie Ludwig, PhD, Jill L. Ostrem, MD, Caroline M. Tanner, MD, PhD, Meredith A. AoifeO’Donovan, PhD, Jose Rafael P. Zuzuarregui, MD, Amber McKernan, BA, Andrew D. Penn, NP, Aliss C. C. Wang, MFT, and Raymond C. Rosen, PhD are among the doctors who have been referred to as Block, MD.
Funding: The trial was funded by an unidentified donor.
About this research in neuropharmacology and Parkinson’s disease.
Author: Victoria Colliver
Source: UCSF
Contact: Victoria Colliver – UCSF
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Open access to original research
” Psilocybin therapy for mood dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease: an open-label pilot trial” by Ellen Bradley, et al. Neuropsychopharmacology
Abstract
Psilocybin therapy for Parkinson’s disease mood dysfunction: an open-label pilot study
Parkinson’s disease ( PD), a major predictor of functional decline, and its prevalence makes it difficult to treat it; novel interventions are urgently needed.
Psilocybin has early promise for treating depression and anxiety, but its potential for PD is unknown because safety concerns have prevented people with neurodegenerative disease from previous trials.
In this open-label pilot (NCT04932434), we examined the efficacy of psilocybin therapy for those who have mild to moderate stage of PD plus depression and/or anxiety. 12 participants received psychotherapy with psilocybin ( one 10 mg dose followed by one 25 mg dose ) and a mean age of 63.2 8 2. 2 years, 5 women.
No serious adverse events, no medical procedures were necessary to control the psilocybin effects, and no psychosis was exacerbated.
Ten participants had recurring treatment-emergent adverse events, with anxiety, nausea, and elevated blood pressure as the most frequent ones.
We observed no improvement in the PD symptomology as measured by the Movement Disorder Society’s Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale ( MDS-UPDRS ).
On the contrary, non-motor ( MDS-UPDRS , Part I: –13.8 ± 1.3,  , p <, 0.001, Hedges ‘ , g = 3.0) and motor symptoms ( Part II: –7.5 ± 0.9,  , p <, 0.001,  , g = 1.2, Part III: –4.6 ± 1.3,  , p = 0.001,  , g = 0.3 ) as well as performance in select cognitive domains ( Paired Associates Learning]-0.44 ± 0.14,  , p = .003,  , g = 0.4], Spatial Working Memory ]–0.52± 0.17,  , p = 0.003,  , g = 0.7], and Probabilistic Reversal Learning]2.9 ± 0.9,  , p = 0.003,  , g = 1.3] ) improved post-treatment, and improvements were sustained until the final safety assessment one month following drug exposure.
The baseline scores for the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale ( HAM-A ) and the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale ( MADRS ) were 21.0 % 8.7 and 17.0 3 %, respectively.
Both improved to a clinically meaningful degree post-treatment, these improvements persisted to the final assessment three months following drug exposure , ( MADRS: -9.3 ± 2.7,  , p = .001,  , g = 1.0, HAM-A: –3.8 ± 1.7,  , p = 0.031,  , g = 0.7 ).
This study provides the first studies on the neurodegenerative disease’s effects of psilocybin. Psilocybin therapy in PD may need to be further investigated, according to the results.
