Anthony Back from the University of Washington and colleagues from the UK, Canada and the US conducted randomized clinical trials and found that psychotherapy with psilocybin effectively reduces depressive symptoms in health care workers who worked on the front line during the COVID pandemic. From February to December 2022, 30 doctors, paramedics and nurses (average age 38 years, equal numbers of men and women) took part in the work, who provided direct care to incoming patients with COVID for more than a month, did not have a history of mental disorders, but had moderate or severe symptoms of depression at inclusion. They were divided into two equal groups, which were prescribed either 25 milligrams of psilocybin or 100 milligrams of nicotinic acid as an active placebo before the psychotherapy session. Before this, everyone underwent two preparatory sessions, after - three consolidation sessions. The results are published in the journal JAMA Network Open.
The mean change in MADRS depressive symptom severity from the start of psychotherapy with the drug to 28 days after was -21.33 (SD 7.84) points for psilocybin and -9.33 (SD 7.32) points for niacin; a mean difference of -12.00 (95 percent confidence interval -17.67 to -6.33; p < 0.001). Some reductions in burnout and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms were also observed, but they did not reach statistical significance.
