From ketamine drips to microdosing on LSD, psychedelics are shaking up the way we approach and treat mental health. A growing body of scientific evidence shows that these long-stigmatized substances could be potential antidepressants, alleviating symptoms by slipping into areas of the brain traditional SSRIs can’t reach, and encouraging new neural connections.
Despite these advances, psychedelics remain fairly mysterious. Researchers haven’t yet pinned down the various mechanisms through which they work inside our bodies. But now, they might be one step closer.
An international team of scientists led by the University of Helsinki in Finland believes they’ve struck biochemical gold. In a study published Monday in the journal Nature Neuroscience, the researchers found that psychedelics psilocin (the primary chemical in magic mushrooms) and LSD exert an antidepressant effect by binding to a protein, receptor tyrosine kinase beta (TrkB), which then activates brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein that plays a crucial role in the growth, development, and maintenance of neurons; kind of like Miracle-Gro for the brain.
“I think [this study] is very exciting,” Greg Fonzo, co-director of the Center for Psychedelic Research and Therapy at The University of Texas at Austin’s Dell Medical School, who wasn’t involved in the study, tells Inverse. “It establishes a potential common mechanism for psychedelics along with other kinds of antidepressant treatments.” The researchers hope that this new information could potentially lead to creating more effective treatments for mental health disorders.
Hellbound and Down 