Depression Scores Did Not Differ Significantly Between Patients Who Used Psilocybin or Escitalopram at 6 weeks
These findings, from a phase 2, double-blind, randomized, controlled trial, were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Patients (N=59) with long-standing, moderate to severe major depressive disorder were recruited via an advertisement in the United Kingdom in 2019. Patients were randomized to receive 2 doses of 25 mg psilocybin with a daily placebo for 6 weeks (n=30) or 2 doses of 1 mg psilocybin with 3 weeks of daily 10 mg escitalopram and 3 weeks of 20 mg escitalopram (n=29). Patients were assessed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and performed cognitive and affective processing tasks.