A Trip into New Possibilities for Mental Health

Psychedelic mushrooms may very well be the next frontier in mental health treatment. More and more research is examining their potential in treating a range of mental health conditions, from depression and anxiety to PTSD, OCD, addiction, and beyond.

Scientists haven’t yet fully uncovered the finer points of their underlying mechanisms of action in the human body and brain, nor their safety or efficacy. What is clear is that the potential of psilocybin and psilocin—the psychoactive compounds in these mushrooms—could be groundbreaking.

“We’re very excited about the promising findings from clinical trials of psilocybin in the treatment of depression and other mental health conditions,” says Dr. Ishrat Husain, scientific head of the Clinical Trials Unit at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and principal investigator of a new study on the potential for psilocybin to help with treatment-resistant depression—the first ever trial to receive a Canadian federal grant to study psilocybin.