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We’ve known that psychedelic drugs like psilocybin mushrooms and LSD show a lot of promise in addressing some of the world’s most widespread mental disorders for a while now. Not only can they treat things like treatment resistant depression and PTSD, but they can even help terminally ill patients with their end-of-life anxiety.
What scientists don’t know, though, is why exactly psychedelics are so effective at treating these disorders. Luckily, some new research by an international team of neuroscientists sheds light on this trippy mystery.
The researchers published a study on Monday in the journal Nature Neuroscience that showed that LSD and psilocin (the primary molecule in magic mushrooms) bind to a specific receptor in the brains of laboratory mice—causing an antidepressant effect as a result. Since the mechanism specifically works to reduce depression, the study’s authors believe that it could lead to the development of drugs to treat depression in humans without hallucinations.