Mag­ic mush­rooms might treat de­pres­sion? Pe­ter Thiel-backed Com­pass gets FDA OK to launch Phase IIb tri­als

For years now, psy­che­del­ic sci­en­tists have been telling us that trip­ping on mag­ic mush­rooms might “re­boot” the brain, clear­ing out neg­a­tive thought net­works that might con­tribute to de­pres­sion. Now, it looks like the FDA is will­ing to test the the­o­ry.

Com­pass of­fi­cial­ly got the OK from US reg­u­la­tors to see how pa­tients with de­pres­sion re­spond to psilo­cy­bin — the ac­tive in­gre­di­ent in hal­lu­cino­genic mush­rooms. They’re launch­ing a Phase IIb dose-rang­ing study with 216 pa­tients. The ther­a­py be­ing test­ed in­cludes the drug it­self along with psy­cho­log­i­cal sup­port. They’ve shown promise when com­bined, Com­pass says.

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