Psychedelic compound psilocybin has potential in treating obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and Tourette’s Syndrome, new research has found.
The research, conducted on mic,e showed that psilocybin and psychedelic mushroom extract significantly reduced OCD-like behaviors and tic-like head-body twitches.
The findings could pave the way for clinical trials and lead to new, effective treatments for OCD and Tourette’s Syndrome.
The research was led by Prof. Bernard Lerer from the Department of Psychiatry at the Hadassah – Hebrew University Medical Cente.
The researcher said: “Understanding that over 40 per cent of OCD patients don’t find relief with current treatments, our findings are crucial as they suggest a new way to help these individuals.
“We look forward to advancing to human trials and further exploring how these treatments can provide long-term benefits.”
The study included 50 genetically modified mice that displayed excessive grooming and anxiety, similar to human OCD behaviors and head-body twitches similar to tics suffered by patients with Tourette’s Syndrome.
These mice were randomly given either a single injection of psilocybin, a psychedelic mushroom extract, or a placebo.
Raters, unaware of which treatment each mouse received, evaluated the effects at several points over a three-week period.
Mice treated with psilocybin showed a 14.60 per cent decrease in excessive grooming, while those receiving the mushroom extract saw a 19.20 per cent reduction, compared to a significant increase of 118.71 in grooming in the placebo group.
The study also observed reductions in other symptoms like tic-like movements and anxiety, with the mushroom extract showing greater benefit in its effect on anxiety.
The positive effects from a single treatment lasted up to seven weeks in some mice.
Lerer said: “The effects observed on tic-like head body twitches raise the previously unreported possibility that psilocybin may be effect in patients with Tourette’s Syndrome.”
