08 Jun 2023 --- A team of 33 researchers across eight countries has found psychedelics to have an antidepressant effect on the brain more rapidly and with longer-lasting results than antidepressant drugs. But, a psychiatrist says that though the study findings are intriguing, they might not reflect the actual mechanisms underpinning antidepressant responses in the human brain to psychedelics. Psilocin, a hallucinogenic compound from magic mushrooms, was found to directly bind TrkB (Tropomyosin receptor kinase B) – a receptor for brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) that regulates growth and survival of cells – with affinities 1,000 times higher than antidepressant drugs.
