Experts have yet to reach conclusions about the benefits of mushrooms for reducing anxiety and depression, but current research is promising.
Heard the recent hype around magic mushrooms as a potential mental health treatment? Maybe you’re wondering exactly how they might work to improve anxiety and depression.
After all, they’re known to cause hallucinations and other changes in perception. So, wouldn’t that mean they’re more likely to increase anxiety than relieve it?
It’s certainly true that some people notice anxiety and paranoia when taking mushrooms. Yet more and more research suggests psilocybin, the hallucinogenic compound in mushrooms, may have long-lasting benefits when it comes to reducing anxiety and depression.
Psilocybin shares some similarities with serotonin, a chemical messenger that plays an important part in mood regulation. Low or imbalanced levels of serotonin can lead to anxiety and depression. But mushrooms act on your body’s serotoninergic system, so they could help restore the balance of serotonin in your body.
Read on to get more details on the research exploring mushrooms for anxiety, plus a few important safety tips.
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Unpacking the hype around microdosing
The practice of microdosing, or taking a small dose of psychedelics every few days, appears to be enjoying some rising popularity.
While the actual size of the dose can vary, most people report taking only up to 10 percentTrusted Source of a full dose, sometimes lessTrusted Source.
You might assume such a small dose probably wouldn’t have much effect, but that’s actually the idea behind microdosing.
People often take full doses of mushrooms specifically for the “trip” they produce, which might include hallucinations and other changes in perception, including:
enhanced senses
expanded emotional or cognitive insight
meaningful or spiritually significant experiences
Still, you could experience what’s commonly called a “bad trip” when taking a full dose. A negative experience with mushrooms might include frightening hallucinations, paranoia, and fear, not to mention other unpleasant emotions.
A microdose, however, may not cause the same changesTrusted Source in perception. In short, you could get the benefits of psilocybin without the potential risk of negative outcomes.
So, what exactly are those benefits?
Existing research on microdosing primarily focuses on self-reported use and benefits, though an upcoming clinical trial may add new insight.
Participants who responded to research surveys mentionedTrusted Source enhanced performance and productivity as one of the main reasons behind their microdosing. Of course, “enhanced performance” can cover a lot of ground. More specific benefits include:
improved mood
a boost to creativity
increased energy
heightened concentration and focus
People also microdose with mushrooms in order to improve mental health symptoms like anxiety and depression. But evidence supporting this use remains pretty limited, in part because psilocybin remains mostly illegal.
A note about research
Before getting deeper into the research, it’s important to consider the historical context around it.
While research around the therapeutic potential of psilocybin and other compounds started picking up in the 1950s and 60s, the Controlled Substances Act brought it to a halt in the early 1970s. It didn’t pick up again until the 1990s. While psychedelic research has since expanded greatly, particularly in the last decade, there’s still a lot of catching up to do in this area.
While researchTrusted Source suggests people eventually stop microdosing because it proves less than effective, other evidence does offer some support for microdosing’s possible benefits.
In one 2019 study, researchers considered online questionnaire responses from 410 people from various countries. These participants had mental or physical health diagnoses, plus experience with various psychedelics, most commonly mushrooms.
In general, people with anxiety tended to consider microdoses of psychedelics less effective than full doses — but more effective than prescription medications. People with ADHD reported similar benefits.
Authors of a 2021 studyTrusted Source also used surveys to measure the potential benefits of microdosing with psychedelics. The survey results suggested that microdosing led to significant improvements in both anxiety and depression.
That said, this study mainly aimed to compare positive expectations of microdosing with actual outcomes. The authors noted that people who try microdosing with higher expectations may notice more of an improvement in well-being. In other words, microdosing can have a pretty big placebo effect. That doesn’t make it completely ineffective, but it’s something worth considering.
Results from another 2019 studyTrusted Source seem to challenge the idea of a placebo response. These findings suggest many of the benefits expected when microdosing psychedelics, like reduced neuroticism and improved creativity, mindfulness, and well-being, did not, in fact, manifest.
Participants did report improvements in depression and stress, but study authors found that neuroticism, a trait linked to anxiety, actually seemed to increase.
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