Mild recurrent head trauma has been shown to lead to an increased risk of dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, with wide-reaching implications and no effective medical treatment so far. However, preliminary research has shown that magic mushrooms may hold the key to recovery.
As it happens, a group of researchers, including Northeastern University in London psychology professor Craig Ferris, has discovered that psilocybin, the psychedelic found in drugs like magic mushrooms, helped restore normal brain function in adult female rats suffering mild head injuries, per a report on February 25.
Specifically, the study involved impacting the rats once a day for three days in a row so they had a “bump on the head” and then giving them a single three-kilogram dose of PSI via injection after each bump. The researchers then assessed the rats using MRI, tracking their brain activity and vascular reactivity.
Magic mushrooms for head trauma recovery
The results were astonishing – after the treatment with PSI, the rats had reduced neuroradiological and molecular issues from the brain injury. Also, the treatment reduced the brain edema from the injury, potentially strengthening the blood-brain barrier, and inducing hyperconnectivity.
Furthermore, it reduced phosphorylated tau, a marker of neurodegenerative disease, while increasing brain-derived neurotrophic factor. As Ferris said, the results (not peer-reviewed yet, but featured in PubMed as a preprint), could show promise in potential treatment for mild repetitive head injuries:
“I was absolutely stunned. It actually improves these neuroradiological measures associated with head injury. (…) It really did incredible things. (…) What we found was that with head injuries is that functional connections go down across the brain. You give the psilocybin and not only does it return to normal, but the brain becomes hyper connected.”
Indeed, this is the first report to find that serotonergic hallucinogen psilocybin (PSI) can treat brain injury, due to its anti-inflammatory properties and promotion of neuroplasticity and cell growth. Previous studies have explored them to treat psychiatric disorders like depression and anxiety, so researchers were curious about their effect on head injuries as well.
Notably, these types of head injuries sometimes happen to young and professional athletes, military members, and elderly people, be it in sports, car accidents, falls, and the like. They don’t cause significant damage to the skull other than a small bump but can lead to inflammation, impaired blood flow, and other damage to the brain. Per Ferris:
“There’s no contusion and bleeding in the brain. (…) All you see is the bump on the head from the edema on the skin. That’s perfectly fine, but if you have two or more bumps, then you’ve got these long, protracted problems with neuroinflammation, changes in the blood-brain barrier permeability, and changes in connectivity.”
Potential of magic mushrooms in neurodegenerative diseases
These results are not only applicable to mild repetitive head trauma. They might also open up the possibility of using psilocybin to treat other neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. In any case, Ferris intends to study whether the method works in treating head injuries long after they have occurred.
Speaking of brain trauma, Oxford scientists have designed a forensic artificial intelligence (AI) tool that could help law enforcement discover the causes of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in victims and get more timely, accurate, and objective answers in their investigations.
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