Reposted from Huntsman Mental Health Institute.

Frontline health care workers struggling with depression after the COVID-19 pandemic experienced significant relief from a treatment combining psilocybin group therapy with mindfulness training, according to a randomized clinical trial conducted by Huntsman Mental Health Institute at University of Utah Health. Physicians and nurses who received this controlled therapy, which included ingesting psilocybin—the psychoactive alkaloid derived from hallucinogenic mushrooms—during an eight-week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program, saw far greater improvements than those who only learned mindfulness techniques.

Published in PLOS Medicine, the NIH-supported study included 25 Utah health care workers who worked directly with COVID patients and were battling both depression and burnout. A select group of health care workers were randomized to receive a single dose of psilocybin in a controlled clinical setting, along with eight weeks of mindfulness training, while the other half completed the mindfulness training alone. For those who were treated with the combination therapy, the group’s depression scores dropped by more than twice as much as the meditation-only group, in addition to feeling less emotionally exhausted and more connected to themselves and others.

“Depression and burnout have long been serious problems for health care workers,” said lead author Benjamin Lewis, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Utah. “When the pandemic only worsened these effects, we felt it was crucial to try something different to understand how we can help this group of individuals who are dedicated to helping others.”

Previous studies have shown that mindfulness training can help reduce depression and burnout, and there is growing interest as to whether the use of psychedelics, such as psilocybin, could enhance these benefits. The U trial was designed to explore whether adding group-based psilocybin-assisted therapy to mindfulness training improves participants’ mental health compared to mindfulness training alone.

Study participants enrolled in the program between January 2023 and January 2024, while performing frontline health care work during the COVID pandemic’s third year. Nearly half (46%) of health care workers who received psilocybin alongside mindfulness techniques were free of depression at two weeks, compared to just 8% who only learned mindfulness practices. The study showed significant sustained improvements in symptoms with a 25-milligram dose of psilocybin administered at week six of the meditation course.

Most psilocybin studies are expensive and hard to scale up, as they use two therapists per patient with individual sessions. This study delivered treatment in groups instead, creating an easier path towards scaling and a more accessible option for health care workers looking for relief.

The findings are preliminary and should be interpreted with caution, given the small sample size and the specialized setting of this pilot study. The researchers concluded their data support further investigation of psilocybin-assisted therapy as a potential mental health intervention in high-stress professions, although larger trials are needed to establish efficacy, generalizability and durability of these effects.

The study was published Sept. 19 in PLOS Medicine under the title, “Psilocybin-assisted group psychotherapy and mindfulness-based stress reduction for frontline healthcare provider COVID-19-related depression and burnout: A randomized controlled trial.” Funding was provided by a grant from the Heffter Research Institute, along with support from the National Center for Research Resources and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, both part of the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more about psychedelic research at HMHI. An overview of group format psilocybin trials appears in a 2023 TEDx presentation.

If you or someone you know is struggling with depression, burnout, or another mental health crisis, call or text 988, or visit the U’s Mental Health Crisis Care Center at 955 W. 3300 South in South Salt Lake.