Could psilocybin treat brain injuries? Neuroscientist explains how psychedelics could fill a gap in head trauma care
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Could psilocybin treat brain injuries? Neuroscientist explains how psychedelics could fill a gap in head trauma care

Early research in rats suggests psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, may help protect the brain from repeated mild head impacts.

Live Science spoke with neuroscientist Argel Aguilar-Valles about recent research exploring psychedelics as a treatment for mild head trauma.

The Long Sip
What happened

New research published in Communications Biology explored whether psilocybin could protect the brain from damage caused by repeated mild head impacts in rats.

The detail

Researchers at Carleton University found that even mild, repeated head hits that do not cause concussion symptoms can alter brain networks and raise the risk of dementia over time.

What it means

The findings are early and based only on animal studies, so researchers say much more work is needed before any human treatment could be developed.

For you

The study was conducted only in lab rats so there is no human treatment yet, but researchers say the findings could eventually lead to therapies for people with repeated mild head injuries.

Full story at Live Science

What readers are saying

BookClubBetty
The focus on psychoplastogens as a way to trigger dendritic complexity and structural brain changes is a really interesting angle for head trauma care. It is a long road from lab rats to human medicine, but exploring interventions for cumulative minor hits could change how doctors manage repetitive impacts.
normaw44
How long until human trials actually start?
nev51
The distinction between concussions with a loss of consciousness and milder repetitive hits is critical, because those cumulative events are what researchers link to long term dementia risks.
moira1954
How many head impacts did the lab rats experience in total during the trial?
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