For Alcohol Use Disorder, Psychedelics Plus Talk Therapy Cuts Heavy Drinking Days by 83 Percent, Study Shows
Treatment with the psychedelic drug psilocybin (aka “magic mushrooms”) along with supportive psychotherapy reduced the percentage of heavy drinking days by 83 percent among people with alcohol use disorder (AUD), according to a small randomized trial published in JAMA Psychiatry on August 24, led by researchers at New York University (NYU).Additionally, nearly half of study participants treated with psilocybin stopped drinking entirely eight months after receiving their first dose of psilocybin, compared with nearly a quarter of those in the placebo group, per a press release from the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.“Today’s study that you’re hearing about is a major breakthrough in the understanding and treatment of alcohol use disorder,” said Charles Marmar, MD, the Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Psychiatry and the chair of the department of psychiatry at…