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🧠 Why Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy Could Be The Next Cutting-Edge Treatment for Anorexia...
Eating disorders have a notoriously difficult path for recovery, but psilocybin mushrooms may hold the answer...
Webdelics Public
January 23, 2025
Explore the World of Plant Medicine and Psychedelics. A Weekly Digest of Exclusive Stories, Insights, and Research.
🧪 Exciting Research Update!
Can DMT Help Treat Alcohol Abuse Disorders?
It sounds counterintuitive, doesn’t it…?
⁉️ How could a traditional psychedelic help people overcome their addiction to alcohol?
One of our coveted advisory board members, Marcus Glennon, and his team at University College of London (UCL) are exploring this cutting-edge therapy and had their work picked up by the Guardian!
👀 Check out the article below!
P.S. If you’re based in the UK, you could potentially become a participant in the study…
🎉 Top Weekly Blog!
Our Top Psychedelic and Plant Medicine Blog from Webdelics
The Webdelics website has over 160+ evidence-based, research-backed blogs that were intentionally written to give you the facts, not just our opinions.
📚️ Here is this week’s top blog on our site, rated by our readers:
🗯️ We’re learning about this space, just like you! The more you know, the better you will be able to make educated decisions…
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📜 Top Article
Why Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy Could Be The Next Cutting-Edge Treatment for Anorexia…
Recent research suggests psilocybin-assisted therapy might offer new hope for individuals with anorexia nervosa, a life-threatening disorder characterized by severe food restriction and intense fear of weight gain.
In a 2023 open-label feasibility study, ten adult females diagnosed with anorexia nervosa or partial remission received a single dose of 25 milligrams (mg) of psilocybin alongside psychological support.
Researchers monitored safety, tolerability, and how psilocybin might influence anorexia symptoms over three months.
🥼 Safety and Tolerability
Overall, the treatment proved to be quite safe. Reported adverse events were mild and transient in nature overall.
No serious or lasting side effects emerged, vital signs remained stable, and there was no increase in suicidality, which is a big deal for this population…
Though two participants briefly experienced low blood sugar, these instances resolved within 24 hours and appeared linked to fasting rather than psilocybin.
Given the medical vulnerabilities often seen in anorexia nervosa, these safety outcomes are notable and show significant potential for future treatment.
❤️🩹 Symptom Changes and Treatment Response
Participants also showed highly encouraging psychological shifts.
Weight concerns and shape concerns both dropped significantly from baseline to the one-month follow-up.
Though shape concerns returned closer to baseline by three months, the initial improvement reflects a potential for psilocybin to reduce harmful preoccupations about body image.
Around 40% of participants had Eating Disorder Examination (EDE) scores that fell within one standard deviation of community norms by three months—suggesting clinically meaningful improvement for a subset of the group.
While changes in eating concerns and dietary restraint didn’t reach statistical significance, results hinted at possible benefits that larger studies might capture more clearly.
Body mass index (BMI) changes were inconsistent, underscoring that psychological improvements don’t always align immediately with weight gain.
However, five participants did see an increase in BMI, suggesting that some were able to integrate physical recovery alongside mental health gains.
🙏 Secondary Measures and Personal Impact
Beyond core anorexia symptoms, participants reported decreases in trait anxiety, body image anxiety, and ritualistic eating behaviors one month after dosing.
These changes, however, also showed individual variability.
Critically, subjective experiences were overwhelmingly positive: 90% felt more optimistic about life after psilocybin, 80% ranked the psilocybin session as one of their top five most meaningful life events, and 70% noted improved identity and quality of life.
Moreover, no one dropped out of the study, indicating strong engagement and perceived benefit.
🛣️ The Road Ahead & Future Studies
Although the study’s design had limitations (small sample size, no control group), it offers a promising glimpse of psilocybin’s potential to help individuals with anorexia nervosa.
Many participants believed additional psilocybin sessions might further enhance outcomes, pointing to new avenues for research.
Future larger-scale, controlled trials will be essential to confirm these initial findings and clarify how best to integrate psilocybin therapy into comprehensive anorexia treatment strategies.
And as you’ve read, we’re only in the beginning stages of research into this quickly growing landscape…
More to come in future editions as the research gets published!
💬 We will leave you with this…
Auguste Comte elegantly stated, “To understand the science, it is necessary to know it’s history.”
Challenging our beliefs and knowledge is essential for finding the truth, especially in a crowded space like plant medicine and psychedelics.
Until next time…