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One year of psychedelic news

Today marks 1 year since the Daily Mushroom started!

In honour of our birthday, we’re bringing back our most popular content from the past year.

These were the articles that readers clicked on the most: 

  1. Can weed make your trip better?
  2. Toad venom for Grandma
  3. Psilocybin for gut health
  4. A dose every six months keeps the divorce lawyer away
  5. How psychedelics change your social life
  6. Mushrooms go high fashion
  7. You no longer have to be on your deathbed to eat mushrooms!
  8. Is Elon going to take shrooms to the moon?
  9. Take a DMT trip without the anxiety
  10. Healing racial trauma

And these were the most popular podcast episodes:

  1. A doctor’s view on group psychedelic therapy & microdosing
  2. The truth about psilocybin and the brain
  3. What physicians really think about psilocybin
  4. A special episode: Our host Brett recounts a recent psilocybin therapy session
  5. Functional Mushrooms for Health & Nutrition with FreshCap CEO Tony Shields

Thank you for your support over the past year, it means the world to us đź’›

Help us make the newsletter even better moving forward by filling out this quick survey.

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Women-focused psilocybin study for depression

A New Clinical Trial in South Africa Aims to Study the Effect of Psilocybin on HIV Positive Women with Major Depressive Disorder

Women are nearly twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression than men, but they’re often underrepresented in clinical trials.

Additionally, individuals with chronic illnesses like HIV often suffer from depression as well, which can make them less likely to adhere to their medications.

That’s why Cannsun Medicinal Global is investigating psilocybin as a treatment for depression in women who are HIV-positive.

The phase 2 trial received approval and will begin next month in South Africa.

“It is vitally important to have a deeper understanding of how women respond to medical treatment for major depression versus men in order to develop psychedelic therapies and treatment protocols for women that have clinically significant outcomes that are safe and effective,” says Donaghue Woodman, the company’s Head of R&D and Chief Medical Information Officer.

PDF of article

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Why ketamine reduces depression so quickly

Why ketamine is a speedster antidepressant

Several studies have found that ketamine produces a rapid antidepressant effect, reducing suicidal ideation in just hours.

A new study from Northwestern University sheds light on why the benefits are so instantaneous.

Traditional antidepressants work by increasing the number of neurons in the brain, which can take several weeks.

Ketamine, on the other hand, was found to increase activity in newborn neurons, which then activates other cells in the hippocampus.

“This small population of cells acts like a match, starting a fire that ignites a bunch of activity in a lot of other cells that produce the behavioral effects,” says lead study author Dr. John Kessler.

“That’s important because when you give ketamine to patients now, it affects multiple regions of the brain and causes a lot of adverse side effects. But since we now know exactly which cells we want to target, we can design drugs to focus only on those cells.”

PDF of article

PDF of study

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Free LSD!

Ceruvia Lifesciences to Supply LSD to Qualified Researchers at No Cost

For qualified researchers only… sorry to get your hopes up.

Ceruvia Lifesciences, a private Connecticut-based company, produced the world’s first LSD that meets the FDA’s strict manufacturing standards.

Now, the company is offering the drug to researchers at no cost to increase our knowledge of its potential medical benefits.

Ceruvia has also developed a non-hallucinogenic analog of LSD to target cluster headaches, migraines, and addiction.

PDF of article