Psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy resulted in significant reductions in depression among clinicians who provided front-line COVID-19 care in 2020 and 2021. These reductions were measurably greater than those experienced by the cohort of clinicians who received a placebo instead.
Findings from this double-blind, randomized clinical trial were published today in JAMA Network Open
.
“For doctors and nurses who feel burned out or disillusioned or disconnected from the patient care they want to provide, this study shows that psilocybin therapy is safe and can help these clinicians work through those feelings and get better,” said Dr. Anthony Back
, the lead investigator.
He is an oncologist, palliative care specialist and professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle.
The research team began recruiting in December 2021, well into the pandemic’s second wave. At that point, more than 800,000 U.S. deaths had been attributed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
About 2,200 clinicians from across the United States applied for the study
’s 30 slots. The participants — all clinicians who met criteria for providing front-line pandemic care — were chosen by lottery. All had seen death and dying at a rate and intensity they had never experienced before, Back said.
