Psilocybin with psychological support improves emotional face recognition in treatment-resistant depression
J. B. Stroud, T. P. Freeman, R. Leech, C. Hindocha, W. Lawn, D.j. Nutt, H.V Curran, R. L. Carhart-Harris
Psychopharmacology October 30, 2017 DOI: 10.1007/s00213-017-4754-y (opens in new tab) via OpenAlex
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractPeople with treatment-resistant depression were slower than controls at recognizing facial emotions. After two doses of psilocybin with psychological support, their speed of emotion recognition improved to a level no different from controls, and this improvement was linked to a reduction in anhedonia. The findings suggest psilocybin may help correct emotional processing biases in depression, but placebo-controlled trials are needed to confirm.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Observational cohort Placebo-controlled Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 33 |
| Population | Patients with treatment-resistant depression and healthy controls |
| Intervention | Psilocybin with psychological support |
| Dose | two doses |
| Duration | 1 month |
| Citations | 102 |
| Key finding | Psilocybin with psychological support improved speed of emotion recognition in treatment-resistant depression, and this change correlated with reduced anhedonia. |
Abstract
RATIONALE: Depressed patients robustly exhibit affective biases in emotional processing which are altered by SSRIs and predict clinical outcome. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study is to investigate whether psilocybin, recently shown to rapidly improve mood in treatment-resistant depression (TRD), alters patients' emotional processing biases. METHODS: Seventeen patients with treatment-resistant depression completed a dynamic emotional face recognition task at baseline and 1 month later after two doses of psilocybin with psychological support. Sixteen controls completed the emotional recognition task over the same time frame but did not receive psilocybin. RESULTS: We found evidence for a group × time interaction on speed of emotion recognition (p = .035). At baseline, patients were slower at recognising facial emotions compared with controls (p < .001). After psilocybin, this difference was remediated (p = .208). Emotion recognition was faster at follow-up compared with baseline in patients (p = .004, d = .876) but not controls (p = .263, d = .302). In patients, this change was significantly correlated with a reduction in anhedonia over the same time period (r = .640, p = .010). CONCLUSIONS: Psilocybin with psychological support appears to improve processing of emotional faces in treatment-resistant depression, and this correlates with reduced anhedonia. Placebo-controlled studies are warranted to follow up these preliminary findings.