For a long time, depression has been one of those mental disorders that scientists have been struggling to find a cure for. Although modern medicine has come up with a lot of drugs that can help manage the symptoms quite well, there are at least two important problems with most of these forms of medicine: they are known to have certain side effects, and their efficiency tends to decrease over time. In other words, their long term use tends to be a lot less efficient than if you just use them for a couple of months or so.
Psilocybin – the active compound found in psilocybe cubensis mushrooms – has recently been found as a potentially promising alternative to common antidepressant medication. The substance, when administered even in smaller, one-time doses, has shown remarkable positive effects when treating depression in cancer patients. Moreover, aside from anecdotal evidence showing decreased anxiety and depression, as well as improved creativity in those microdosing on magic mushrooms, research using psilocybe cubensis spores in the lab seem to confirm that improved results can be obtained with the substance itself, rather than using entire mushrooms.
Currently, researchers are still struggling with legal impediments and the bad reputation that psilocybin has received over the years. However, they are very optimistic in considering the chance that psilocybin could be used to produce effective antidepressant drugs sometime in the next few years.