Study Suggests Psilocybin May Reverse Alcohol-Induced Brain Damage

AFTER HALF A CENTURY of blocks to research on psychedelics’ potential for treating alcohol use disorder, today’s scientists are finally catching up to the pioneering work of their predecessors. In a new study, researchers show that one psychedelic, psilocybin, essentially repairs the part of the brain responsible for alcohol cravings, hinting at a potential new treatment for the disorder.

WHAT’S NEW — The study, published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, builds off work begun in the late 1950s, when researchers Humphry Osmond and Abram Hoffer, the man who first synthesized LSD in 1938, gave the drug to alcoholics and found that a year later, 40 to 45 percent of alcoholics who received the drug were still sober; a remarkable feat for a condition with high rates of relapse.

The consumption of alcoholic beverages is responsible for 5.3 percent of deaths worldwide every year, and treatments that reduce or eliminate cravings for alcohol are desperately needed.

In the new study, the researchers hone in on why these drugs work at the neurobiological level, pinpointing a specific glutamate receptor in brain cells affected by alcohol use — when this receptor is damaged, it has a harmful effect on brain function. When treated with psilocybin, however, mice used to mimic alcohol use disorder showed repaired glutamate receptor function. What’s more, the researchers identify a biomarker in the study that may ultimately help doctors determine who might benefit most from psilocybin treatment in humans.
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