An intriguing study completed by the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), investigating the therapeutic potential of psilocybin for treating Parkinson’s, has prompted the school to engage with a second, much largest assessment.
Lead researcher Joshua Woolley and colleagues from the institution’s Translational Psychedelic Research Program (TrPR) recently examined the impact of the natural drug on a group of 12 Parkinson’s patients. The results exceeded their expectations.
“Not only did participants tolerate the drug without serious side effects or worsening symptoms, which is what the pilot study was designed to test, they also experienced clinically significant improvements in mood, cognition, and motor function that lasted for weeks after the drug was out of their systems,” UCSF said Tuesday.
Their study was funded by an anonymous donor. Its results were published in the Nature journal Neuropsychopharmacology on Apr. 9. Subjects received a 10 milligram dose followed by a 25 mg dose a couple weeks later in conjunction with psychotherapy and behavioural analyses.
Parkinson’s is a progressive neurodegenerative disease causing tremors, speech issues, slowed movement and stiff muscles combined with mental health problems like depression and insomnia. It affects 1-2 per cent of people over the age of 60 throughout the globe.
Old age is the primary risk element and its exact cause is unknown. Traumatic brain injuries have also been recognized as a factor making people have a higher likelihood of getting the disease later in life.
“These results raise the exciting possibility that psilocybin may help the brain repair itself,” Woolley said in the school’s blog post.
🚨New paper alarm🚨
Excited to share our new publication that breaks new grounds for #psychedelic medicine: the first data on #psilocybin’s effects in any neurodegenerative disease, specifically psilocybin for the treatment of #Parkinson's disease!It was a phase 1 feasibility… pic.twitter.com/bD8j2nU5Ni
— Balázs Szigeti (@psybalazs) April 11, 2025
Read more: Psyence BioMed invests half a million into natural psychedelics operator PsyLabs
Read more: New Mexico follows in Oregon & Colorado’s footsteps by legalizing psilocybin therapy
Larger follow-up study in the works with Yale
Thanks to funding from the renowned Michael J. Fox Foundation, a much more extensive analysis will soon be completed in California and Connecticut.
UCSF has teamed up with Yale School of Medicine to examine the impact of magic mushrooms on a much larger group of patients suffering from the condition. Whether the psychedelic can alleviate depression among those in the cohort will be a key consideration of this research.
They “will use advanced techniques—including positron emission tomography (PET), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)—to measure psilocybin’s effects on the brain” according to a post from Yale on Apr. 24.
The team that will be completing this investigation is currently being put together and recruitment is ongoing. Those involved will be required to commit 60 hours of their time, throughout 14 sessions, over a span of five and a half months.
“We will enroll 60 people ages 40 to 80 with clinically diagnosed Parkinson’s disease who meet criteria for depression and meet all other inclusion and exclusion criteria at screening,” the TrPR explained on its website.
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