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Twelve cancer patients, and anxiety that eased for months

Twelve people, a moderate dose, and the study that unlocked the rest.

2011Published

Double-blind placebo-controlled pilotStudy type

12 peopleSample

What they did

A team at Harbor-UCLA gave twelve people with advanced-stage cancer a moderate dose of psilocybin and a placebo in separate sessions, tracking anxiety and mood for six months.

What they found

Trait anxiety fell significantly at one and three months, and mood improved by six months. No clinically significant adverse events were recorded.

12participants

6 monthsof follow-up

Worth knowing

Twelve people is a pilot, and it was designed to show the research could be done safely rather than to prove it works. Its historical importance is larger than its statistical weight.

Grob et al. Pilot study of psilocybin treatment for anxiety in patients with advanced-stage cancer. Archives of General Psychiatry, 2011.

Read the source

Keep reading

end of lifeFifty-one cancer patients, and six months of relief end of lifePsilocybin rapidly reduced anxiety and depression in cancer patients end of lifeIn life-threatening illness, anxiety and depression eased and held

The durability findings here are the ones most often quoted out of context. Read the follow-up periods before you trust a headline about them.

Browse the library

Microdosing 8 Depression 9 Anxiety 6 Addiction 9 Cognition 6 Ageing and injury 3 Brain and plasticity 7 Other conditions 9 Safety 6 All research 63

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