Successful Psilocybin Treatment of Alzheimer
10 hours ago
- #Neuroplasticity
- #Alzheimer's Disease
- #Psilocybin
- An octogenarian Japanese-American woman with advanced Alzheimer's disease for 10 years, including 5 years of severe hypofunction, showed significant functional improvements after receiving a high-dose oral psilocybin intervention.
- Following administration of 5g psilocybin-containing mushrooms (Enigma strain), the patient experienced autonomic activation, suspected hyperthermia, sweating, and prolonged deep sleep, but around 19 hours later, spontaneous autobiographical speech emerged.
- Functional gains observed over subsequent days and weeks included restoration of urinary continence, improved mobility and autonomy, increased emotional responsiveness, sustained social interaction, enhanced memory retrieval, and spontaneous conversational engagement.
- A second session with 3g psilocybin one month later was associated with greater verbal expressivity, positive emotional imagery, humor, and improved gait agility, with benefits like continence persisting.
- The case suggests that residual functional capacity may persist in late-stage neurodegeneration and can be transiently accessed via psilocybin-induced neuromodulation, not reversing disease but temporarily restoring network function.
- Limitations include the single-case design, lack of formal biomarkers or neuroimaging, and inability to establish causality, highlighting the need for future controlled studies to explore psilocybin in advanced dementia.