Study Rationale: Depression is of the most common and disabling symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD), and it is linked to poor quality of life and faster disease progression. Unfortunately, we lack effective treatments for depression in PD. Psilocybin is a psychedelic compound that enhances neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to adapt and remodel itself—and is proving to be a potentially powerful new treatment for depression. However, psilocybin has not yet been thoroughly tested for people with PD.
Hypothesis: We hypothesize that psilocybin therapy could be effective for depression in PD and that its effects on neuroplasticity could relieve other symptoms of the disease and could even help make the brain more resilient.
Study Design: Our colleagues at UCSF designed a randomized controlled trial to test whether psilocybin therapy improves depression and other nonmotor and motor symptoms in people with PD. They will also use noninvasive brain stimulation to examine the effects on neuroplasticity, which is impaired in PD. Our colleagues at Yale will recruit additional participants at their site and use brain imaging to measure neuroplasticity. Together, the teams will conduct the first trial to provide a comprehensive picture of how psilocybin therapy affects symptoms for people with PD and explore whether the treatment leads to changes in neuroplasticity in multiple brain regions.
Impact on Diagnosis/Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease: Preclinical studies suggest that psychedelic treatments may be promising for people with PD. If successful, this study could accelerate the availability of a new treatment for depression in PD and also provide valuable information about how psilocybin works in the brains of people with PD.
Next Steps for Development: As the next step towards developing psilocybin therapy as a treatment for people with depression in PD, we would lead a larger, multisite clinical trial. If we find that psilocybin therapy improves neuroplasticity, we will also lead studies to determine how that effect impacts symptoms and disease progression.
Trial Phase: 2A