Company will soon begin clinical trials to determine how effective psilocybin is in treating depression.

Share on Pinterest A psychedelic compound found in “magic mushrooms” has shown promise in treating depression. Getty Images

Researchers are on a fast track to developing a treatment for depression using the psychedelic compound psilocybin, best known as the active ingredient in so-called “magic mushrooms.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently gave “breakthrough therapy” designation to a psilocybin-based drug being tested by COMPASS Pathways.

That means an accelerated research and approval process for a drug with strong preliminary evidence showing it would be a substantial improvement over currently available therapies.

“The early studies have shown that psilocybin therapy can provide an immediate and sustained reduction in depression following a single treatment,” Tracy Cheung, communications director for COMPASS Pathways, told Healthline. “The effect has been described as psilocybin shaking the brain up like a snow globe, or rebooting the brain, providing new connections and deactivating connections that might have caused depression.”

COMPASS Pathways is running the first large-scale psilocybin therapy clinical trial for treatment-resistant depression.

The study will take place in Europe and North America over the next year or so.

“The FDA will be working closely with us to expedite the development process and increase the chances of getting this treatment to people suffering with depression as quickly as possible,” said George Goldsmith, COMPASS Pathways chairman and co-founder, in a statement.

The 400-plus patients enrolled in the study will receive synthesized psilocybin capsules, not mushrooms.

The clinical trial will take 12 to 18 months to complete.

The life sciences company is working with the Heffter Research Institute, which funded the first research into using psilocybin to treat depression at Johns Hopkins University, New York University, and the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).