CORAL GABLES, Fla. – According to a recent global survey, nearly 25% of adults in 142 countries reported feeling lonely, with rates highest among young males.
With long less one of the leading causes of major depression, research into alternative therapies had gained interest among mental health professionals.
Major depression is one of the most common mental illnesses, affecting more than 21 million American adults each year and 3.7 children between the ages of 12 to 17.
“This is an illness that really no one wants to talk about. No one wants to talk about depression. No one wants to admit they’ve got some depression there,” said Dr. Rachel Rohaidy, a psychiatrist with Baptist Health South Florida.
Although there are many treatment options, Rohaidy said finding one that works can be difficult.
“You know we haven’t had a whole lot of new innovation in psychiatry in a long time,” she said.
Psychiatrist Dr. Jared Mendelssohn said that’s beginning to shift.
Among the new research underway is micro-dosing psychedelic drugs such as Psilocybin, a hallucinogenic chemical found in so-called ‘magic mushrooms’.
“And one of the ideas behind it is that it affects something called synaptic plasticity which is it affects the way the neuro circuits in the brain work,” he said.
Mendelssohn said that could help patients with mental health disorders shift away from the ingrained thoughts that often fuel and reinforce their condition.
“The idea is if you take this, it may open you up to being more suggestible to new thoughts and new patterns of thinking,” he said.
Rohaidy said another recent study looked at the use of focused ultrasound which has be utilized for years to treat a variety of conditions.
“Using ultrasound to treat Parkinson’s to treat epilepsy has been done for a while now. And so what this study looked at was what does another form of neuromodulation, modulating or modifying how your brain fires, to help people with depression,” she said.
Rohaidy said the results were encouraging.
“So having this new and innovative way to help treat people with depression can open up a lot of doors for people and bring in a lot of patients to get the proper treatment,” she said.
If approved by the FDA, focused ultrasound would be used once a week for patients with major depressive disorder.
Along with mental health conditions, psilocybin, the compound in ‘magic mushrooms’, is also being studied for use on addiction and substance misuse disorders.