EC Psychology and Psychiatry

Background: Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is responsible for most cases of social, physical and emotional disability. This disorder affects about 320 million people in the world and is one of the diseases of the 21^st century.

Objective: To expose scientific data that suggests the use of Psilocybin as a form of therapy for treatment-resistant depression (TRD).

Method: Literature review through the search for scientific productions in the textual modality of articles, indexed in the Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online, through the PUBMED search tool.

Results: It was observed that the use of psilocybin presents positive results for the treatment of MDD and TRD, where the rapid and sustained effect of this treatment against the symptoms of depression was demonstrated. Psilocybin has shown to be an innovative method with some advantages when compared to methods that use traditional antidepressants, such as increased amygdala response and emotional stimuli allowing emotional reconnection of patients with TRD.

Conclusion:This treatment is presented as a promising alternative in cases where conventional treatment is not efficient. However, efforts are needed to produce new studies that confirm the efficacy and safety of using psilocybin as an effective treatment against TRD.

Keywords: Depression; Psilocybin; Major Depressive Disorder; Treatment Resistant Depressive Disorder

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