A new trial is set to look into whether a hallucinogenic drug could provide effective treatment for those with severe depression.
University of Otago Christchurch professor Marie Crowe said the trial will take 10 weeks and involve eight weeks of psychotherapy and two full doses of psilocybin (magic mushrooms).
"Depression is such a pervasive thing in New Zealand, and elsewhere, and people don't always respond to anti-depressants and some people don't want to take them. So this would provide another option."
She said recent psilocybin studies, where participants went into MRIs, found the substance created greater connections between different regions of the brain.
"It freed people up from their long held patterns of rumination, you know overthinking things and their excessive focus on themselves. And the people who had the psilocybin, they described the experience as having this greater sense of connection to themselves, to others and the world."
