Large psilocybin dose briefly improved dementia in case study
- Pysilly Spores
- Jul 28
- 4 min read
A new case study describes the reversal of symptoms in a woman with advanced Alzheimer’s disease after taking magic mushrooms.
The findings hint that psilocybin may temporarily relieve symptoms, at least for some people.
However, experts call for caution and larger studies. This is not an open-and-shut case, and the paper only outlines one patient’s story.
A case study published in Frontiers in Neuroscience is making big waves in the dementia research community.
The story involves an 80-year-old woman with advanced dementia who experienced significant improvements in symptoms following a large dose of psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms.
The trouble with dementia treatments
Despite decades of intense research, treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, are disappointing. The most successful Trusted Source interventions can only treat symptoms and moderately slow progression.
Many of the drugs that have been trialled focus on reducing or removing the misfolded proteins that are the hallmark of Alzheimer’s.
Yet this approach has been broadly ineffective, so researchers have begun casting their nets wider. Psychedelics, with their newfound popularity, are just one port of call.
An incredible story of temporary recovery
The current case report focuses on a woman in her 80s who had received a dementia diagnosis 10 years prior. At the beginning of the recent intervention, her condition was quite advanced.
She was incontinent, could only speak in single syllables, and could not dress herself. Walking and eating both required assistance, and she was emotionally unresponsive.
With the consent of her legal guardians, the woman was enrolled in a psilocybin trial in Brazil.
At the first session, she received 5 grams (g) of psilocybin-containing mushrooms. This is not a small dose. When taken recreationally, 1–2 g is enough to experience a strong psychoactive response commonly referred to as a “trip.”
Shortly after receiving the dose, the patient appeared to be overheating. She also entered a prolonged sleep-like state.
Then, as the report authors write, “[a]pproximately 19 [hours] after administration, the patient spontaneously initiated autobiographical conversation lasting several hours.”
In the following weeks, the patient stopped being incontinent — even during the night — could move more easily, and became much better at social interactions. Just days after the psylocibin intervention, she could walk unaided and dress herself.
The benefits of this intervention persisted, so the researchers decided to continue the treatment.
One month after the initial intervention, the woman received a second, slightly smaller dose of “just” 3 g. During this session, she was verbally expressive throughout and “described emotionally positive imagery involving surfing with her son on a peaceful island.”
The authors also note that she used more facial expressions and humor, and demonstrated “emotional reciprocity.” She was also markedly better at walking unaided.
Ethical considerations
Trialing a psychedelic dose on an older adult with significant health problems seems, on the surface, to pose various ethical problems.
Medical News Today spoke with Dustin Hines, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who was not involved in this research, about the implications of such an endeavor.
We asked Hines how the researchers were able to get ethical sign-off.
“There is already a substantial safety record for high-dose psilocybin in clinical research,” he explained. “Much of that foundation comes from the seminal work of Roland GriffithsTrusted Source, whose studies in patients with advanced, life-threatening cancer helped launch the modern psychedelic research renaissance.”
“In those trials,” Hines continued, “many participants were nearing the end of life and unlikely to survive their illness, so ethics boards weighed the potential to relieve profound psychological suffering against the relatively low risk of a carefully supervised psilocybin session.”
“That work helped establish the precedent for later studies using similar doses,” he told us.
However, the ethics statement given in the study paper provides little reassurance. “Ethical approval was not required for this single case report conducted in routine private clinical practice, in accordance with local legislation and institutional requirements,” it reads.
Excitement and limitations
This case study reads like a modern-day miracle, but we must temper that excitement for now. There are significant limitations. Firstly, this is just a case study, so there is no guarantee that the same effect would be seen in other patients.
Secondly, the participant’s condition had not been verified by scientists. Although her symptoms and disease course make it highly likely that she was experiencing Alzheimer’s disease, the authors did not confirm the diagnosis with scans.
Thirdly, the symptoms of dementia can ebb and flow, so it is possible that her condition just happened to improve at the very time she took the magic mushrooms.
When we asked Hines whether he was surprised by the results, and he said “yes and no.” According to him:
“The story is remarkable because the patient reportedly had advanced Alzheimer’s with years of severe impairment, then showed transient gains. That is extraordinary. However, as a neuroscientist who studies serotonin 5-HT2A signaling, I am not surprised that a powerful serotonergic psychedelic could acutely reorganize brain network activity and temporarily reveal capacities that seemed lost.”
