Changes in brain network properties after psilocybin treatment in people with treatment resistant depression
Abstract
Treatment resistant depression (TRD) poses a major problem in psychiatry with prevalence rates above 50% in patients diagnosed with major depression (MDD) (Rush et al., 2006). Given the modest efficacy of classic antidepressant treatments in addition to many further downsides like, requiring several weeks to take effect, non-negligible side effects, discontinuation problems, high relapse rates and the scarcity of innovative approaches (Cipriani et al., 2018; Haddad, 1998; Hofmann et al., 2017; Locher et al., 2017; Steinert et al., 2014) the interest in psychedelic assisted therapy has grown. Preliminary evidence for the efficacy and safety of psilocybin in the treatment of MDD and TRD has been accumulating in recent studies (Carhart-Harris et al., 2016, 2018, 2021; Davis et al., 2021; Daws et al., 2022). However, the neurobiological effects are not completely understood and a current field of interest. In our study we aim to contribute to the understanding of the neurobiological effects of psilocybin, by applying graph theoretical measures like modularity, clustering-coefficient, shortest path length and functional cartography measures (Fortunato & Castellano, 2007; Mattar et al., 2015; Onnela et al., 2005; Zhang & Luo, 2017) to functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data of people with TRD undergoing therapy with 25 mg psilocybin in a randomized controlled trial. Expanding the knowledge in this domain can be conducive to comprehending the antidepressant effects of psychedelics in greater depth, understanding the depressed brain and could aid in and in the development of new antidepressant treatments.
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