Psilocybin produced temporary improvement in advanced Alzheimer’s patient, case report finds

A 70-year-old woman with advanced Alzheimer’s disease showed a marked but short-lived improvement after receiving psilocybin, the active compound in so-called magic mushrooms, according to researchers. The patient, who had been unable to speak, walk or control her bladder for about a decade, began talking and recounting memories 19 hours after a 5-gram dose. In the following days she recognized her family, regained the ability to walk and dress herself and recovered bladder control, the researchers reported. Within several days her condition returned to its previous state. Scientists stressed that the episode does not demonstrate that psilocybin treats Alzheimer’s. The diagnosis was not confirmed with biological markers, the case lacked a comparison group and no standardized memory tests were administered, meaning the findings require confirmation through controlled clinical trials. The researchers noted that psilocybin may temporarily alter how neural networks in the brain communicate and has been linked in animal studies to the formation of new nerve connections and anti-inflammatory effects, though those hypotheses remain unproven. They cautioned that the substance carries serious side-effect risks in older adults and that its use outside supervised scientific studies is scientifically unjustified and highly dangerous.