A meta-analysis of studies on psilocybin show that high doses of the substance can alleviate symptoms of depression in people at levels comparable to the SSRI drug escitalopram, which is used to treat major depressive episodes.

Researchers found that patients fared better with psilocybin – the active ingredient in ‘magic mushrooms’ – than with placebos. Bet they also cautioned that flaws in the study designs “may have overestimated the effectiveness of psychedelics.”

Nevertheless, this latest research offers up still more ammunition to the proponents of using psilocybin to treat mental health challenges.

The 15 psilocybin studies in the meta-analysis included a total of 811 participants, compared to roughly 2,000 participating in five escitalopram trials.

Interestingly, the researchers found that responses to placebos in the psilocybin trials were lower than in the escitalopram trials, suggesting that only high levels of psilocybin performed better than the escitalopram placebos.

The bottom line: “Serotonergic psychedelics, especially high-dose psilocybin, appeared to have the potential to treat depressive symptoms,” wrote the authors of the research. “Our analysis suggested that the standardized mean difference of high dose psilocybin was similar to that of current antidepressant drugs, showing a small effect size.”