Alzheimer's patient regains speech after psilocybin
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- The unnamed 83-year-old woman, diagnosed with Alzheimer's 10 years ago and recently limited to monosyllables, began initiating a 4-hour conversation roughly 19 hours after receiving 5 grams of the Enigma strain of Psilocybe cubensis, administered orally with her son's consent.
- Marcus Lago at the Ankh Cross Association in São Paulo documented her subsequent regaining of urinary continence, ability to dress herself independently, and spontaneous engagement in the weeks that followed, including contextually appropriate remarks like 'It feels good to come here.'
- A second 3-gram dose about a month later prompted her to describe surfing with her son on a peaceful island, alongside continued functional gains such as recognizing a rented car and noticing when someone was unexpectedly absent.
- David Nutt at Imperial College London said he has heard similar reports of psychedelics improving brain function in neurodegenerative decline, attributing the effect to psilocybin's known anti-inflammatory activity and its ability to disrupt suppressing brain circuits.
- Albert Garcia-Romeu at Johns Hopkins University raised a litany of concerns: it is a single case report, the Alzheimer's diagnosis was based on symptom assessment rather than biomarkers or neuroimaging, and the paper only describes the month after the first session with no specified longer follow-up.
- Rudolph Tanzi at Harvard University called the case 'pretty dramatic' and said the findings suggest a trial may be warranted, while Lago's team stressed her Alzheimer's has not been reversed but that psychedelics can tap into residual functional capacity.
Why it matters: Researchers are split on whether the case justifies a clinical trial: Harvard's Rudolph Tanzi said one is warranted, while Johns Hopkins' Albert Garcia-Romeu warned the diagnosis was symptom-based rather than biomarker-confirmed and the report covers only one month of follow-up. Lago's team stressed her Alzheimer's was not reversed, noting she has residual capacity that psychedelics appear to access.
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