Science paper Johns Hopkins - Psilocybin Shows Lasting Benefits for Patients with Post-Treatment Lyme Disease

New pilot study shows two doses of psilocybin reduced symptom burden by ~40% in people with post-treatment Lyme disease (PTLD), with improvements in pain, fatigue, sleep, and mood lasting up to 6 months. Findings are still very preliminary, but suggests psilocybin may be a new avenue for treating PTLD and possibly similar illnesses.

Psilocybin Shows Lasting Benefits for Patients with Post-Treatment Lyme Disease : Johns Hopkins Lyme Disease Research Center

Summary A Johns Hopkins pilot study found that psilocybin, given with psychological support, was safe and well tolerated in adults with post-treatment Lyme disease and was associated with significant, lasting […]

www.hopkinslyme.org

I have a friend with Lyme so this could be massive for him! I'm sure he would welcome a 40% benefit in his symptoms.

 

[Varallo]

Yet another study that ultimately says very little. Except that there are effects observed in 20 participants, who together represent just 4% of the people who were actually willing to take part in the study. The preselection is therefore enormous. There is no blinding. There is no meaningful way to control for participant bias. And then you see results like this.

I find it concerning that this is the current state of research. I am fairly certain that you would find similar outcomes for chronic fatigue syndrome. And if such a study does not yet exist, I am confident that this group has it at the top of their list as the next topic to build a study around.

For reference, in studies on long-term antibiotic treatment, the placebo group often shows significant improvement, sometimes even greater improvement than the group receiving the actual antibiotics.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-38091-9.epdf

 

[Jamie01]

Why don’t they show cytokine levels before and after at least? There is almost no real data to go off of here. Did the markers go down or not?

 

[Varallo]

Why don’t they show cytokine levels before and after at least? There is almost no real data to go off of here. Did the markers go down or not?

Because they are saving that for future publication. They also may or may not share the raw data when the time comes.

 

[TransistorBass]

My personal feeling for my friend is that if there is a chance that Psilocybe mushrooms can remove or diminish even small parts of their symptoms then it's worth a shot.