Magic mushroom chemical cuts nerve pain and enhances drug

A single dose of psilocybin — the active compound in magic mushrooms — reduces nerve pain for up to a month and makes a widely used painkiller work more effectively, University of Reading research has found.

The study, published in Communications Biology, tested psilocybin in mice with nerve damage that causes long-lasting pain. Researchers found that psilocybin's pain-relieving effect appeared around two hours after injection, with relief lasting several weeks. Rather than simply blocking pain signals, psilocybin appears to restructure the way the brain's pain-processing networks operate, which may explain why its effects persist long after the drug itself has left the body.

The most significant finding was how psilocybin interacted with gabapentin, a drug widely prescribed for nerve pain. When gabapentin was given to mice weeks after a single psilocybin dose, after psilocybin's own pain-relieving effect had worn off, it produced pain relief lasting up to four days. In mice that had not received psilocybin, gabapentin's effect was much weaker.

Between 30 and 50 percent of people with nerve pain do not get adequate relief from gabapentin alone. 

Dr Maria Maiarú, senior author from the University of Reading, said: "Millions of people live with nerve pain that their medication simply does not control well enough, and the medicines we do have can cause serious side effects or lead to addiction. What is exciting here is that psilocybin does not just reduce pain on its own. It appears to reset the brain's pain networks in a way that makes existing treatments significantly more effective. For patients who have run out of options, that could be genuinely transformative."

The pain-relieving effect was confirmed in both male and female mice, which is significant given that much early pain research was conducted in male animals only. The study used a small number of mice in line with UK Home Office regulations and the 3Rs principles of Replacement, Reduction and Refinement. Procedures were designed to minimise distress, and where possible multiple outcomes were measured from the same animals to keep numbers down.

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