Sleep Blinding Psilocybin: A feasibility study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Sleep Blinding Psilocybin: A feasibility study
IRAS ID
338624
Contact name
Mitul Mehta
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College London
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 4 days
Research summary
Background
Depression is a common and serious condition however current treatments do not work well for 1 in 3 people. Psilocybin, or "magic mushrooms”, are a new medication that might help when other treatments fail. However, we do not understand how it works.
There are three main ideas about how psilocybin helps:
1. Expectation: People might feel better because they expect the drug to work.
2. Meaningful experiences: The dreamlike state caused by psilocybin may help people make changes that improve their mood.
3. Brain changes: Psilocybin may cause changes in the brain, like growing new brain cells.To test medication researchers usually hide whether people get a drug or inactive pill. This does not work with Psilocybin because its effects are obvious. This makes it hard to understand why psilocybin works.
Giving psilocybin to people while they sleep might solve this problem. This study aims to develop a way to give psilocybin as a tablet to act as people sleep.
Study
The study will recruit healthy people who have used psilocybin before. It will take place at King’s College London University and is funded by the MRC.
The first phase has three stages each using different participants:
Stage 1: Awake participants will take delayed-release psilocybin. Researchers will check how long it takes to start working.
Stage 2: Psilocybin will be given before participants go to sleep on site. If it disrupts sleep, researchers will test sedatives to help participants stay asleep.
Stage 3: Researchers will test the effects of psilocybin and sedatives together on awake participants. This will show how the drugs work together.In the second phase 16 participants will take psilocybin during one session and an inactive pill during another. The two sessions will be six weeks apart. Participants will not know which drug they got each time.
REC name
London - London Bridge Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
26/LO/0182
Date of REC Opinion
31 Mar 2026
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion