Getting high on a psychedelic drug extracted from "magic mushrooms" could help those who struggle with incurable depression, new research suggests.
Half of patients in a small pilot study of 12 people had reduced symptoms three months after taking psilocybin capsules.
While the study authors warn that it is too early to make strong conclusions about the use of the drug, it did show that more research was needed.
Lead author Dr Robin Carhart-Harris from Imperial College London said: "This is the first time that psilocybin has been investigated as a potential treatment for major depression.
"Treatment-resistant depression is common, disabling and extremely difficult to treat.
"New treatments are urgently needed, and our study shows that psilocybin is a promising area of future research.
"The results are encouraging and we now need larger trials to understand whether the effects we saw in this study translate into read more
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