What happened when people with anorexia tried magic mushroomsNEWS | 21 August 2026Rachel Feltman: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman. I have a quick content note before we begin: this episode features discussion of eating disorders. We’ll include some relevant resources at the end of the episode.
According to a 2020 report, as much as 9 percent of the U.S. population—nearly 31 million people—will have some kind of eating disorder during their lifetime. That same study found that someone dies as a direct consequence of an eating disorder every 52 minutes.
Anorexia nervosa—an eating disorder defined by strict restriction of one’s food intake—is particularly fatal. Approximately 5 percent of patients die within four years of diagnosis. In addition to a suicide rate 18 times higher than that of the general population, people with anorexia nervosa are at high risk of organ damage and other consequences of malnutrition, which can increase their risk of death even years after entering remission.
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At least part of what makes eating disorders so deadly is that we’re not great at treating them: While psychiatric interventions like cognitive-behavioral therapy and antidepressants make a huge difference for some, research suggests that around half of patients won’t achieve sustained recovery. That led scientists to explore an unconventional treatment option: psychedelic mushrooms. And while this research is still in its very earliest stages, a few study subjects have reported incredible results.
Here to tell us more about the use of psilocybin to treat anorexia is freelance health journalist Alexandra Pattillo, the author of a recent feature on this new research for Scientific American.
Thank you so much for coming on to chat with us today.
Alexandra Pattillo: Nice to meet you, Rachel. Thanks for having me.
Feltman: So we’ve talked about psychedelics research on the show before, but just to refresh our listeners’ memory, could you start by just telling us a little bit about this new research renaissance in general?
Pattillo: Psychedelics have been of interest by the scientific community for decades now. They’ve also been used by Indigenous communities around the world in South America and Asia and parts of Europe for centuries. But the sort of plant medicine wasn’t brought into modern scientific labs until the 1950s and ’60s, where they were really interested in seeing if classic psychedelics, in particular—including psilocybin, which is the active ingredient in magic mushroom, LSD, DMT and mescaline—how these substances influence the mind and body and particularly whether they could be therapeutic for mental health.
So the ’50s and ’60s were really a flurry of scientific research in the area, what some scientists called the golden age of psychedelic research. But due to some political backlash and some new drug policies at the time, that research was really halted in the late ’60s, early ’70s.
So we really haven’t seen major developments in the area until the early 2000s, largely led by a team at Johns Hopkins [University] who revived the idea of using psilocybin therapy or psychedelic therapy for mental health. And since then, you know, we’ve seen dozens of both animal and human trials looking at how psilocybin and psychedelics might be used to treat things like post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, addiction and a range of other sort of psychiatric illnesses.
And there’s been really promising findings. A lot of these studies have been small and sort of limited in scope, but it’s enough that researchers have been really excited about it. And there’s real potential that these substances can have a major impact in the world of mental health therapy.
Feltman: Yeah. So you recently wrote about psychedelics potentially being used to treat anorexia. Can you tell us a little bit more about how researchers came to that idea in the first place?
Pattillo: Yeah, absolutely. So this was a really interesting and very new, sort of, case use for the field. But eating disorders broadly have very limited effective treatments. So usually it’s cognitive-behavioral therapy or SSRIs [selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors] or antidepressants that are used, sometimes antipsychotics. But they really only work for about half of individuals. And there really haven’t been any new pharmaceutical interventions or new therapies that have been approved to treat this very devastating disease that affects—that’s, you know, relatively common on the scale of psychiatric illnesses. So researchers looked at the body of evidence around anxiety, depression, PTSD and the way that psychedelics actually work in the brain, which, in animal studies and in humans, there has been shown potential that psilocybin therapy, especially, can sort of increase cognitive flexibility and emotional connectedness to things that tend to be impaired in eating disorders.
So this emerging body of evidence combined with a lack of effective treatments for eating disorders led to this new pilot trial, led by a group at Imperial College London that was looking at: Okay, could psilocybin therapy help treat anorexia?
Feltman: Well, I definitely wanna get into more on the possible mechanisms, but first let’s talk about that trial. You know, how does the data look on this?
Pattillo: So it was a small pilot trial. That’s really important to note. It was only 21 participants. These were all women. These are women who had lived with anorexia nervosa for an average of 11 years, and each had tried multiple treatments to kind of improve their symptoms. They’re a group that one might call “treatment-resistant,” so they’d really, you know, exhausted all of their options. And they were recruited into this trial where they had three doses of psilocybin, three oral doses. One was one milligram, then two 25 milligram doses. And these dosing sessions were also supported by extensive talk therapy before and after the dosing sessions. So these were preparation sessions to prepare people for the actual psychedelic experience and then also integration sessions to prepare: Okay, how do you sort of put in perhaps what you learned in this session into your daily life?
And the findings were quite promising. Again, I think what experts stress is that this is preliminary data, so this is not enough to change clinical practice, but many described the finding of those profound. So what they saw is that psilocybin therapy combined with talk therapy reduced anorexia symptoms significantly and increased participants’ motivation to change, which is quite a major impact, especially for a group that can be quite treatment-resistant.
So there were multiple checkpoints throughout the study—that looked at, okay, two weeks, one month—to assess, you know, the effects of the therapy. And the researchers saw that after three months after the dosing sessions, half of the participants had scores of eating disorder symptoms that were comparable to people without an eating disorder diagnosis—so really suggesting about half of these participants went into remission from their anorexia. And they also found that—this sort of reported increased motivation to change that lasted up to a year after the dosing sessions.
Feltman: Yeah. So let’s talk a little bit about what trial participants said about the experience. What was this like for them, and how does that contrast to, sort of, what the standard treatment protocol is for anorexia right now?
Pattillo: This is a really, sort of, unconventional treatment, if you can imagine. This is taking a psychoactive drug, alongside extensive talk therapy, but you are in a therapy room that’s designed almost to be like a comfy living room. People were encouraged to bring items that were familiar to them—you know, their blankets, snacks—around. And each dosing session lasts about six to eight hours and then—in addition to the therapy before and after. And this is not necessarily a comfortable experience. This is something that the researchers stressed. Psilocybin can be psychologically agitating, so it can bring up really uncomfortable both visions and feelings. And it’s unlike, sort of, a cognitive-behavioral therapy and something like an SSRI because it’s immediately active. So what researchers see primarily in animals is that psilocybin appears to induce a window of neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s natural ability to change, grow, reorganize itself by forming new neural connections. And it also, like I mentioned before, increases this cognitive flexibility. One of the experts, Robin Carhart-Harris, who is sort of a pioneer in the space of psychedelics and mental health, he likens psilocybin therapy to shaking a snow globe. So you sort of shake up the way that the brain functions, and you can weaken potentially problematic thought patterns and introduce opportunities to think differently and behave differently.
The researchers describe it as an opportunity to regain agency and self-determination, and some even say this is an opportunity to let go of your demons that can haunt you. It’s very different from conventional eating disorder therapy, as there was no nutritional intervention in the therapy, there’s no focus on gaining weight, and researchers tracked people’s BMI but really only for safety and didn’t see a meaningful change there. It was more about self-compassion and involving—they also involved family members and support people. So yeah, the trial participants, you know, describe really profound, both transcendent and also terrifying experiences.
So one was describing to me, you know, this person is—we called her Christina. She had been battling anorexia for six years, had tried inpatient and outpatient therapy. And at its worst, you know, she wasn’t able to climb the stairs on her own. She wasn’t able to brush her own teeth. You know, it really was profoundly impacting her daily life. And she described imagining that the therapy would be all, sort of, unicorns and fluffy clouds and, um, you know, really positive. But in fact, it was incredibly challenging and uncomfortable. She had visions of blood everywhere and monsters and really uncomfortable, painful feelings coming up.
But after the dosing sessions were over, she felt a shift in her behavior and in her eating disorder symptoms. She said that she genuinely believes that if she had not done the trial, she would either be stuck in a hospital loop of treatment, or she wouldn’t be here today. She says that it saved her life, which is pretty incredible.
And then another participant in the trial who dealt with anorexia for 15 years, I mean, she described psilocybin therapy not as a magic wand by any means or a quick fix but that it almost cracked her open in a way. During one of the dosings, she described a vision of skating on a lake. She said that her mind was on the sidelines saying to her body, “You can be free now. I’m not gonna hold you back. Just go. Fly.” And she felt this complete release. She felt like her body was free. She regained this sense of agency in her own power to heal from her anorexia, and she now does not consider herself as someone who continues to have anorexia.
Feltman: Wow. No, as somebody who’s done psychedelic therapy myself and reported on it a lot, you know, I think one of the comparisons that I hear a lot and resonates a little bit with me is that it, sort of, seems to maybe condense years of therapy into that one day. So it’s not going to be a magic bullet for everybody. There are people who go through years of therapy and don’t have, you know, a great revelation. But it’s just sort of, you know, cracking open the possibility of having those kind of profound results in a much tighter window, which, of course, usually isn’t gonna be fun. Yeah, which I think is surprising to some people who hear that you’re gonna do shrooms. I think they just have a very different preconception about what that’s gonna be like.
Pattillo: Yeah, that is one of the therapists described. You know, she said that some of the places she was able to get with the trial participants, she has not been able to get with her patients. She treats people with eating disorders. She has been working with people for years and years and years, and sometimes she’s never able to get to, sort of, that therapeutic place.
And again, this isn’t to say that it worked for everyone. There was significant variation in the trial of who responded, and there’s still, you know, a lot of work that needs to be done to understand who’s a good candidate and how different kinds of brains respond and why. But it is to say that, for these individuals, it was a massive, life-changing breakthrough and, like we said at the start of this episode, deserves significant investigation by the scientific community. And one other piece that I think is really interesting that’s particularly linked to eating disorders themselves is that anorexia and eating disorders work pretty specifically in the brain, and part of the reason that they are so difficult to let go of, and this is in the data, and this is also from some of the trial participants, is that eating disorders can act as a survival strategy, so they’re providing a coping mechanism for overwhelming situations or emotions. The condition is rarely just about food or weight. It’s really about something much deeper. So a lot of times, people in sort of traditional therapy for an eating disorder who are trying to recover, they really struggle to sort of release that control, let go of those behaviors that, in some ways, have performed a purpose in their life.
And also what one of the sources, Jennifer Danby, who is an eating disorder therapist, described was that a starving and underweight brain actually tends to become more rigid and more “black and white” in its thinking. So people can become more sensitive to fear and closed off to change as their eating disorder or anorexia develops. So it can be even harder to have effective interventions. And the psychedelics and the psilocybin, well, psilocybin in particular, seems to, like, bypass that thinking brain and help people access their, sort of, deeper emotions and also access somatic feedback. So senses that aren’t necessarily relating to their judgmental brain but hunger cues, different feelings of temperature sensing, these different, sort of, feelings that can become more lost or less sensitive when you are dealing with an eating disorder.
Feltman: So how does the larger psychiatric field seem to feel about this? Are researchers getting a lot of pushback?
Pattillo: Yeah, it’s a mixed bag. I would say there are some outside researchers who are saying this research is modestly encouraging. This is promising but preliminary. There are really important caveats to this data: that it was such a small group and there also was no control. We can’t say for sure that psilocybin made the significant therapeutic difference. The researchers in my trial will say, “Yes, they would not have seen these outcomes without the psilocybin,” but the data itself can’t say that definitively. So we need larger, more robust, randomized clinical trials to really prove if and how this is effective anorexia treatment.
But the good thing is: there is interest in doing that work. You know, research-wise, I would say it’s still early days. You know, there’s only been two human trials on psilocybin therapy for anorexia. Obviously, dozens for psychedelic therapy for mental health. But, you know, policymakers are really looking at this data very closely, and especially in the U.S., 2026 might be a tipping point for embracing psychedelics as mental health therapy. We’ve seen the Trump administration push regulators for more funding but also perhaps to approve psychedelic therapy for certain indications. And some, you know, experts predict that these, the psilocybin especially, might be approved in as soon as five years, particularly for something like depression, and then may be used off-label, even, for eating disorders.
Of course, that’s all speculation, and we really can’t say for sure whether that will happen. I think what everyone agrees on is that we need much stronger research into the topic. And luckily, there are various research groups all around the world who are looking really closely at this treatment.
Feltman: Well, and I would love to talk about, you know, any potential risks, not so much as a reason for not researching this, but, you know, I think we’ve seen with the psychedelic boom in general, a lot of interest from people in, sort of, seeking out the closest they can get to what they’ve read about in terms of like telehealth ketamine and, again, with this being such a common condition, I do wonder if people are going to, you know, hear that psychedelics are promising for this and get very excited. Any information on sort of what caveats people should be keeping in mind, as they’re hearing this?
Pattillo: Yeah, this is really crucial because many people who are suffering and, understandably so, are quite desperate for a solution. You know, many aren’t waiting for drug approvals or regulation from, you know, drug authorities or health authorities. We’ve already seen, sort of, observational data that people are self-medicating with psychedelics, both for their depression and for eating disorders in underground channels.
And, you know, some report positive results, and others have experienced adverse events—psychological turmoil, a really uncomfortable experience that may actually make things worse and not better. So something that the researchers really stress is that the hype and the use doesn’t outstrip the evidence and that we really, you know, look at the quality evidence that we have, and right now there’s not enough to say, “Oh, this works,” and this is not by any means a magic bullet. And that’s something that’s really important for people to understand.
And also that recovery is entirely possible, through traditional treatments and evidence-based treatments that are already approved, already available, already out there. Psychedelics, like I mentioned earlier, can be psychologically agitating. They could give someone a higher risk of relapse and may make someone’s symptoms worse. It’s also really important that there’s a lot of therapy around this; this isn’t something that people do in isolation. Because as we recalled through Christina’s story, you know, there were really intense, uncomfortable, painful visions that were happening, and she had therapeutic support at the time to process that, to make sense of it.
But if you’re out there doing this on your own, that experience could be really devastating. So it’s really important that people don’t necessarily see this as this miracle solution that we’ve been waiting for. You know, yes, these are profound results. This therapy was life-changing for these particular individuals, but it’s still only 21 participants, and that is a very, very small group.
Feltman: You know, how far are we, do you think, from this being a widely available treatment option, if at all? And is there any desire to, you know, research psychedelics for other conditions that, you know, involve body dysmorphia but also just, you know, this connection to the body and sense of self?
Pattillo: Yes, there’s ongoing research on body dysmorphic disorder, on binge eating disorder, on bulimia, as well as psychiatric illnesses like anxiety, depression, PTSD, addiction. You know, there are psychologists, neuroscientists, psychopharmacologists all around the world who are looking at this data and are both very excited and also incredibly skeptical—so who are bringing these substances into their labs to see if this might be, you know, beneficial to broader populations. Off the top of my head, I can name like five different research groups that are actually looking at eating disorders specifically and looking at psilocybin therapy and also things like MDMA and ketamine therapy to see which or if, if any substances might be a useful tool in, sort of, the broader battle against eating disorders.
It’s very hard to say—to look, you know, into a crystal ball to see when there might be approvals. Like I mentioned, there’s a lot of excitement by U.S. regulators around psychedelic therapy for mental health. But I think in terms of, sort of, the broader field of mental health, there has been so much hype and also public fascination of these substances. And there needs to be a whole bunch more research, far more randomized controlled trials. This is not something that is going to be, sort of, approved on a whim, especially because it’s such a powerful and can be, sort of uh, immediately psychoactive. So there need to be, sort of, guardrails in place, and the researchers need to figure out, you know, who this works best for, “What’s the best treatment protocol? What is, you know, post-therapy integration look like?” They need to look at larger numbers of participants for many months, if not years, to see if there are any adverse events. You know, this is not necessarily without risks. So both the risks and the promise need to be rigorously analyzed.
Feltman: Well, thank you so much for coming on to talk with us about this.
Pattillo: Yeah, of course. It’s a pleasure. Thanks, Rachel.
Feltman: If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, you can contact the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders helpline by calling (888) 375-7767. For crisis situations, you can text “CONNECT” to 741741 to connect to a trained volunteer at Crisis Text Line. You can also call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or use the online Lifeline chat to get help with any kind of mental health crisis.
That’s all for today’s episode. We’ll be back on Monday with our weekly science news roundup.
Science Quickly is produced by me, Rachel Feltman, along with Fonda Mwangi and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was edited by Alex Sugiura. Marielle Issa and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Subscribe to Scientific American for more up-to-date and in-depth science news.
For Scientific American, this is Rachel Feltman. Have a great weekend.Author: Alex Sugiura. Rachel Feltman. Alexandra Pattillo. Fonda Mwangi. Source
