The Effectiveness of Microdosed Psilocybin in the Treatment of Neuropsychiatric Lyme Disease: A Case Study
International Medical Case Reports Journal – March 01, 2023
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
A patient suffering severe, treatment-resistant neuropsychiatric Lyme disease found significant relief using microdosed psilocybin. This potent hallucinogen, increasingly explored in Medicine, particularly within Psychiatry and Psychedelics and Drug Studies, offers a novel approach when conventional drugs fail. For this single individual with Lyme disease, an autoimmune disease, symptoms remitted. Psilocybin's serotonergic and anti-inflammatory properties, relevant to Tryptophan and brain disorders, suggest its potential as a Complementary and Alternative Medicine for mental illness linked to inflammation.
Abstract
Lyme disease can result in severe neuropsychiatric symptoms that may be resistant to treatment. The pathogenesis of neuropsychiatric Lyme disease is associated with autoimmune induced neuroinflammation. This case report describes an immunocompetent male with serologically positive neuropsychiatric Lyme disease who did not tolerate antimicrobial or psychotropic medications and whose symptoms remitted when he began psilocybin in microdosed (sub-hallucinogenic) amounts. A literature review of its therapeutic benefits reveals that psilocybin is both serotonergic and anti-inflammatory and therefore may offer significant therapeutic benefits to patients with mental illness secondary to autoimmune inflammation. The role of microdosed psilocybin in the treatment of neuropsychiatric Lyme disease and autoimmune encephalopathies warrants further study.