A Single Administration of Psilocybin Persistently Rescues Cognitive Deficits Caused by Adolescent Chronic Restraint Stress Without Long-Term Changes in Synaptic Protein Gene Expression in a Rat Experimental System with Translational Relevance to Depression.
Psychedelic medicine (New Rochelle, N.Y.) March 1, 2023 Meghan Hibicke, Hannah M Kramer, Charles D Nichols 25 citations
A single dose of psilocybin rescued cognitive function and reduced passive coping behavior in adult female rats that had experienced chronic stress during adolescence, effects that persisted for at least five weeks. Psilocybin did not alter these behaviors in non-stressed rats. The degree of immobility in the forced swim test correlated with impaired object pattern separation ability. No long-term changes in mRNA expression for synaptic plasticity-related genes were observed across several brain regions, though stress contributed to variability in the gene for glutamate metabotropic receptor 2 in the hippocampus. These findings suggest psilocybin produces enduring antidepressant-like effects without lasting alterations in synaptic density gene expression.