A case report published in Frontiers in Neuroscience details the remarkable but temporary recovery of an elderly Japanese-American woman with advanced Alzheimer's disease after she was administered psilocybin-containing mushrooms.
The woman, who had been living with Alzheimer's for about a decade and was in a state of severe dementia with limited speech, received two doses of the mushrooms: a 5-gram oral dose, followed by a 3-gram dose one month later.
After the first dose, she experienced sweating and a sleep-like state, but 19 hours later, she spontaneously began an autobiographical conversation lasting several hours. In the following days and weeks, she regained urinary continence, was able to walk independently, dress herself, and showed improvements in memory and emotional expression.
The benefits lasted at least one month, but the researchers caution that this is a single case study without a control group or brain imaging. Dr. Marc Siegel, a Fox News medical analyst, expressed skepticism, noting the effects were temporary and unpredictable in a patient with such impairment. The study's authors call for larger, controlled clinical trials to confirm the findings.