Psilocybin, a psychedelic drug found in some fungi, can reduce inflammation
Shutterstock / Kyrylo Vasyliev
Psychedelic drugs can partly improve mental health by reducing inflammation. In mice, psychedelics have reversed the signs of anxiety and an accumulation of inflammatory immune cells around the brain, potentially explaining why these drugs proved to be promising in the treatment of mental health problems.
It was once widely believed that there was little or no communication between the immune system and the brain, but a set of emerging evidence now indicates that this is not the case.