Peter Thiel is betting on magic mushrooms to treat depression — and he’s not the only one
One of them is Compass Pathways, a for-profit company that Silicon Valley entrepreneur Peter Thiel invested in last year. London-based entrepreneur Christian Angermayer, ex-hedge fund manager Mike Novogratz, and film producer Sam Englebardt are also backers of Compass … It has some notable advisors, including Tom Insel, the former director of the US National Institute of Mental Health, and Imperial College neuroscientist Robin Carhart-Harris.
Brain scan studies suggest that in people with depression, specific brain circuits — such as those involved in the sense of self — are overly strengthened, while other circuits — like those involved in a sense of reward or positivity — are weakened. Shrooms appear to essentially balance that activity by tamping down on the negative circuits and ramping up activity in the positive ones. “In the depressed brain, in the addicted brain, in the obsessed brain, it gets locked into a pattern of thinking or processing that’s driven by the frontal, the control center,” David Nutt, the director of the neuropsychopharmacology unit in the division of brain sciences at Imperial College London, told Business Insider in January.
Original Article (Business Insider):
Peter Thiel is betting on magic mushrooms to treat depression — and he’s not the only one
Artwork Fair Use: François Courboin
