Psychedelics No Better Than Antidepressants for Depression, Study Finds

Psychedelic-assisted therapy did not outperform traditional antidepressants in treating major depression, researchers say.

Mar. 23, 2026 at 7:00pm by Ben Kaplan

Got story updates? Submit your updates here. ›

A new evidence review published in JAMA Psychiatry has found that psychedelic drugs do not appear to work any better than antidepressants among people with major depression. Researchers compared the results from 16 open-label antidepressant trials against eight trials of psychedelic-assisted therapy and found that patients improved substantially from both types of treatment, with their depression scores falling by about 12 points on a standard 52-point scale.

Why it matters

This study challenges the growing enthusiasm around using psychedelics like LSD and psilocybin to treat mental health conditions like depression. While previous studies have indicated potential benefits of psychedelics, this review suggests their advantage over standard antidepressants may be smaller than many expected.

The details

To get around the challenge of designing strict clinical trials that compare psychedelics directly against a placebo, researchers compared the pooled results from psychedelic therapy trials to the results from open-label trials of antidepressants, in which patients are aware they're taking an antidepressant. This way, both treatments benefit equally from the positive effect that comes with patients knowing they're getting a drug. The study found that patients improved substantially from both types of treatment.

  • The study was published on March 23, 2026.

The players

Balázs Szigeti

A clinical data scientist at the University of California, San Francisco's Translational Psychedelic Research Program and the senior researcher on the study.

Got photos? Submit your photos here. ›

What they’re saying

“What I wanted to show is that even if you compare psychedelics to open-label antidepressants, psychedelics are still much better.”

— Balázs Szigeti, Senior Researcher

“Unfortunately, what we got is the opposite result — that they are the same, which is very surprising given the enthusiasm around psychedelics and mental health.”

— Balázs Szigeti, Senior Researcher

What’s next

The researchers say that while psychedelics may still be a valuable treatment option, if we want to understand their true benefits, we have to compare them fairly to standard antidepressants.

The takeaway

This study suggests the advantage of psychedelics over traditional antidepressants in treating depression may be smaller than previously thought, tempering some of the enthusiasm around using psychedelics for mental health conditions.