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Magic Mushrooms May Be the Biggest Advance in Treating Depression Since Prozac

“The idea psychedelics liberate some of these powerfully valent, deeper emotional areas of the brain—the limbic areas involved in memory and emotion—to have their say is consistent with what people are reporting,” says [Charles Raison, a psychiatrist from the University of Wisconsin-Madison], who also serves as director of clinical and translational research for Usona Institute, a nonprofit that is leading a clinical trial of psilocybin. “They are often overcome by these really, really powerful emotions that are surprising, as if they’re coming from the outside but yet seem completely credible and utterly believable. These areas are liberated and get their day in court.”