Could magic mushrooms replace antidepressants? 17 Apr, 2021 01:45 AM 7 minutes to read Dried Psilocybe mushrooms. Photo / Erik Fenderson, Wikipedia Daily Telegraph UK By: Miranda Levy As the world unlocks and we celebrate our freedom, the cost of Covid on our mental health is clear. By the middle of 2020, one in five people in the UK was suffering from depression, twice the number in 2019, says the Office for National Statistics. As a result, there has been a spike in demand for antidepressants – prescriptions for which had already doubled in the past decade. Even before the pandemic, criticism of antidepressants – the mainstay treatment for emotional distress for some 30 years – was growing.