A drug touted as a cure-all was shown to damage mothers and children, exposing serious risks behind the hype. In a first-of-its-kind study published September 30 in Nature Communications, researchers at the University of California, Davis, discovered that psilocybin worsened postpartum depression-like indicators in mice and triggered long-lasting harms in both mothers and offspring. Mouse mothers given a single dose of psilocybin showed more anxiety, less grooming of their pups and heightened stress behaviors. “Two weeks after a single dose of psilocybin, the mothers were dramatically impaired,” said the study’s lead author, Cassandra Hatzipantelis. The researchers emphasize that mice are not humans, and results in rodent models do not guarantee equivalent effects in people.