{"id":17695,"date":"2018-09-07T16:40:16","date_gmt":"2018-09-07T21:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thepapergown.zocdoc.com\/?p=17695"},"modified":"2023-03-03T15:11:05","modified_gmt":"2023-03-03T20:11:05","slug":"taking-mushrooms-seriously","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zocdoc.com\/blog\/healthcare-trends\/taking-mushrooms-seriously\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking Mushrooms Seriously"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a Friday morning in June, a crowd of mostly Boomer-aged men in tie-dye and Hawaiian shirts milled about the ballroom of the UCLA student union, where colorful, swirling posters hung from the walls. It was the first-ever\u00a0Los Angeles Psychedelic Symposium<\/a>, a two-day conference featuring presentations by prominent hallucinogen researchers, interspersed with\u00a0New Age activities like a\u00a0breathwork panel and an afternoon sound bath.<\/p>\n

While the symposium was held in the name of modern science, its vibe recalled the freewheeling ’60s: Everything was running about an hour behind schedule. Neither of the two people I had arranged to meet showed up or responded to my many text messages. Just past a booth advertising an ayahuasca retreat, I overheard a kaleidoscopic art vendor telling a customer to go off her antidepressants. And someone was playing a sitar.<\/p>\n

Even so, if emerging research is any indication, psychedelics including psilocybin, LSD and MDMA (Ecstasy) are due for a PR overhaul. The recent resurgence of these drugs in scientific research has yielded promising results. Psilocybin, the psychoactive compound in so-called magic mushrooms, has been shown to relieve depression and anxiety in <\/span>terminal cancer patients<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>help smokers kick their habit<\/span><\/a> and even <\/span>treat addiction<\/span><\/a>. At the American Psychological Association\u2019s annual conference in August, <\/span>researchers presented work suggesting<\/span><\/a> that MDMA, psilocybin and ayahuasca, coupled with psychotherapy, could effectively treat PTSD, depression and anxiety. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese drugs have the potential to make a real impact on people with substance-use disorders and mood disorders,\u201d said Frederick Barrett, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University and a leading hallucinogen researcher. \u201cThere are not many successful treatments for either of these things. This could revolutionize psychiatry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Barrett and his colleagues have been leading studies at Johns Hopkins<\/span> for more than a decade, and similar hallucinogen research has started up at other universities around the world. <\/span><\/p>\n

M<\/span>any who\u2019ve studied psilocybin tout its potential as an apparent wonder drug \u2014 one that can eliminate pain, add meaning to a person\u2019s life and ease anxiety around mortality.\u00a0<\/span>Two studies published in the<\/span> Journal of Psychopharmacology<\/span><\/i> in December 2016<\/span><\/a> showed that a single dose of psilocybin, combined with counseling, significantly alleviated depression and anxiety in people with an advanced cancer diagnosis.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It may be that psilocybin, LSD and other psychedelics work best for people who are most open to the experience.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Researchers at Imperial College in London<\/span><\/a> found that some subjects with treatment-resistant depression described the effect of psilocybin as a \u201creboot,\u201d alleviating their symptoms and improving their moods overall. <\/span>The prospect of a drug with a lasting impact after just one or two doses has potential to dramatically alter the way doctors treat conditions like depression. \u201cIt really breaks the medical model of pharmacotherapy,\u201d Barrett said. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The current treatment model for many mood disorders involves taking drugs indefinitely. Once the pills stop, the disorder returns. Potentially, with psilocybin, Barrett explained, \u201cyou take the drug one or two times, and with the proper setting and proper care and aftercare, this will basically change the course of the disease. That\u2019s exactly the impetus to study these drugs further.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Psilocybin research involving healthy subjects, Barrett pointed out, shows the lasting impact of the drugs as well. \u201cI still find it fascinating that people can say, \u2018It\u2019s one of the top meaningful experiences or the most meaningful experience of my life,\u2019\u201d in the same category as the birth of a child or other milestone.<\/span><\/p>\n

Up to this point, many of these studies have only been performed on small groups of people. The task for researchers now is to replicate the results of previous studies on a larger scale. \u201cWe have to begin to test that these drugs will work on a broader range of people,\u201d said Barrett. \u201cWe need to know if it\u2019s just a certain segment of the population for whom this will work. It may be that psilocybin, LSD and [other] psychedelics work best for people who are most open to the experience.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A lot of psychedelic studies follow a similar protocol: Participants lie down on a couch with eye masks on, tucked under blankets and listening to music through headphones. The setup is \u201calmost like a cocoon,\u201d Barrett says. Participants take the drug in capsule form with water. A guide, often a licensed therapist, monitors participants for their whole therapeutic trip, which can last six to eight hours.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some current psilocybin research is focused on what Barrett calls \u201cnerdy\u201d questions about how the drug works on a molecular level, which brain receptors it binds to and how it affects<\/span> brain chemistry<\/span> on a long-term basis. (Many published psilocybin studies look at the acute, or short-term, effects of the drug.)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still preliminary because the final data are not published yet,\u201d he said. \u201cBut psilocybin seems to be affecting brain regions involved in the cognitive control of emotion, so that we don\u2019t have to exert as much mental effort to regulate negative emotion.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m almost right-wing about high doses. You need a guide and people who know what they\u2019re doing, or you can get in trouble.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Scientists studied psychedelics extensively in the 1950s and \u201860s, until the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 classified the drugs as illegal. Psilocybin, LSD and MDMA all remain Schedule I drugs today, in the same category as cannabis and heroin. Beliefs about the drugs, like their tendency to \u201cfry your brain\u201d or that LSD gets trapped in your spinal fluid, simply aren\u2019t true, says Barrett. But they are persistent. <\/span><\/p>\n

Activist groups in three states \u2014 California, Colorado and Oregon \u2014 have tried to make legalization of psychedelics a ballot initiative, but haven\u2019t yet succeeded. Barrett doesn\u2019t think hallucinogens should or will follow that same path to legalization, even for medical use, as marijuana has in many states.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHallucinogens are far different from cannabis,\u201d he said. \u201cThe acute drug effects can be much stronger and lead to much riskier behaviors if you\u2019re not in a safe environment. That\u2019s not to say that they can\u2019t be safely used in controlled situations \u2014 quite the opposite. Under the right circumstances, they can be safely administered, but it might be irresponsible to take them in the same direction cannabis has gone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Psychologist James Fadiman, who has studied and experimented with psychedelics for decades, is looking at the effects of <\/span>microdosing<\/span><\/a>. The term has become something of a buzzword; it means taking extremely small amounts of a hallucinogen \u2014 5 to 10 micrograms, about one-twentieth to one-tenth the size of a recreational dose. He calls his microdosing endeavors \u201csearch\u201d instead of \u201cresearch.\u201d Search, as Fadiman describes it, is less formal and more geared towards discovery.<\/span><\/p>\n

On his <\/span>website<\/span><\/a>, Fadiman enlists people who microdose to keep records of their experiences and submit data, and he says thousands have participated. While this crowdsourcing project is far from a controlled study, Fadiman sees it as a way to map out new research territory. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou discover things you wouldn\u2019t discover otherwise,\u201d he said. \u201cNobody in the world would say, \u2018Take a psychedelic if you\u2019re having a bad period.\u2019 But for a number of women in our exploration with difficult periods, it turns it around. It\u2019s amazing.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

In his search, Fadiman is less concerned with accepted benchmarks like statistical significance. He looks for trends, like psychedelics soothing severe period pain, and passes them along to other researchers, so they can test his observations in formal studies. For Fadiman, having witnessed the criminalization of the drugs after decades of working with them, current university research represents an exciting shift. \u201cLet\u2019s just say I know the way Moses felt when, after 40 years in the desert, they said, \u2018Oh look, you can settle here.\u2019”<\/span><\/p>\n

Like Barrett, he emphasizes the importance of exercising caution when it comes to consuming larger doses. \u201cI\u2019m almost right-wing about high doses,\u201d Fadiman told me. \u201cYou need a guide and people who know what they\u2019re doing, or you can get in trouble. But with microdoses, for instance, either you or I could have taken a microdose this morning and we\u2019re both perfectly effective at our jobs.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are certainly people who think that we\u2019re nuts and this shouldn\u2019t be happening,\u201d said Barrett, \u201cbut I think there are an equal if not far greater number of people who are willing to look at data and ask, \u2018Could this be an effective therapy?\u2019 And that\u2019s where we are \u2014 trying to answer that question.\u201d\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Ready to book a doctor’s appointment? Visit Zocdoc.<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Psychedelics are due for a PR overhaul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":17696,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[229],"tags":[136,90,132,106],"class_list":["post-17695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthcare-trends","tag-culture","tag-feature","tag-research","tag-treatment","reviewer-dr-nassim-assefi"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat to Know About Psilocybin Mushrooms for Medical Treatments<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Psilocybin, the psychoactive compound in so-called magic mushrooms, has been shown to relieve depression and anxiety in terminal cancer patients, help smokers kick their habit and even treat addiction.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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