Author: Gary Jackson

Johns Hopkins Scientists Give Psychedelics the Serious Treatment

All four studies combined psilocybin with some form of psychotherapy and showed a beneficial effect of psilocybin-assisted therapy on SUD, but the risk of bias ranged from some concerns to critical. Future (double-blind, placebo-controlled) RCTs in patients with SUD need to evaluate whether psilocybin-assisted therapy is effective in this population. Recent years have seen a resurgence in psychedelic research, a development sometimes referred to as the psychedelic renaissance. As shown by Fuentes et al. (6), many trials have been conducted assessing the efficacy of LSD in SUD in these early decades, which may have been an important era for psilocybin research as well (6). In addition, many trials evaluating the efficacy of psilocybin in SUDs have been started since 2016, some of which may already have been published and not yet included in previous systematic reviews.

• This is a condition called hallucinogen-persisting perception disorder and is rare.
• The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
• Comparison of acute lethal toxicity of commonly abused psychoactive substances.

The subjects returned to the lab for the next 10 weeks to have their breath and urine tested for evidence of smoking and came back for follow-up meetings six and 12 months after their target quit date. Most psychedelics have been illegal in the United States for the past 50 years. But recently, there’s been a renewed interest in psychedelics.

How is NIDA supporting research on psilocybin?

Scientists began studying psilocybin decades ago, along with related substances like lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), to examine their potential to treat mental illness, including substance use disorders. Psychedelic drugs—once promising research subjects that were decades ago relegated to illicit experimentation in dorm rooms—have been steadily making their way back into the lab for a revamped 21st-century-style look. Scientists are rediscovering what many see as the substances’ astonishing therapeutic potential for a vast range of issues, from depression to drug addiction and acceptance of mortality. A frenzy of interest has captivated a new generation of researchers, aficionados and investors, triggering some understandable wariness over promises that may sound a little too good to be true.

The effects of psilocybin are generally similar to those of LSD. They include altered perception of time and space and intense changes in mood and feeling. Psilocybin is a Schedule I substance, meaning that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) believes it has a high potential for abuse and serves no legitimate medical purpose.

In an emergency? Need treatment?

A recent review found that the risks of psychedelic use may be somewhat exaggerated. For example, a study of 20 different illegal drugs (including psychedelics) found LSD and psilocybin to be two of the least dangerous. Addiction (substance use disorder) is a health condition where a person uses a substance, despite it leading to major problems in their life. Addiction can happen with many different substances — including hallucinogens. When this happens, it’s called hallucinogen use disorder (HUD).

• But this may change soon, as individual states (like Oregon) and even the federal government pave the way for more widespread access.
• Psychedelics, also known as hallucinogens, are a class of mind-altering drugs.
• One study examined the ability of psilocybin to reduce depression symptoms without dulling emotions.
• At least 5 RCTs are ongoing assessing the efficacy of psilocybin in patients with alcohol use disorder, including a double-blind, placebo-controlled RCT, in patients with comorbid alcohol use disorder and major depressive disorder (Table 2).
• After several days of repeated LSD use, your body may no longer respond to it — no matter how much you take.
• After swallowing the pill, she put on an eye-mask, lay on a couch and went on a psychedelic trip with two therapists nearby for the next five hours.

This experience can be blissful, but it may also be frightening, and cause fear or panic. “You’re not likely to overdose on them, but you can have life-changing negative experiences,” Katharine Neill Harris, a drug policy researcher at Rice University in Texas, said. One quality they share is the ability to create an altered state of consciousness, commonly referred to as a trip. That effect can either provide a sense of perspective — or be downright terrifying. Hallucinogen use disorders among adult users of MDMA and other hallucinogens.

What are the possible side effects of psychedelics?

In recent years there has been a spate of research suggesting psychedelic drugs can help people manage mental health conditions like depression, anxiety, chronic pain or even eating disorders. But a growing body of data points to one as the leading contender to treat the intractable disease of substance abuse. Psilocybin, the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms, has shown promise in limited early studies, not only in alcohol and harder drugs, but also nicotine — all of which resist long term treatment. No studies were identified that evaluated the efficacy of psilocybin in patients with opioid use disorder. In the 1950s–1970s, studies conducted with LSD—which acts on the same brain receptors as psilocybin—reported strong results in treating substance use disorders, including alcohol and heroin addiction. But when LSD became illegal in 1968, funding for this work gradually dried up.