Could Magic Mushrooms Be Used

To Treat Anxiety & Depression?

Emerging research indicates that low doses of the active chemical
psilocybin can have positive psychiatric effects.
Photo: John Downing
In the 1960s and early 70s, researchers such as Harvards Timothy
Leary enthusiastically promoted the study of so-called magic
mushrooms (formally known as psilocybin mushrooms) and
championed their potential benefits for psychiatry. For a brief
moment, it seemed that controlled experiments with mushrooms and
other psychedelics would enter the scientific mainstream.
Then, everything changed. A backlash against the 1960s drug
culturealong with Leary himself, who was arrested for drug
possessionmade research nearly impossible. The federal
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government criminalized mushrooms,
and research ground to a halt for over 30
years.
But recently, over the past few years, the
pendulum has swung back in the other
direction. And now, new research into the
mind-altering chemical psilocybin in
particularthe hallucinogenic ingredient
in magic mushroomshas indicated
that carefully controlled, low doses of it
might be an effective way of treating
people with clinical depression and
anxiety.
The latest study, published last week
in Experimental Brain Research, showed
that dosing mice with a purified form of
psilocybin reduced their outward signs of
fear. The rodents in the study had been
conditioned to associate a particular
noise with the feeling of being electrically
shocked, and all the mice in the
experiment kept freezing in fear when the
sound was played even after the
shocking apparatus was turned off. Mice
who were given low doses of the drug, though, stopped freezing
much earlier on, indicating that they were able to disassociate the
stimuli and the negative experience of pain more easily.
Psilocybin, the active chemical in hallucinogenic mushrooms. (Black
= carbon atoms, white = hydrogen, red = oxygen, blue = nitrogen,
and orange = phosphorus.) Image via Wikimedia Commons/Jynto
Its difficult to ask a tortured mouse why exactly it feels less fearful
(and presumably even more difficult when that mouse is in the midst
of a mushroom trip). But a handful of other recent studies have
demonstrated promising effects of psilocybin on a more
communicative group of subjects: humans.
In 2011, a study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry by
researchers from UCLA and elsewhere found that low doses of
psilocybin improved the moods and reduced the anxiety of 12 late-
stage terminal cancer patients over a long period. These were
patients aged 36 to 58 who suffered from depression and had failed
to respond to conventional medications.
Each patient was given either a pure dose of psilocybin or a placebo,
and asked to report their levels of depression and anxiety several
times over the next few months. Those whod been dosed with
psilocybin had lower anxiety levels at one and three months, and
reduced levels of depression starting two weeks after treatment and
continuing for a full six months, the entire period covered by the
study. Additionally, carefully administering low doses and controlling
the environment prevented any participants from having a negative
experience while under the influence (colloquially, a bad trip.)
A research group from Johns Hopkins has conducted the longest-
running controlled study of the effects of psilocybin, and their
findings might be the most promising of all. In 2006, they gave 36
healthy volunteers (whod never before tried hallucinogens) a dose
of the drug, and 60 percent reported having a full mystical
experience. 14 months later, the majority reported higher levels of
overall well-being than before and ranked taking psilocybin as one of
the five most personally significant experiences of their lives. In
2011, the team conducted a study with a separate group, and when
members of that group were questioned a full year later, the
researchers found that according to personality tests,
the participants openness to new ideas and feelings had increased
significantlya change seldom seen in adults had increased.
Psilocybe cubensis is the most common species of psilocybin
mushrooms. Image via Wikimedia Commons/Wowbobwow12
As with many questions involving the functioning of the mind,
scientists are still in the beginning stages of figuring out whether
and how psilocybin triggers these effects. We do know that soon
after psilocybin is ingested (whether in mushrooms or in a purified
form), its broken down into psilocin, which stimulates the brains
receptors for serotonin, a neurotransmitter believed to promote
positive feelings (and also stimulated by conventional anti-
depressant drugs).
Imaging of the brain on psilocybin is in its infancy. A 2012 study in
which volunteers were dosed while in an fMRI (functional magnetic
resonance imaging) machine, which measures blood flow to various
parts of the brain, indicated that the drug decreased activity in a pair
of hub areas (the medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate
cortex), which have dense concentrations of connections with other
areas in the brain.
These hubs constrain our experience of the world and keep it
orderly, David Nutt, a neurobiologist at the Imperial College London
and lead author, said at the time. We now know that deactivating
these regions leads to a state in which the world is experienced as
strange. Its unclear how this could help with depression and anxiety
or whether its simply an unrelated consequences of the drug that
has nothing to do with its beneficial effects.
Regardless, the push for more research into the potential
applications of psilocybin and other hallucinogens is clearly
underway. Wired recently profiled the roughly 1,600 scientists who
attended the 3rd annual Psychedelic Science meeting, many of
which are studying psilocybinalong with other drugs like LSD
(a.k.a. acid) and MDMA (a.k.a. ecstasy).
Of course, theres an obvious problem with using psilocybin
mushrooms as medicineor even researching its effects in a lab
setting. Currently, in the U.S., theyre listed as a Schedule I
controlled substance, meaning that theyre illegal to buy, possess,
use or sell, and cant be prescribed by a doctor, because they have
no accepted medical use. The research that has occurred went on
under strict government supervision, and getting approval for new
studies is notoriously difficult.
That said, the fact that research is occurring at all is an obvious sign
that things are slowly changing. The idea that medicinal use of
marijuana would one day be permitted in dozens of states would
have once seemed far-fetchedso perhaps its not entirely absurd
to suggest that medicinal mushrooms could be next.
Source: Smithsonian Mag My Science Academy

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Rosemarie Eagle
FYI !
Reply Like Follow Post December 9, 2013 at 11:57pm 2
Mike Fryberger The Old School Of Hard Knocks
I'll take a pound! lol
Reply Like December 10, 2013 at 12:25am
Laura Harvey Dallas, Texas
Looking at a perspective as a medicinal alternative, I question the aspect of this as being saf e. If people drink and
drive it causes serious consequences, as well as hazardous to your liver. Theref ore, even small doses of mind
altering substances could prove deadly driving a vehicle. While marajuana may slow reaction time, I think it would be
a saf er alternative.
Rd
Reply Like Follow Post November 13, 2013 at 2:08am 1
Kathy Willis Stockton, Calif ornia
Just move to Calif ornia.lol
Reply Like November 13, 2013 at 3:44am
Saenen Laurent OSG De Meergronden
Marihuana is NOT a good idea to treat anxiety or depressions, it can even cause it!!!!
The main argument against marijuana is that it does not produce Serotonin, but af f ects anandamide which is present
in brain and produces soothing f eeling by reacting with THC which is present in marijuana. This can actually
increase the depression and cause schizophrenia like in regular illegal use af ter a prolonged use. It is always saf e
to administer antidepressant under medical care than use the illegal substance. Also, the constituents of marijuana
interf ere with the process of balancing the chemicals which antidepressants work to achieve and in f act it may
aggravate the condition instead of curing it.
Reply Like Follow Post December 8, 2013 at 10:42pm
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