PSILOCYBIN

DRUG
TREATMENT

LAKE MICHIGAN COLLEGE

JAMES NORRIS
BEGINNING OF
RESEARCH
 Albert Hoffman, Swiss Chemist, accidently invents
Lysergic Acid Diethylamide 1938
 Began as research to find chemical that induces psychosis
 Due to effect that LSD had on mental wellbeing, therapists
began to use it and other psychedelics as treatment for
patients previously thought of as untreatable

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HISTORY CONT.
LSD, psilocybin, and other psychedelics used to treat:

Addiction Depression OCD

Research continued until these drugs were criminalized to give excuse to lock
up anti-war protesters by Nixon

LSD, psilocybin, peyote and ayahuasca made into Schedule-1 Narcotics,

meaning no medicinal value & high potential for abuse
(even though over 1000 studies published before 1965)
As marijuana was brought more and more into the
mainstream, people began to wonder if other Schedule-1
drugs truly had no medicinal benefit…

 Marijuana legalized for medicinal use California: 1996

 Psilocybin decriminalized Colorado: 2019
 MEDICAL New York University School of Medicine

BENEFITS Psychological Aspects of Cancer, 2012

PSILOCYBIN
MAGIC MUSHROOMS
DEPRESSION
 Given to patients with terminal cancer who suffered severe depression
from their diagnosis, affects 30-40% of patients.
 Placebo, crossover study, 90% Caucasian 62% female
 After 8-month study, 70-80% of patients showed significant increases in
well being
 MEDICAL BENEFITS PSILOCYBIN
MAGIC MUSHROOMS
CLINICAL DEPRESSION

Psilocybin for treatment resistant depression; FMRI measured brain scans

 Small dose given to patients who did not respond to traditional

pharmaceutical treatment or therapy.
 Every single patients showed better mood after treatment, with
only one showing no signs of treatment 5 weeks after trial
 Higher amygdala blood flow associated with depression

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 Pilot Study of the 5-HT2AR Agonist Psilocybin in the
MEDICAL BENEFITS PSILOCYBIN Treatment of Tobacco Addiction
MAGIC MUSHROOMS Journal of Psychopharmacology
TOBACCO ADDICTION

Categories Mean (SD) Range

Sex a 10 M, 5 F
Age (years) 51 (10.5) 26–65  Patients screened who had severe addiction to
Education b tobacco, had smoked for a long time, and who had
 Some college 4 (26.7) tried to quit to no avail
 Bachelor’s degree 7 (46.7)
 7-months after trial, twelve out of fifteen patients
 Graduate degree 4 (26.7)
Cigarette dependence (FTCD) c 5.3 (1.3) 3–8 reported to have quit smoking
Years smoking 31 (9.9) 10–49  80% success rate compared to 35% success rate of
Previous quit attempts 6 (3.6) 2–12
traditional cessation methods (patch, behavioral
Cigarettes/day at intake 19 (2.9) 15–25
therapy, hypnosis)
WORKS CITED
 Carhart-Harris, Robin L, et al. “Psilocybin for Treatment-Resistant Depression: FMRI-Measured Brain
Mechanisms.” Scientific Reports, vol. 7, no. 1, 2017, doi:10.1038/s41598-017-13282-7.
 Grob, Charles S., et al. “Use of the Classic Hallucinogen Psilocybin for Treatment of Existential Distress
Associated with Cancer.” Psychological Aspects of Cancer, 2012, pp. 291–308., doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-4866-
2_17.
 Johnson, Matthew W, et al. “Pilot Study of the 5-HT2AR Agonist Psilocybin in the Treatment of Tobacco
Addiction.” Journal of Psychopharmacology, vol. 28, no. 11, 2014, pp. 983–992.,
doi:10.1177/0269881114548296.
 “Prologue: A New Door.” How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us about
Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence, by Michael Pollan, Penguin Press, 2019, p. 1.
 Vattano, Anthony J. “Psychedelic Drugs Reconsidered. By Lester Grinspoon and James B. Bakalar. New York:
Basic Books, 1979. 343 Pp. $15.95 Cloth.” Children & Schools, vol. 4, no. 1, 1981, pp. 71–72.,
doi:10.1093/cs/4.1.71.