Research: Psilocybin Improves Depression
Posted by Warm Southern Breeze on Wednesday, July 7, 2021
Better living through chemistry.
Because corrupt Republican President Richard Nixon’s 50-year lost cause, failed social experiment of the “War on Drugs” and Nancy Reagan’s “just say no” have never, and will never, work, nor ever benefited anyone who needed help — only those who perpetuated the war.
And, because no one — NO ONE — has ever said “when I grow up, I want to become an addict,” nor waked up one day and said, “gee… I think I want to become an addict.”
In September 2018, Johns Hopkins researchers suggested that psilocybin should be re-categorized from a schedule I drug — one with no known medical potential — to a schedule IV drug (the lowest classification) such as with prescription sleep aids, but with somewhat tighter control, and summarized their analysis in the October print issue of Neuropharmacology, a peer-review professional journal.
Dr. Matthew W. Johnson, Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins is one of the world’s leading researchers, and most published scientists on the effects of psychedelics on humans, and has conducted original and innovative research in the behavioral economics of drug use, addiction, and risk behavior. Dr. Johnson earned his Ph.D. in experimental psychology at the University of Vermont in 2004.
Dr. Johson spoke with JHU reporters about the research, and said, “We want to initiate the conversation now as to how to classify psilocybin to facilitate its path to the clinic and minimize logistical hurdles in the future. We expect these final clearance trials to take place in the next five years or so. We should be clear that psilocybin is not without risks of harm, which are greater in recreational than medical settings, but relatively speaking, looking at other drugs both legal and illegal, it comes off as being the least harmful in different surveys and across different countries. We believe that the conditions should be tightly controlled and that when taken for a clinical reason, it should be administered in a health care setting, monitored by a person trained for that situation.”
One Dose Of Psilocybin Improved Neural Connections Lost In Depression, Study Says
By Joseph Guzman, July 6, 2021
The psychedelic psilocybin mushroom has shown promise in treating depression, and a number of clinical trials into the fungus’s therapeutic effects have been conducted in recent years.
But now, a Yale University study published in the peer reviewed professional journal Neuron July 5, 2021, has shed light on how the compound psilocybin —the active ingredient found in so-called “magic mushrooms” — may produce antidepressant effects.
Researchers administered a single dose of psilocybin to mice and used a laser-scanning microscope to visualize dendritic spines in the rodents’ brains in high resolution. Dendritic spines are small protrusions found on nerve cells that play a key role in transmitting information between neurons. Previous laboratory experiments demonstrated promise that psilocybin, and the anesthetic ketamine, could decrease depression.
Stress and depression degrade and reduce the number of neuronal connections.
Within 24 hours of the single psychedelic dose, researchers observed an immediate and lasting increase in the number and size of dendritic spines. Those changes were still present in the mice a month after the dose. Exactly how, and for how long psilocybin works in the brain to exert beneficial effects is unclear.
This most recent study follows a double-blind placebo-controlled study conducted by the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which showed that psilocybin performed just as well at treating depression in patients as the conventional antidepressant escitalopram (Lexapro), a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), when administered in a therapeutic context.
That study was led by Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris, PhD, Head of the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London, which included renown neuropsychopharmacologist Professor David J. Nutt, MRCP (Membership of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the United Kingdom), founder of not-for-profit drug research group DrugScience.
Professor Nutt was infamously dismissed October 2009 from his position as Chairman of the British government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs for correctly stating that riding horses was more dangerous than taking ecstasy. (One serious incident reported per 10,000 exposures to ecstasy, compared with one serious incident reported per 350 exposures to horse riding).
Dr. Alex Kwan, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Yale School of Medicine, and lead author of the recent psilocybin study, wrote a statement which in part stated that, “We not only saw a 10% increase in the number of neuronal connections, but also, they were on average about 10% larger, so the connections were stronger as well. It was a real surprise to see such enduring changes from just one dose of psilocybin. These new connections may be the structural changes the brain uses to store new experiences.”
Mice involved in the experiment that were subjected to stress also showed behavioral improvements and increased neurotransmitter activity.
Researchers said it could be the psychological experience itself that prompts the physiological changes. Psilocybin alters users’ perceptions, and has long been used for its so-called hallucinogenic effects in religious ceremonies and recreationally.
The research:
Psilocybin Induces Rapid And Persistent Growth Of Dendritic Spines In Frontal Cortex In Vivo
https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(21)00423-2
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