The federal government launched a behavioral health research initiative, with $50 million allocated to match state investments in psychedelic research, including psilocybin, a hallucinogenic compound being studied to treat serious mental illness.
Research interest in psilocybin is growing, particularly for its potential to treat depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction. The FDA has granted breakthrough therapy designation to psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for major depressive disorder and treatment-resistant depression. President Donald Trump also recently fast-tracked psychedelics for mental health treatment.
The initiative — Evidence-Based Validation and Innovation for Rapid Therapeutics in Behavioral Health — will contribute data, including a phase 2a clinical trial and eight approved clinical trials on psilocybin, as well as three additional approved psilocybin trials.
In 1970, the U.S. classified psilocybin as a Schedule I substance, though some states and jurisdictions have descriminalized or deprioritized enforcement. The compound is derived from certain types of mushrooms and is metabolized in the body to psilocin. Commonly known as “magic mushrooms,” “mushrooms” or “shrooms,” the substance is found in Mexico, Central America and the U.S., with its use tracing back thousands of years in some regions, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Here are seven things to know:
1. The substance is typically ingested orally, brewed as tea or mixed with food and may also be consumed in small “microdoses.” It produces effects similar to other hallucinogens, such as mescaline and LSD, according to the NIDA.
2. Psilocin “attaches to and activates receptors for the brain chemical serotonin.” Psilocin activity at the receptor “affects how the brain works and how different brain regions communicate with each other,” the NIDA said.
3. The drug can cause individuals to “experience distorted sights and sounds and lose their sense of time and space. People who take psilocybin may also feel intense emotions ranging from bliss to terror,” according to the NIDA.
4. Physical effects may include nausea, vomiting, muscle weakness, increased heart rate and lack of coordination. Psychological effects may include hallucinations, anxiety, paranoia and difficulty distinguishing fantasy from reality, with effects that may be long lasting.
5. Risks include unpredictable experience, potential psychosis, accident poisoning from misidentified mushrooms and possible death at high doses, the NIDA said.
6. Research into psilocybin and other psychedelics is expanding, including a $55 million effort from Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research to develop treatments for psychiatric and behavioral disorders and study effects in healthy volunteers.
A Johns Hopkins Medicine study found psilocybin with talk therapy improved depression symptoms, with some participants reporting benefits lasting up to one year after two doses.
7. One study included 58,633 respondents and captured psilocybin-specific use over the prior 12 months. It found adults ages 18-25 have 1.4 times the odds of psilocybin use compared to those ages 35-49. Individuals older than 50 have about one-third lower odds.
Males had 1.7 times the odds of use compared to females, and white respondents had 2.5 times the odds of Black respondents and 1.4 times the odds of Hispanic respondents. Individuals who experienced a major depressive episode in the past year had higher odds of psilocybin use.
Individuals who experienced a major depressive episode in the past year had higher odds of psilocybin use, and clinicians should routinely ask patients about use and provide harm-reduction counseling, according to the study.
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