Magic mushroom as depression therapy

(Note: Information for this article came from hopkinsmedicine.org, the official website of the Johns Hopkins Center.)

The Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research (PCR) in Baltimore, Maryland, is the pioneer in one of the most radical approaches in mental illness therapy, using a hallucinogenic mushroom, commonly known by street drug users as “magic mushroom.”

Medical scientists at Johns Hopkins have discovered that magic mushroom has an essential ingredient, psilocybin, a psychedelic compound that penetrates the central nervous system. It was discovered to reduce, if not totally eliminate, deep depression. They also found that psilocybin has a potential to cure Alzheimer’s, dementia and advanced alcoholism, although this needs further study.

In an initial “double blind” study, Johns Hopkins researchers reported that a majority of people beset by cancer-related anxiety or depression “found considerable relief for up to six months from a single large dose of psilocybin.”

Brain scans after the administration of psilocybin revealed that the claustrum, the part of the brain believed to be responsible for “setting attention and switching tasks,” was suppressed, which researchers related to the typical effects of generic psychedelic drugs, which included “feelings of being connected to everything and a reduced sense of self or ego.” This statement of a reduced sense of self and a connection to everything can be regarded as a form of “cosmic consciousness.”

To put it simply in layman’s terms, based on video interviews of the late Dr. Roland Griffiths and an unnamed patient, psilocybin has the power to alter the thinking or perspective of a person about himself and the world around him. To achieve this, Johns Hopkins subjects patients to a rigorous orientation in order to: a) fight the very strong attitudes of despair and hopelessness, and b) to open the mind to a new perspective.

In a lengthy interview, a young male patient, about 30 years old, said he was in a protracted depression for 10 to 15 years. His mindset was such that he did not believe he could get out of his rut, that he was hopeless. Johns Hopkins medical personnel had to reorient and guide him into believing that all was not hopeless. Only then did they administer psilocybin. In the end, there was a radical change in his perspective of himself and the world around him. He said psilocybin saved him: Zero depression.

Dr. Griffiths had described psilocybin as having a “rapid and enduring anti-anxiety effect.” He was careful not to generalize the effects of psilocybin and limit it at the time to treating depression in cancer patients, perhaps because the complexities of the mind were different for each person. There are many types of depression.

Griffiths talked about the supportive attitude of the US Food and Drug Administration, which considered the “breakthrough therapy status” of psilocybin. He estimated that FDA approval would happen in four to six years. It’s not an overnight affair.

He found it a “mystery” how psilocybin works like magic, so different from other traditional chemical anti-depression drugs. There is a simple answer to that. The molecular structure of organic substances “binds” or conforms with the molecular structure of the human body, the blood, organs and the brain. On the other hand, the molecular structure of chemical or synthetic drugs are “at war” with the molecular structure of the human body.

There are some unanswered questions. Is there a point at which a patient is completely healed of depression and does not have to take psilocybin? Or does one have to take it for the rest of their life. If so, will they develop a tolerance from the long term use of psilocybin, meaning will the effect lessen after long-term use?