When someone mentions the word “psychedelics,” what do you picture? Having grown up in San Francisco, I think of the hippies of the 1960s counterculture movement who experimented with and frequently promoted psychedelic drugs. My parents even pointed to examples of psychedelic usage to highlight the danger of drugs. Their cautionary tales almost always had the same result: individuals completely detached from reality and absorbed in hallucinations. You can imagine how surprised I was to learn that this type of drug is now being studied as a potential treatment for a variety of psychological disorders.
Much of this research centers around two psychoactive substances: psilocybin, a compound derived from over two hundred mushrooms, and MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy or molly. As demonstrated in recent studies, these drugs can treat individuals with nicotine addiction, depression and anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Psychedelic drugs also promote a structural change in brain circuitry, which provides an opportunity for effective, permanent improvements to health.
First, psilocybin offers tangible benefits to those with nicotine addiction and chronic depression. The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine tested the efficacy of this drug in curbing smoking habits. Researchers administered two to three doses of psilocybin for fifteen participants, tracking each person’s smoking habits twelve months and over sixteen months later. Overall, more than 60% of the study group reported that they had not smoked since their first time taking the psilocybin sample. Also at Johns Hopkins, psilocybin was shown to reduce the effects of depression and anxiety in cancer patients. This study included fifty-one participants who all had life-threatening cancer and likely mood disorders, such as depression. Six months after receiving a high-dosage of psilocybin, 80% of participants exhibited “large decreases in clinician- and self-rated measures of depressed mood and anxiety, along with increases in quality of life, life meaning, and optimism, and decreases in death anxiety.” Given the alarmingly high rate of 40% of cancer patients who experience mood disorders, the potential for this research to improve many individuals’ quality of life is tremendous. The takeaway from both experiments is clear: using a psychedelic drug in a controlled environment bettered participants’ psychiatric state.
Psychedelics’ chemical effect on the brain may help to explain its psychiatric benefits. Specifically, a study conducted at the University of California, Davis, illustrated these drugs’ ability to encourage neuroplasticity, or structural changes in the nervous system. Psychedelic drugs were applied to cultured neurons (from the brain’s cortex). The neurons were observed to grow several new branches, or dendrites, and extend the length of arbors, or a collection of dendrites in the brain. Several mood disorders, including anxiety and depression, are often linked to damage of cortical neurons. Therefore, the benefits of administering psychedelics to those with such disorders can be explained by the structural changes that occur within the brain. Roughly one third of patients are unresponsive to common antidepressant drugs. Psychedelics could be a concrete solution for these individuals: a way to actually better their psychiatric state.
While much more research is required on psychedelics before they can be established as a reliable tool, these drugs certainly engender change within the brain. For those who have struggled to find proper treatment for psychiatric disorders, psychedelics offer the chance of a healthy, balanced future.
Bibliography
Griffiths, Roland R et al. "Psilocybin produces substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer: A randomized double-blind trial." Journal of psychopharmacology (Oxford, England) vol. 30,12 (2016): 1181-1197. doi:10.1177/0269881116675513
Johnson, Matthew W., et al. "Long-term follow-up of psilocybin-facilitated smoking cessation." The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, vol. 43, no. 1, 21 July 2016, pp. 55-60, www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/00952990.2016.1170135?journalCode=iada20. Accessed 25 Sept. 2020.
Ly, Calvin, et al. "Psychedelics Promote Structural and Functional Neural Plasticity." Cell Reports, vol. 23, no. 11, 12 June 2018, pp. 3170-82, www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(18)30755-1#secsectitle0020. Accessed 25 Sept. 2020.
At the forefront of scientific research. Johns Hopkins Hub, Johns Hopkins University, 4 Sept. 2019, hub.jhu.edu/2019/09/04/hopkins-launches-psychedelic-center/. Accessed 25 Sept. 2020.