DOCTOR SAYS TO FEED YOUR HEAD
Could it soon be possible to prescribe psychedelic drugs such as LSD and mushrooms, for patients with anxiety and depression? Studies suggest a carefully monitored "trip" via LSD or psilocybin, could be therapeutic.
Could psychoactive party drugs like ecstacy, and hallucinogens like LSD, be harnessed safely to relieve mental illness?
When Tammy Burgess of the US was diagnosed with ovary cancer in 2010, the disease had already spread throughout her abdomen and to her lungs, so doctors immediately initiated nine weeks of intensive treatment, during which she had aggressive chemotherapy.
The treatment was efficient, but during the course of the disease, the uncertainty had drained Tammy Burgess, who was constantly imagining the scary ultrasound scans and tumours. The fear caused another disease: depression. Neither therapy, nor antidepressants helped. As the last resort, she volunteered to participate in a controversial experiment. A doctor aimed to treat psychiatric patients with the psilocybin drug, which exists in magic mushrooms.
When Tammy Burgess appeared for the experiment at the New York City University, she was given a capsule with the psilocybin drug, before she laid down on the doctor’s examination couch. Shortly after, Tammy Burgess in her thoughts flew through a pitch- black universe with beautiful, shining stars of different colours, as a voice greeted her. She answered: “Hi, I am Tammy from Earth.” She flew past a doctor and asked, if a cure against cancer would ever be deve-loped. The doctor replied that it was irrelevant, as we will all die one day. The answer comforted her in a wonderful way.
The doctor behind the experiment is psychiatrist Steven Ross, who has carried out psilocybin experiments on psychiatric patients and cancer patients with depression and fear of death for 10 years. He has
witnessed the same calming effect of the drug, by which participants feel inner peace – even patients with incurable cancer. And Steven Ross is not the only doctor who has realized the positive effect of psyche-delic drugs on mental disorders.
Several experiments have shown that LSD, psilocybin, and ecstasy can be efficient against a series of mental disorders. Throughout the world, psychiatrists have hence begun to study the drugs’ effect on diseases such as anxiety and depression.
PIONEER CONSUMED TENFOLD DOSE
It is not the first time that the drugs have caused attention among doctors. LSD was synthesized by Albert Hofmann from Swiss pharmaceutical maker Sandoz in 1943. He tested the drug on himself, consuming a 250 microgramme dose – or 10 times more than the highest doses of medical experiments. The dose caused a two day trip. The effect was both scary and fascinating, as LSD obviously affected consciousness.
Up until the late 1960s, 1,000+ experiments with 40,000+ participants were carried out. LSD and related drugs such as psilocybin and mescaline – a psychedelic drug extracted from peyote – were tested for the treatment of depression and drug and alcohol addiction. The experiments often produced positive results, but only a few lived up to modern standards. In some experiments, the participants were given huge LSD doses of up to 800 microgrammes and subsequently left alone, often causing severe mental harm.
At the Harvard University in the US, Professor Timothy Leary lectured on his acid trip under the famous slogan “Turn on, tune in, drop out”. Thousands of young people adopted his idea, but several ended up developing prolonged psychoses. Leary’s colleague, Richard Alpert, was subsequently sentenced for giving psilocybin to students, and both professors were later dismissed from the prestigious university.
In 1970, the US authorities classified LSD and psilocybin as drugs without medical relevance, and so, the first chapter of drug medical history ended.
MAGIC MUSHROOMS COMEBACK
However, psychedelic drugs seem to be in for a new heyday. Today, doctors prefer to experiment with psilocybin from mush-rooms over LSD, because the drug is milder and causes fewer hallucinations. In an experiment at the New York University, 80 cancer patients with depression and anxiety have been given psilocybin twice, a high and a low dose, without knowing which dose they were given at what time. During the experiment, they were lying blindfolded on a couch, listening to music. The experiment showed that the psilocybin intake imme- diately caused markedly reduced depression and anxiety levels and eliminated mood swings. Instead, participants felt more optimistic and able to value life and face death. Six months after the experiment, 80 % of the participants were still positive.
Brain scans of test subjects show that both psilocybin and LSD reduce anxiety and depression by changing nerve cells’ conversion of the serotonin neurotransmitter, which regulates moods. In the patients, the nerve cells of the frontal lobe include a surplus of a specific type of serotonin receptors – proteins in the cell membrane which capture the neurotransmitter, activating the cell. Psilocybin and LSD enter the receptors, making them disappear, so the number is reduced to the level of healthy people, and the patients become more positive.
Other experiments indicate that ecstasy is an efficient means against post traumatic stress syndrome, PTSD. Brain scans from the Imperial College London show that the drug
reduces blood flow and activity in the limbic system, which controls emotions and memory. Ecstasy reduces the patients’ anxiety, allowing them to confront the traumatic events which caused the disease.
However, the drugs do not only have potential positive effects, they can also cause psychoses. So, the patients’ mental strength is tested, before the experiments begin, so people with special risks of deve-loping psychoses are excluded. Before the test subjects are given the drugs, they have had thorough introductory conversations with doctors, who explain the effect of the treatment on the body. Many doctors have personally tested the drugs, so they know exactly what the test subjects will experience
ECSTASY WILL SOON BE APPROVED
The first minor ecstasy experiments have produced such positive results that in 2017, the US health authorities, FDA, allowed a major experiment with the drug for PTSD treatment. If the experiment turns out well, ecstasy could be approved as a drug as early as in 2021.
When Steven Ross from the New York University began to treat depressive cancer patients with psilocybin 10 years ago, he feared that he would be putting his career on the line just like the medical LSD pioneers of the 1950s and 1960s. But he did not. Instead, his and others’ experiments have shown that psychedelic drugs are wonder drugs that promise well for the millions of people with severe anxiety, depression, and PTSD, who need more than traditional drugs and conversational therapy.