Study Finds Psilocybin Therapy Can Help with Depression - Should Legalization Be Considered?

What’s the story?

• A recent small-scale study found that people undergoing psilocybin-assisted therapy experienced changes in brain patterns associated with depression and reported improvement in symptoms. 
• Ongoing research has shown that psilocybin, the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms, has shown significant promise in helping to treat certain mental health conditions.

What does the study say?

• The study, published in Nature Medicine on April 11, used advanced neuroimaging technology to monitor the brain activity of 43 participants with severe depression before and after receiving two doses of psilocybin. 
• It found that participants who received the alternative therapy (as opposed to conventional antidepressants) showed heightened neural connectivity, a pattern that “starkly contrasts with the abnormally rigid and segregated depressed brain”. 
• Participants also reported rapid and sustained improvement in their symptoms.

The big picture

• Research on psychedelics — like LSD, psilocybin, and MDMA — is still fairly new, as decades of strict regulations have limited research ability. Studies in the 1950s and 60s were largely cut after the class of drugs was federally outlawed during the Nixon administration.
• Today, they are still currently classified as Schedule I narcotics under the Controlled Substances Act, meaning they have been designated to have high abuse risk and no currently accepted medical applications. Other drugs under this designation include heroin and marijuana. However, risk of fatal overdose or physical dependence to certain psychedelics are very small compared to other Substance I drugs like heroin, or even more socially accepted drugs like alcohol.
• The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) designated psilocybin a “breakthrough therapy” in 2018 and 2019, to help advance the research and development of related drugs to treat major depressive disorder. This status is typically granted upon request from drug companies, when evidence suggests a drug may provide an exceptional improvement over already available treatments.
• Instances of abuse can still happen in psychedelic therapy, even in federally-sanctioned clinical trials. There is still little research into the minority who experience negative effects from taking psychedelics, but funding is also being sought for studies on the subject.

What’s next

• Military veterans suffering from PTSD, anxiety, depression, and addiction have become leading advocates to persuade lawmakers to legalize psychedelics for therapeutic purposes.
• In recent years, bipartisan bills legalizing research, allowing drug usage under certain conditions and supervision, and decriminalizing drug possession more broadly, have been introduced or passed in more than a dozen states and some cities. 
• In 2020, Oregon became the first state to legalize psilocybin for medical treatment under supervision. The measure also decriminalized possession of small amounts of some hard drugs.
• Texas approved a bill to fund research on psychedelics including MDMA, ketamine, and psilocybin for treating PTSD last year, there was bipartisan approval for $1 million to fund alternative therapies for veterans in Maryland, and a bill from Republican representatives in Oklahoma that would legalize research is now under consideration in the Senate.

What do you think?

Do you support legalizing research on, or the use of, psychedelic drugs? 

-Casey Dawson

(Photo credit: Pixabay)