The Therapeutic Potential of Psilocybin

Abstract

The psychedelic effects of some plants and fungi have been known and deliberately exploited by humans for thousands of years. Fungi, particularly mushrooms, are the principal source of naturally occurring psychedelics. The mushroom extract, psilocybin has historically been used as a psychedelic agent for religious and spiritual ceremonies, as well as a therapeutic option for neuropsychiatric conditions. Psychedelic use was largely associated with the “hippie” counterculture movement, which, in turn, resulted in a growing, and still lingering, negative stigmatization for psychedelics. As a result, in 1970, the U.S. government rescheduled psychedelics as Schedule 1 drugs, ultimately ending scientific research on psychedelics. This prohibition on psychedelic drug research significantly delayed advances in medical knowledge on the therapeutic uses of agents such as psilocybin. A 2004 pilot study from the University of California, Los Angeles, exploring the potential of psilocybin treatment in patients with advanced-stage cancer managed to reignite interest and significantly renewed efforts in psilocybin research, heralding a new age in exploration for psychedelic therapy. Since then, significant advances have been made in characterizing the chemical properties of psilocybin as well as its therapeutic uses. This review will explore the potential of psilocybin in the treatment of neuropsychiatry-related conditions, examining recent advances as well as current research. This is not a systematic review.

The Effects of Tryptamine Psychedelics in the Brain: A meta-Analysis of Functional and Review of Molecular Imaging Studies

“…Taken together, our results support the plausibility of further research on the therapeutic potential of tryptamine psychedelics ( Lowe et al, 2021 ). There is a growing number of clinical trials describing promising data on safety and efficacy of psychedelics and entactogens in several psychiatric disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder ( Mitchell et al, 2021 ), treatment-resistant depression ( Carhart-Harris et al, 2016a ; Palhano-Fontes et al, 2019 ), substance addictions ( Johnson et al, 2014 ; Bogenschutz et al, 2015 ); obsessive-compulsive disorder ( Moreno et al, 2006 ); anxiety associated with life-threatening diseases ( Gasser et al, 2014 ; Griffiths et al, 2016 ; Ross et al, 2016 ) and social anxiety in autistic adults ( Danforth et al, 2018 ).…”

“…The profound experience induced by psychedelics like DMT, Ayahuasca, LSD and Psilocybin is characterized by changes in emotion, perception and cognition, visual imagery and differences in the sense of self ( Swanson, 2018 ; Barrett et al, 2020b ; Lowe et al, 2021 ; Luppi et al, 2021 ). Figure 3 summarizes these effects.…”

“…Those preliminary findings suggest the reduction of depressant, anxiety and addiction symptoms. Patients described feelings of connection, transcendence, insights, self-awareness, alterations in the perception of the self, emotional catharsis, changes in values and life orientations, reconciliations with death, as well as psychological distress (Gasser et al, 2015;Schmid et al, 2015;Belser et al, 2017;Swift et al, 2017;Watts et al, 2017;Noorani et al, 2018;Barone et al, 2019;Lowe et al, 2021), encouraging further studies. Recently, the role of psychedelics in changing behaviours related to healthy lifestyles (Teixeira et al, 2021), as well as a treatment for neurodegenerative disorders (Vann Jones and O'Kelly, 2020) and for pain conditions (Castellanos et al, 2020) has also been hypothesized.…”

“…In recent years, many studies have used substances to study the neuronal correlates of altered states of consciousness ( dos Santos et al, 2016 ). A current research trend involves testing the effects of hallucinogens as potential therapeutic alternatives for psychiatric disorders ( Kraehenmann, 2017 ; Lowe et al, 2021 ). Here we aimed to perform a quantitative meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies in this field.…”

Analysis of Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy in Medicine: A Narrative Review

“…Second, the half-life of psilocin, the active metabolite, is three hours [14]. The peak effect typically occurs within 60-90 minutes of oral ingestion, which subsides over the following six hours after ingestion [15]. This pharmacokinetic profile makes psilocybin more attractive as a pharmacologic treatment than other psychedelics with slower elimination and longer durations of action [13].…”