Recent years have seen the legalization of medicinal marijuana across many states. In a similar fashion, the use of psychedelics has begun to take foot in the periphery of academic research. Perhaps you have even heard their usage championed by the likes of Tim Ferris.
It would even be valid to say there has been a renaissance in Psychedelic research. This can largely be attributed to the work done at Johns Hopkins at their Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research. Early in 2000 they received approval from the FDA to begin research on naive and healthy volunteers. Just six years later, they published a paper on a psychedelic known as psilocybin (aka mushrooms). This was a fascinating study, and if you want to read more, I’ll link it below. In essence, the scientists took a bunch of volunteers who had never done hallucinogens and administered a 30 mg dose, in a double-blind crossover study. While the results of the study don’t show some groundbreaking medical cure to a variety of diseases, it validated the prospect of future research and the ability of a psychedelic to show grounded scientific evidence of positive effects. A major roadblock that psychedelics face is that their positive effects are always anecdotal, until this study at least. Those positive outcomes came through in a couple ways:
Over 50% of participants reported that their 8 hour experience with Psilocybin was among the top 5 most meaningful experiences of their life. Over 15% even said it was the most meaningful experience they’ve ever had.
No volunteer required pharmacological intervention (ie No adverse affects!)
Volunteers self reported an increase in positive change in attitude and behavior, confirmed by ratings by friends and family
While the results of this study don’t cure cancer or end a crippling addiction, they show the potential for pyschedelic research and more importantly displayed the safety and efficacy of a single dose of psilocybin.
As of April 2020, Johns Hopkins’ research in the field has broadly expanded. They currently run studies assessing pyschedelic use and its affect on Alzheimers, Depression, Smoking Cessation, Anorexia, and Alcholo Abuse.
This week alone, we’ve seen the crossover between psychedelic science and the biotech industry grow substantially. Numinus Wellness INC., a Canadian based Mental Health Company, announced the beginning of their Phase 1 Trials on Psilocybin. Numinus is the first Canadian company to receive a license to produce psilocybin from mushrooms. A successful Phase 1 trial would result in further safety and efficacy data for a natural Psilocybin product.
How does Psilocybin work in the brain?
Psilocybin is actually an inactive compound, and upon metabolism is converted to its active form, know as psilocin. Psilocin has a known high affinity for a variety of neurotransmitter receptors. In laymans terms, a patient would take psilocybin, the brain would break it down into psilocin, the actual compound that is active in the brain, and this compound can then go and have a variety of effects on different parts of your brain. Yet it would be inaccurate to say that Psilocin works on receptors all throughout your brain. It is accepted in academic circles that Psilocin, and hallucinogens in general, work mainly on 5-HT2A serotonin receptors. 5-HT is simply a fancy way of saying serotonin. One interesting fact is that in mice that did not have these serotonin receptors, hallucinogens had no effect on the brain!
While one might predict that the religious-like experience that hallucinogen users report would correlate with high brain activity, brain scans of active hallucinogen users show otherwise. Results from a 2012 study linked below showed that psilocybin decreased markers of neuronal activity such as cerebral blood flow and decreased “brain connectivity”. So what does this tell us about the brain usage of psilocin? This compound essentially interupts the normal connectivity of our brain. The once in a lifetime experiences of users, as mentioned above, are not simply the result of less brain activity. They are the results of a potentially “uninhibited” version of cognition our normal state of mind simply cannot reason with.
While the above statements may seem foreign or hippy, I believe that they offer a new hope to some. In no way does this warrant or encourage the use of recreational mushrooms. However, one has to wonder how the possibilities and properties of pyschedelics can address the mishaps and inadequacies of modern medicine. It is my hope that the concrete and good-willed research that is becoming mainstream at Phase 1 and pre-clinical levels can help patients. Further, I hope to keep you all up to date on the way BioTech firms help facilitate this research and address this gap in Mental Healthcare.
Till next time,
Colin Budries