Australian Science Illustrated — Issue 54 2017

66 | SCIENCE ILLUSTRATED

Mushroom Drug

'Cures' Anxiety

In medical experiments, the

subjects do not consume

mushrooms, rather they take a

pill with pure psilocybin. The

drug affects brain

receptors associated

with anxiety and

depression.

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"CLIPPED" SENSES

ELIMINATE ADDICTION

Magic mushrooms have an active

ingredient called psilocybin. As this drug

enters the brain, blood flow is reduced in

parts of the frontal lobe, diencephalon,

and thalamus, which send sensory

information to the cerebral cortex. The

result is reduced interaction between the

brain areas, causing a different state of

consciousness resembling the effect of LSD,

but with fewer hallucinations. Apparently,

the changes may "dampen out" negative

obsessive thoughts and could relieve

anxiety, depression, addiction, etc.

FRONTAL LOBE

THALAMUS

DIENCEPHALON

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

ROBIN L. CARHART-HARRIS ET AL./PNAS

CORDELIA MOLLOY/SPL

HENNING DALHOFF & SHUTTERSTOCK

MUSHROOMS

HUMANS THE BRAIN