A new study has revealed that taking a single dose of a psilocybin compound found in magic mushrooms can ease symptoms of anxiety and depression in cancer patients for years.
This discovery was made by Dr Stephen Ross, associate professor of psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at NYU Langone Health.
He noted his team findings strongly suggest that psilocybin therapy is a promising means of improving the emotional, psychological, and spiritual well-being of patients with life-threatening cancer.
According to him, cancer patients who were given dose from the magic mushroom reported reductions in anxiety, depression, hopelessness, demoralization, and death anxiety more than four years after receiving the treatment in combination with psychotherapy.
Psilocybin is a naturally-occurring hallucinogenic that is produced by more than 200 species of mushrooms.
It induces feelings of euphoria and sensory distortion similar to drugs such as Lysergic acid diethyl, or LSD.
Notably, the discovery builds on improvements from a previous study done in 2016.
The study involved 29 patients with cancer-related anxiety and depression were given either a single dose of psilocybin or a vitamin placebo called niacin.
Seven weeks later, they were given the opposite. This was in combination with nine psychotherapy sessions.
By six months, after all, patients had received a dose of magic mushroom, about 60 percent to 80 percent showed clinically significant reductions in depression, anxiety, and existential distress and improved attitudes toward death.
Fifteen of the original participants were then followed up 3.2 and 4.5 years later and showed sustained long-term improvements, with more than 70 percent of them further attributing “positive life changes to the therapy experience.
The research published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology noted the approach has the potential to produce a paradigm shift in the psychological and existential care of cancer patients. Especially those with terminal illnesses.
Magic mushroom to treat mental health
A team of scientists from New York University Grossman School of Medicine, also reveal that the findings provide evidence that magic mushrooms could be a treatment for mental health issues.
The compound is classified by the Drug Enforcement Agency as a schedule-I controlled substance, meaning it has no medicinal properties. They noted this could help push for the legalization of the drug.
Although the team also noted they don’t fully understand how psilocybin has such effects on the mind, they previously suggested it could be because our brains have a level of neuroplasticity.
Gabby Agin-Liebes, lead investigator and co-author of the 2016 parent study, said the new results might shed light on how the positive effects of a single dose of magic mushroom persist for so long.
Research limitation
Notably, the research has its flaws, such as the small number of patients monitored in the latest study and its overlap with the previous trial.
According to James Rucker, who leads the Psychedelic Trials Group at the Centre for Affective Disorders at Kings College London in the UK, the conclusions that can be drawn are limited because the original trial was a crossover design.
Meaning that we do not know whether the participants might have improved long term anyway, regardless of the treatment.
Notably, according to the World Health Organization, there are an estimated 18 million cases of cancer globally in 2018. Research has shown depression to be more common among patients with cancer than the general population.
Making the study relevant, as multiple studies to date have found benefits in using psilocybin to treat people with depression when combined with supportive therapy.
