From treating depression to helping manage alcohol addiction, researchers say legal medical “magic mushrooms” have many potential benefits.

Soft lighting. Comfortable furniture. Art decorating the walls.

To the untrained eye, this setting appears to be a living room. But it’s not. It’s a research facility specially designed to evoke comfort and ease.

A psilocybin therapy session is taking place.

On the couch lies a patient. They have eye shades and headphones on. Gentle music is playing. Two members of the research team are present to help guide the session over the course of eight hours. Much of this time will be spent in quiet introspection.

Trained medical staff are on-site, should anything unexpected happen.

Despite the trappings of normalcy, this therapy session is anything but.

Psilocybin, the active ingredient found in “magic” mushrooms, or “shrooms,” is a powerful psychedelic.

Despite being about 100 times less potent than LSD, it’s capable of altering perception of space and time, causing visual distortions, euphoria, and mystical experiences.

Unlike marijuana, which has seen a dramatic shift both in terms of support of legalization and recognized therapeutic uses, or MDMA, which has grabbed headlines in recent years for its potential to treat PTSD (some researchers believe the drug could see Food and Drug Administration approval as soon as 2021), psilocybin lacks the same degree of cultural cachet.

And one could be forgiven for thinking of “shrooms” as nothing more than a remnant of the excess of the psychedelic 1960s.

But make no mistake: Psilocybin has a number of potential medical benefits.

 
The state of psilocybin research

Research has shown psilocybin to have potential to treat a range of psychiatric and behavioral disorders, although it’s yet to receive FDA approval for anything.

Its potential indications include depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, quitting smoking, alcohol addiction, cocaine addiction, cluster headachesTrusted Source, and cancer-related or other end-of-life psychological distress.

High-profile initiatives have also popped up in recent months in Denver, Colorado, and Oregon to decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms.

However, experts say they’re unlikely to pass.

Psilocybin mushrooms remain a Schedule I drug according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, meaning they’re classified as having “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”

Other Schedule I drugs include marijuana, MDMA, and LSD.

Yet, despite social stigma and legal red tape, researchers are forging ahead with clinical trials for FDA approval.

Dr. George R. Greer, co-founder and president of the Heffter Research Institute, a non-profit research center that focuses on the therapeutic uses of psychedelics, particularly psilocybin, explains his motivations:

“Our mission is two-fold: one to do research that helps us understand the mind, the brain, how all that works, and number two, to help reduce suffering through therapeutic use of psychedelics.”

The institute is currently focused on two main areas of psilocybin research: addiction and cancer-related psychiatric disorders. Cancer-related psilocybin therapy is considered one of the most promising areas of research for the drug.

However, considering the vast number of potential indications for psilocybin, it’s important to keep in mind that the amount of research also varies widely, from single pilot studies to phase II or III approval trials by the FDA.

Here’s what the current research says about psilocybin treatment for some potential indications.

Depression

Depression is among the most researched indications for psilocybin therapy. As Healthline previously reported last year, psilocybin therapy was given “breakthrough therapy” designation (a review fast track) by the FDA for the treatment of depression.

The Usona Institute, a psychedelic research center, is currently in the planning stages of their phase III trial, which will likely begin this year.

Smoking cessation and other addictions

In a small pilot study from Johns Hopkins UniversityTrusted Source, researchers found that psilocybin therapy significantly improved abstaining from smoking over a 12-month follow-up period.

Matthew Johnson, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, led that study.

According to him, psilocybin also has potential to treat other substance use disorders, including alcohol and cocaine addiction.

“The general idea is that the nature of these disorders is a narrowed mental and behavioral repertoire,” he told Healthline. “So, [psilocybin] in well-orchestrated sessions [has] the ability to essentially shake someone out of their routine to give a glimpse of a larger picture and create a mental plasticity with which people can step outside of those problems.”

In fact, a small open-label studyTrusted Source on psilocybin and alcohol dependence found that following treatment, both drinking and heavy drinking declined.

Researchers in Alabama are also currently conducting trials for psilocybin therapy on cocaine addiction.

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