by Mushroom Doctor | Aug 10, 2022 | Mental Health, Microdosing
The short answer is NO!
A new study from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London, in association with COMPASS Pathways, has demonstrated that psilocybin can be securely managed at portions of either 10mg or 25mg in healthy people.
The study, distributed in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, is a fundamental initial phase in exhibiting the security and plausibility of psilocybin — a hallucinogenic medication disconnected from the Psilocybe mushroom — for use inside controlled settings close by talking treatment as a likely treatment for a scope of psychological well-being conditions, including treatment-safe sorrow (TRD) and PTSD.
Current treatment choices for these circumstances are inadequate or successful for some individuals, coming about in a huge neglected need. Early research has shown potential for psilocybin treatment to treat these gatherings, yet no preliminaries have been embraced at the scale required for administrative endorsement to make the treatment accessible.
The Study:
The test is the first of its sort to examine the concurrent organization of psilocybin completely. 89 healthy members with no new (in no less than 1 year) utilization of psilocybin were enlisted. 60 people were haphazardly picked to get either a 10mg or 25mg portion of psilocybin in a controlled climate. Furthermore, all members were furnished with coordinated help from prepared psychotherapists. The leftover 29 members went about as the benchmark group and got a placebo treatment, likewise with mental help.
Members were firmly observed for six to eight hours following the organization of psilocybin and afterward followed up for 12 weeks. During this time, they were evaluated for various potential changes, including sustained attention, memory, and planning, as well as their capacity to handle feelings.
The Results:
National Institute for Health Research Clinical Scientist Dr. James Rucker, the review’s lead creator from King’s IoPPN and privileged advisor specialist at South London, and that’s what Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust says “his rigorous study is an important first demonstration that the simultaneous administration of psilocybin can be explored further. If we think about how psilocybin therapy (if approved) may be delivered in the future, it’s important to demonstrate the feasibility and the safety of giving it to more than one person at the same time, so we can think about how we scale up the treatment. This therapy has promise for people living with serious mental health problems, like treatment-resistant depression (TRD) and PTSD. They can be extremely disabling, distressing, and disruptive, but current treatment options for these conditions are ineffective or partially effective for many people.”
Throughout the review, there were no cases of anybody pulling out from the concentrate because of an unfriendly occasion and no steady patterns to propose that both of the psilocybin portions had any short-or long haul adverse consequences for members.
Teacher Guy Goodwin, Chief Medical Officer, COMPASS Pathways, says that “this study was an early part of our clinical development program for COMP360 psilocybin therapy. It explored the safety and feasibility of simultaneous psilocybin administration, with 1:1 support, in healthy participants and provided a strong foundation to which we have now added positive results from our phase IIb trial in 233 patients with TRD and our open-label study of patients taking SSRI antidepressants alongside psilocybin therapy. We are looking forward to finalizing plans for our phase III program, which we expect to begin in Q3 2022.”
The specialists have since finished Phase II of the review, which has investigated the adequacy and wellbeing of psilocybin in individuals living with TRD and PTSD, and are breaking down the information.
Stay tuned for the results!
by Mushroom Doctor | Jul 14, 2022 | Mental Health, Microdosing
Psychedelics, based on their relationship with hippy culture, have a possibility of being the treatment for depression and anxiety.
Psilocybin is a powerful component that commonly appears in psychoactive or “magic” mushrooms”.
Dr. Alana Roy, a clinician, and scholastic and Psychological Services Practice Manager at Melbourne’s Mind Medicine Institute, states that psilocybin shows favorable outcomes when utilized in hallucinogenic-aided psychotherapy.
As Alana says, “the current research into psilocybin shows that if it’s taken in a clinical setting, it’s safe, non-toxic, and non-addictive.”
“We know from the results there are so many benefits from looking at psilocybin with cluster headaches and migraines, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anorexia. We’re looking at now [treating] addictions such as alcoholism and smoking—anxiety and depression.”
The science behind psychedelics
“The research”, Alana mentions, “shows that psilocybin promotes neuroplasticity.” (This is the sensory system’s capacity to alter its movement based on external stimuli). Likewise, it’s been displayed to develop levels of compassion, social conduct, and attachment to ourselves, others, and our general surroundings.
That’s quite groundbreaking. Be that as it may, what’s generally exhilarating for Alana and her associates is the manner by which transformative hallucinogenic-aided psychotherapy can be to address the underlying cause of a client’s psychological problems.
“We know from the neuroscience and brain imagery that when the default mode network in our brain, which hosts our rumination, our personal stories, our ego, our trauma—the things that keep us locked in rigid ways of thinking—when that’s deactivated through high doses of psilocybin, it opens people up to a whole range of phenomena and this is where the healing with the psychotherapy occurs,” says Alana.
Natural medicine
Although it sounds innovative, it’s not exactly new. Researchers proceeded from where they left off almost fifty years ago.
During the 1950s and 60s, psilocybin and other psychedelics were utilized in research and in therapeutical care. They showed a guarantee in those days as well.
Then, at that point, the American-led battle on drugs during the 1970s and 80s came, which essentially shut down everything — up until the present.
In the current times, tech bros in Silicon Valley resort to microdosing to lessen anxiety and to further develop their imagination and concentration. (Indeed, even Bill Gates and Steve Jobs tested with LSD in the past).
Recently, there’s been an interest in the medical advantages of all types of medicinal mushrooms, upheld by a growing collection of proof.
A new point of view required
Alana says possibly, the greatest variable is the result of the psychological well-being from the COVID-19 pandemic, joined with little development in drug-based treatments since antidepressants were made fifty years ago.
Current medication-based treatments don’t work for everybody and are frequently expensive.
“What we know is that antidepressants, although effective for some, often have significant side effects and don’t always give the results our clients deserve,” Alana says.
Psilocybin can possibly be a permanent solution for depression and anxiety, without requiring long-term medicines or solutions.
“However, there’s the opportunity for a medicine to be actually empowering, as opposed to a medicine that suppresses or minimizes distress. We can empower people to really transform their suffering.”
Enabling individuals to get better
In her job at the Mind Medicine Institute, Alana offers psychotherapeutic help for hallucinogens research participants, involving an impending review in cooperation with Monarch.
As a component of the review, 100 healthy members will be given a portion of psilocybin and another 100 will get a portion of MDMA.
“The primary purpose of this project is to determine whether there are any changes in the brain, following either of these medicines,” says Alana, “and also to track any changes in mood, personality, beliefs, social engagement, and how these substances might relate to the neural changes in the brain.”
Likewise, there is nearing clinical advancement possibly anticipated for Western Australia.
Sydney-based Woke Pharma, whose fellow benefactor and CEO are Perth-based Nick Woolf, is arranging two psilocybin trials.
The primary trial of 260 members, an organization with the main college in New South Wales, will look at microdosing (1 milligram) on moderate depression with no psychotherapeutic help.
The second trial of 100 members is in the organization with Imperial College London and Drug Science UK. This preliminary will have research destinations across Australia, possibly including one at UWA. It will take a gander at treatment-resistant depression with a remedial portion (25 milligrams) and incorporate psychotherapy.
The two examinations will utilize standard wretchedness rating scales and other mental and neuropsychological measures, for example, neuroimaging.
No mushrooms were injured
The researchers utilize manufactured psilocybin, not naturally developed mushrooms.
Nick says there are various explanations behind this, particularly while attempting to persuade government regulators to endorse it for use in Australia.
Fabricating psilocybin works on the medication’s strength and consistency, says Nick, while speeding up it’s delivered into the body. It additionally makes it patentable, which requests drug organizations like Nick’s.
Then again, says Nick, it may not be essentially as powerful as the regular stuff. “If you take a natural product, it might have other potential actives in there,” he says.
“But from a regulatory perspective, we want to ensure as smooth a path as possible.”
by Mushroom Doctor | Jun 23, 2022 | Macrodosing, Mental Health, Microdosing
Jada Pinkett Smith and her son Jaden talked genuinely about their significant encounters with plant medication on a new psychedelics-themed episode of the Smith family’s Facebook Watch series Red Table Talk.
Jada started the episode by informing the audience that she has battled with “crippling depression” for almost 10 years before effectively defeating it using a mushroom regimen. “The thing about plant medicine is not only doing it help you feel better but it helps you solve the problems of how you got there in the first place,” the 49-year-old producer and “Matrix Resurrections” actress described.
Jada isn’t the initial individual from her popular family to drill down into mind-altering encounters with plant medication. Her famous actor spouse Will Smith announced that he discovered a “taste of freedom” from joining ayahuasca. Their son Jaden, who is 23 years old, also has not avoided the psychedelic limelight. The actor and artist not long ago released a mixtape inspired by psychedelics.
Stepping in for his sister Willow Smith on Wednesday’s Red Table Talk, Jaden uncovered unequivocally what drew him toward plant medication. “It started as pure curiosity, not believing that mushrooms could make you feel any sort of way – but then I had an experience,” he told his mom and grandma, co-host Adrienne Banfield-Norris.
“For the first time, I had like an ego dissolution and that was the moment that really changed me,” he proceeded. “You get to a place where you’re blocked by something-whether it’s trauma, whether it’s your emotions, your ego, not being able to express yourself – and I feel like psychedelics are a way to tear down that wall and see what’s behind it.”
Jada and her son were not the only ones in particular who imparted their psychedelic encounters. Red Table Talk’s full list of big-name personalities included investigative journalist Lisa Ling and her better half Dr. Paul Song, billionaire entrepreneur turned psychedelic fan Bob Parsons, and psychedelics specialist and best-selling author Michael Pollan.
As an oncologist, Dr. Song was quite cynical about psychedelics and their healing capabilities for a number of years. This until issues at home persuaded him to try a guided ayahuasca ceremony. “It was everything and more,” Dr. Song said, making sense of how plant medication-assisted him with finding peace with his multi-generational family trauma and fashioned a more profound relationship with his significant other and kids.
“It’s been transformative, it really has,” Ling concurred.
Parsons’ story included an alternate sort of healing. The GoDaddy and PXG Golf pioneer served with the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. He then returned home with an extreme instance of post-traumatic stress disorder. Even though his tactical preparation gave him the abilities and certainty he needed to build a couple of his multi-million dollar companies, PTSD negatively affected his welfare. “I had a short temper. It for sure cost me two marriages,” he explained to Jada.
All that evolved after he got a copy of Pollan’s “life-changing” book How to Change Your Mind, which investigates the study of psychedelics. It wasn’t some time before Parsons started adjusting his own perspective with psilocybin and ayahuasca. “I felt like being with people again. I felt like going out. My temper didn’t bother me again,” he mentioned. “I was kind of like how I was before the war – I finally came home.”
Jada, Jaden, and the guests in their series concluded the show with a conversation on the absence of variety inside the psychedelic communities and the underrepresentation of Black individuals in clinical preliminaries concentrating on plant medication’s therapeutic capacities.
“The psychedelic world in the United States has been very white,” Pollan said, making sense that African Americans utilize fewer hallucinogens than white individuals. He had a few guesses as to why including the reality, that plant medication was still technically unlawful and the nation has a terrible history of enforcing drug regulations differently among the Black individuals. In any case, taking into account how empowering the clinical preliminaries for psilocybin had been hitherto, Pollan hypothesized that it wouldn’t be long until the FDA would open the entryway for therapists to begin legitimately prescribing psychedelics to their patients.
Jada Pinkett Smith loved her guest’s positivity.
“Plant medicine completely rehabilitated me from debilitating depression and it’s changed my life for the better,” she mentioned. “So, I’m really hoping that we find a way that African Americans can have access to these plant medicines safely.”
by Mushroom Doctor | Jun 1, 2022 | Mental Health, Microdosing
The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders estimates that 9% of the world’s population has an eating disorder.
Women increasingly share how psychedelics have helped them break free of a cycle of dissatisfaction, body dysmorphia, anxiety, despair, and tension. They describe how psychedelics helped them heal from eating disorders and increase their self-esteem.
Despite the lack of large-scale investigations, anecdotal evidence of these developments is strong.
A hero’s dose of magic mushrooms taught me I could let go of my eating problem once and for all, says Francesca Rose, an eating disorder recovery advocate. “It hit me: my eating disorder was not me. Not even mine. Everything clicked. My eating disorder was gone. Food or body control no longer made me feel safe or worthy.” This psychedelic-assisted transformation is part of what led her to add her current work; aiding other women with eating disorders on their healing journeys.
Many women still consider talking about insecurities taboo, weak, or shameful. Embedded experiences, including psychedelic ones, can help one heal. Rose also teaches yoga and conscious dance. Destroying stigmas through empowering women to speak up and reconnect with their bodies.
Women can reconnect with their bodies and create a softer relationship with themselves by intentionally using psychedelics. “An eating disorder is used unknowingly to feel protected in the world and give a feeling of meaning and identity,” Rose explains. The eating disorder is a strategy to mend the internal world, even if it is unsustainable. Psychedelic traveling and post-journey integration can help people reduce their reliance on eating disorders because they feel more at ease in the world and more internally whole. We can reconnect with our intrinsic values, belonging, dignity, and divinity. Psychedelics can help us feel proud and accepted, and we can experience love and connect to it.”
Understanding Obesity
To comprehend these conditions, we must first understand body image. Most women don’t just like or dislike their bodies. Body image is a complicated mix of thoughts, ideas, and perceptions of how our bodies appear to us and others, what they can do, and their estimated size.
Body image concerns can develop at age 5. Puberty-induced physical changes might exacerbate discontent. Culture also shapes our self-perception. Gender, complexion and hair color, and many other factors might influence how people perceive their physical appearance.
This psychiatric illness causes people to overvalue minor flaws or even imagine flaws in their bodies. Difficulty accepting your own body image. It can cause eating disorders and social, professional, and personal concerns. Body dysmorphia and eating disorders affect both men and women. However, women are three times more likely to be affected.
Around 30 million Americans have an eating disorder, and 70 percent of these 30 million people are unaided. As a result, anorexia nervosa has one of the highest death rates among mental health illnesses at 5.9%.
Psychedelics and Positive Body Image
Eating disorders are notoriously difficult to cure. Traditional treatments like CBT have a remission rate of around 45 percent, a return rate of about 30 percent within a year, and are difficult to track. Now, some professionals and researchers are looking at the benefits of psychedelic therapy as an alternative.
“Eating disorders generally develop as maladaptive coping techniques when internal resourcing is overwhelmed by life events,” explains Lauren Taus, a therapist in California who uses ketamine. According to Taus and other therapists interviewed for this piece, psychedelic treatment can relieve symptoms of certain disorders, such as sadness and anxiety, in ways that standard therapy cannot. It can reduce symptoms related to serotonergic signaling and cognitive inflexibility and induce beneficial brain states that may speed up therapeutic processes, according to Dr. Adele Lafrance in this EdCatalogue article.
“My encounter with empathogens has invited me to understand how much conflict was waging inside me,” Taus said. I observed my personal suffering and the pain of my family system. These psychedelics essentially invited me to process what was beneath the surface. I felt immense anguish, fury, and fear while also feeling deep love and compassion for myself and others. I could forgive my parents because I understood their decisions. Also, I found the will and strength to fight for myself and my life.”
So, what is it about psychedelics that allows for great epiphanies like Taus’? They can help the Default Mode Network (DMN), which conducts inter-brain communication. This area appears to be hyperactive in depression, anxiety, and OCD. Also, poor cognitive flexibility in anorexia nervosa patients may be linked to an overactive DMN. Studies such as “Rethinking Therapeutic Strategies for Anorexia Nervosa: Insights From Psychedelic Medicine and Animal Models” indicate that psychedelics lower the activity in this area and, by doing so, allow us to create new thought patterns, giving us a fresh perspective on life, the world, and ourselves.
Psychedelic psychotherapy can also assist a person in identifying the true basis of their frustration. According to a 2013 study, a patient’s resistance derives from the disorder’s “ego-syntonic” nature. Many of the disorder’s behaviors, feelings, and ideals are ego-syntonic. Psychedelic chemicals can enable a brief dissolution of the ego, providing the possibility of transformation, healing, and reform of specific habits, thought patterns, or addictions.
Taus explains that “traditional psychotherapy frequently stays in the sphere of cognition and intellect.” In treatment, a person may learn about their patterns but struggle to change them.” For example, a woman may realize that purging is unhealthy and causes humiliation. She may know precisely why and when it started, but she can’t stop. Psychoactive drugs can induce internalized and sustained behavioral change. The therapist’s role is to provide a safe space for exploration and a supportive relationship for people to make sense of their experiences and find meaning in them.
Psychedelics are not a cure-all and must be used in conjunction with psychotherapy and/or other therapeutic methods such as journaling and yoga. Women with eating problems and body dysmorphia benefit most from a holistic approach.
So far, research
Most recent research on psychedelics for treating eating disorders has focused on ketamine, Ayahuasca, MDMA, and psilocybin. Let’s see how they can help with eating disorders:
Ketamine:
Ketamine is a non-classical psychedelic that can temporarily alter consciousness. Severe depression, PTSD, and OCD have all been treated with this synthetic chemical.
Ketamine can be injected, given orally, or insufflated (blown into a body cavity, such as the nasal passages). Assume that everyone metabolizes drugs differently. Ketamine is recognized for its dissociative effects, such as slowing down time or separating you from reality, as observed in this study.
“The dissociative sensation of ketamine can translate into higher joy in embodied experience. Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) helps eating disorders lose their grip on their belief systems. From a scientific standpoint, psychedelics break the default mode network, which affects self-image, memories, beliefs, and patterns.” says Taus. “The medicine allows the brain to be reorganized to promote healthy living. Ketamine also increases neuroplasticity, allowing for strong therapy treatment with clients 24–48 hours after a KAP encounter.
Ayahuasca:
Dimethyltryptamine (DMT), one of the most influential psychedelic substances, is found in Ayahuasca, a fermented herbal drink. The brew has been a sacred ceremony by numerous South American Indigenous cultures for at least 1000 years. It causes mystical and profound visions that lead to self-discovery.
The first-ever study of Ayahuasca’s ability to help patients recuperate from eating disorders was released in 2017, co-led by Dr. Adele Lafrance and Dr. Kenneth Tupper. The majority of the patients in the study claimed that Ayahuasca helped minimize their eating disorder symptoms and showed them the fundamental cause of the disorder. Participants could distinguish between an eating problem purge and an ayahuasca purge for the brew’s purging effects.
The ayahuasca experience has the power to favorably impact behavior, stimulating self-reflection and heightened awareness. Studies suggest that drinking can benefit the treatment of anxiety, addictions, and depression, as well as eating disorders, by also changing body views.
MDMA:
MDMA, a synthetic molecule, affects people’s behavior by increasing receptivity. MDMA raises serotonin levels while also raising oxytocin, dopamine, and other chemical mediators, resulting in feelings of empathy, trust, and compassion. It also has a long-lasting effect on how people process trauma and emotions.
In clinical settings, MDMA is administered orally in capsules. The patient starts with a full dose (75-125 mg) and can add a second dose 2 hours later. An MDMA session usually lasts 6-8 hours.
MDMA induces an increase in prefrontal cortex activity, which is necessary for information processing, and a slowdown in the amygdala, the area of the brain that is key in processing memories and emotions related to fear. The primary therapeutic effect of MDMA is its potential to excite the brain, allowing it to develop and store new memories. PATIENTS BECOME MORE EMOTIONALLY FLEXIBLE AND CAPABLE OF EXPLORING DIFFICULT MEMORY
Psilocybin:
Psilocybin is a compound found in over 100 mushroom species worldwide. Psilocybin has the best safety profile of any psychedelic. The fungi may help treat eating disorders by addressing the brain’s serotonin imbalance and moving away from symptom-focused treatment. This may affect self-esteem and self-compassion.
Another benefit of psilocybin therapy is that it can effectively treat OCD, a typical symptom of eating disorders.
Psychedelics and Body Reclaim
Psychedelics can help women recognize their eating disorders as a coping technique. Once they understand this, they can gradually replace negative habits with good, healthier, and kinder ones. They can change their inner story of lies and body-shaming beliefs.
In addition to other therapeutic methods and modalities, integration, connections, and a holistic approach must be emphasized. Change takes time, effort, and persistence, especially when deconditioning long-standing habits.
“Eating disorders and addiction are transformational experiences that carry enriching value,” Rose says when asked how long it takes for those changes to ultimately occur. Transform means to change or convert. Recovery is about allowing the behavior to alter and transform, taking us along for the ride so that our beliefs, feelings, thoughts, behavior, and action take on a new form. Ground-up, long-term reform takes time.”
“Recovery for me is about everyday, incremental personal and spiritual improvement. Eating disorders and addiction have taught me valuable lessons and made me more of who I am: alive, free, appreciative, and connected.
The positive outcomes we’re witnessing suggest that this is a worthy goal to pursue. Rose and Taus’ stories are only two of many other women who have had life-altering experiences from these substances.
“I no longer evaluate my body or try to master her,” says Taus. “My experiences with plant remedies have helped me see my body as a perfect part of nature, and I accept – even appreciate – the aspects of me I’ve historically struggled with.”
“Psychedelic-assisted therapy’s power is experiential,” she explains. We can reshape our lives and ourselves when knowledge meets with feeling and understanding.
by Mushroom Doctor | May 16, 2022 | Mental Health, Microdosing
A recent study sheds some light on the safety profile of psilocybin, the key element in “magic mushrooms.”
The study, published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, investigates the effects of psilocybin on healthy subjects’ cognitive and affective functioning. While psilocybin is well-known for its potential to alleviate depression over time, its impact on cognitive performance has received much less attention.
COMP360, a trademarked form of psilocybin created by Compass Pathways, was used in the study. The business recently completed the biggest phase 2 psilocybin experiment to date with very encouraging findings. It is now moving on to phase 3.
The study, performed at King’s College London in 2019, found that psilocybin had no negative impacts on cognitive functioning or emotional processing in the short or long term.
The Particulars
The researchers compared the effects of two doses of COMP360 psilocybin to a placebo in 89 healthy male and female adult participants. Respondents were given either a 10mg, a 25mg, or a placebo dose.
The medication was given to up to six volunteers simultaneously. They were also given one-on-one psychological assistance from experienced therapists throughout the six-hour session. A 12-week follow-up period was also included in the study.
The Final Outcome
There were no significant adverse reactions, and COMP360 psilocybin was well without any clinically substantial adverse effects on cognitive performance.
“This rigorous study is an important first demonstration that the simultaneous administration of psilocybin is worth exploring further,” stated the study’s principal author, Dr. James Rucker. “If we think about how psilocybin therapy (if approved) may be delivered in the future, it’s important to demonstrate the feasibility and the safety of giving it to more than one person simultaneously, so we can think about how we scale the treatment up.”
by Mushroom Doctor | May 2, 2022 | Mental Health, Microdosing
Experts continue to discover even more astounding results demonstrating the efficacy of two doses.
Although numerous studies have shown that psilocybin-assisted therapy effectively relieves depression, it is still a big question about how long the relief lasts.
In 2020, Johns Hopkins University released a study focusing on 24 people with depression who were given 2 sessions of psilocybin-assisted therapy. After 4 weeks, 71% of their patients saw their depression symptoms improve by 50 percent. To add to that, 54 percent were considered in remission.
This meant that their symptoms were not severe enough to warrant a diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder.
Everyone was highly ecstatic because this proved to be up to 4 times more effective than current anti-depression treatments. However, for psilocybin therapy to be considered a viable treatment option, the effects must hold effective for an extended period. After all, expecting someone to undergo two psilocybin treatments per month would be unreasonable, not to mention impractically expensive.
Continuing the previous study, Johns Hopkins has published the results of a one-year follow-up, and the results are pretty promising. The population of individuals who benefited from the experience increased a full year after receiving the two doses of psilocybin!
An astonishing 78% of participants saw a 50% or more significant reduction in depressive symptoms, while 58% were in remission.
As per Rolland Griffiths, the study’s lead investigator, “Compared to standard antidepressants, which must be taken for long periods, psilocybin has the potential to enduringly relieve the symptoms of depression with one or two treatments.”
The question now is whether the benefit is limited to a single year. Could they possibly last for a more extended period of time? Perhaps even a lifetime?
We are excited to see many more studies done specifically on this topic!
