A research-backed treatment

In the treatment of mental health, psilocybin is too promising to ignore. For this reason, the Durango Herald supports passing the Natural Medicine Health Act, the measure to create a system of state-licensed healing centers with trained facilitators.

Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers report that two doses of the psychedelic substance psilocybin, given with supportive psychotherapy, produced rapid and large reductions in depressive symptoms

Jose Martinez, a former Army gunner whose right arm and both legs were blown off by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, has a new calling: He’s become one of the most effective lobbyists in a campaign to legalize the therapeutic use of psychedelic drugs across the country.

Johns Hopkins University and others over the last decade have shown promise in using psilocybin in tandem with talk therapy to help longtime smokers quit smoking, ease anxiety in people with terminal cancer and reduce symptoms of major depression.

Psychedelic compounds … have shown significant promise in treating a range of mental health disorders, with participants in clinical studies often describing tremendous progress taming the demons of post-traumatic stress disorder, or finding unexpected calm and clarity as they face a terminal illness.

Griffiths believes psilocybin could be an important alternative when antidepressants that have to be taken every day are not effective enough and have side effects.

“These compounds somehow reset the brain.” If administered in controlled settings and with the help of doctors, he holds, psychedelics could improve millions of Americans’ well-being.

Some of the country’s leading medical research centers are seeing if psychedelic drugs and intense therapy can be used to help people do things like quit smoking and worry less. Read more…

As to its effects on anxiety and depression, the psilocybin appeared to work: Eighty percent of the patients reported that their symptoms faded, and the effects lasted six months, the 2016 study found. At the time, this long-lasting effect was a landmark finding.

The psychedelic drug in “magic mushrooms” can quickly and effectively help treat anxiety and depression in cancer patients, an effect that may last for months, two small studies show.

Two studies published Thursday in the Journal of Psychopharmacology suggest that psilocybin may offer a dramatic helping hand.

The findings do, however, build on growing evidence supporting the benefits of psilocybin on mental health.