Mind-Bending: Psilocybin Reshapes Brain Networks for Weeks
Neuroscience News – July 17, 2024
Summary: A new study reveals that psilocybin, the active compound in magic mushrooms, temporarily disrupts brain networks involved in introspective thinking, like daydreaming and memory. These changes persist for weeks, potentially making the brain more flexible and improving mental health.
The findings could pave the way for psilocybin-based therapies for depression and PTSD. The research underscores the importance of using these drugs under medical supervision.
Key Facts:
- Temporary Changes: Psilocybin disrupts brain networks for weeks, not permanently.
- Brain Flexibility: The drug increases brain flexibility, aiding in mental health.
- Medical Supervision: Findings highlight the need for trained supervision during use.
Advocates have long argued that, under the right conditions, psychedelic experiences can alleviate mental distress, and a smattering of scientific studies suggests they may be right.
Understanding precisely how the drug affects the brain will help scientists and doctors harness its therapeutic potential.
In a new study, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report that psilocybin, the active compound in magic mushrooms, temporarily scrambles a critical network of brain areas involved in introspective thinking such as daydreaming and remembering.
The findings provide a neurobiological explanation for the drug’s mind-bending effects and lay some of the groundwork for the development of psilocybin-based therapies for mental illnesses such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The study, available July 17 in Nature, creates a road map other scientists can follow to evaluate the effects of psychoactive drugs on brain function, potentially accelerating drug development efforts for any number of psychiatric illnesses.
Psilocybin showed promise as a treatment for depression in the 1950s and ‘60s, but restrictive federal drug policy in subsequent decades quashed nearly all further research. In recent years, though, regulations have loosened, and interest in the field has been revived.
“These days, we know a lot about the psychological effects and the molecular/cellular effects of psilocybin,” said first author Joshua S. Siegel, MD, PhD, an instructor in psychiatry. “But we don’t know much about what happens at the level that connects the two — the level of functional brain networks.”
To fill that gap, Siegel pulled together a team including Dosenbach, who is an expert in brain imaging, and co-senior author Ginger E. Nicol, MD, an associate professor of psychiatry who has experience running clinical trials with controlled substances.
The team recruited seven healthy adults to take a high dose of psilocybin or methylphenidate, the generic form of Ritalin, under controlled conditions. Because psychedelic trips carry the risk of users having negative or scary experiences, a pair of trained experts stayed with each participant throughout the experience.
The experts helped prepare the participants for what they were likely to experience, provided guidance and support during each experiment, and helped the volunteers process what had occurred afterward.
Each participant underwent an average of 18 functional MRI brain scans in the days to weeks before, during and up to three weeks after their experiences with psilocybin. Four participants returned six months later to repeat the experiment.
Psilocybin caused profound and widespread — yet not permanent — changes to the brain’s functional networks. In particular, it desynchronized the default mode network, an interconnected set of brain areas that, ordinarily, are simultaneously active when the brain is not working on anything in particular.
“The idea is that you’re taking this system that’s fundamental to the brain’s ability to think about the self in relation to the world, and you’re totally desynchronizing it temporarily,” Siegel said.
“In the short term, this creates a psychedelic experience. The longer-term consequence is that it makes the brain more flexible and potentially more able to come into a healthier state.”
Normally, each individual’s functional brain network is as distinctive as a fingerprint. Psilocybin distorted brain networks so thoroughly that individuals could no longer be identified until the acute affects wore off.
“The brains of people on psilocybin look more similar to each other than to their untripping selves,” Dosenbach said. “Their individuality is temporarily wiped out. This verifies, at a neuroscientific level, what people say about losing their sense of self during a trip.”
“We were able to get very precise data on the effects of the drug in each individual,” Nicol said.
“This is a step toward precision clinical trials. In psychiatry, we often don’t know who should get a particular medicine and how much or how often. As a result, we end up prescribing one medicine after another, tinkering with the dosage, until we find something that works.
“By using this approach in clinical trials, we can identify the factors that determine who benefits and who doesn’t, and make better use of the medicines we have.”
Nicol, Siegel and Dosenbach emphasize that people should not interpret their study as a reason to self-medicate with psilocybin. The drug is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a treatment for depression or any other condition, and there are risks to taking it without the supervision of trained mental health experts.
Story from – Neuroscience News
Can magic mushrooms treat PTSD? London-bound clinical trial seeks to find out
The trial comes amid increasing interest in the potential for psychedelics as medicine across Canada
Alessio Donnini CBC News – Jun 04, 2024
What a magic mushroom trip will look like for medical participants
Health Canada has approved a study with 20 Londoners who suffer from PTSD to experience therapy under the influence of psilocybin, the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms. Psychotherapist Jared Dalton will oversee the therapy. He explains how it will work.
London is one of the latest Canadian cities to host pioneering research into the potential of psychedelic drugs to treat severe mental illness.
A Health Canada-approved clinical trial is seeking 20 local participants who have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to undergo therapy assisted by psilocybin — the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms.
Sponsored by Apex Labs and conducted at sites owned by Centricity Research, the trial will tap into the expertise of local mental health professionals who will work with patients using Apex’s psychotherapy manual over the course of the trial.
One of those local professionals is Jared Dalton, a registered social worker and psychotherapist whose experience with psychedelic-assisted therapy began after he witnessed the distress his mother experienced at the end of her life.
“[Psychedelics] are really amazing for people that feel constricted around their emotions, who experience difficulty tolerating feelings of sadness, feelings of anxiety. It seems to create a space where they can they can feel those feelings without being overwhelmed by them,” said Dalton.
There’s a lack of good options available to help people experiencing significant stress during palliative care, he said.
In psychedelics, he sees a potential treatment that hasn’t been explored enough in research, and one that shows promise above and beyond just end-of-life care.
That’s why Dalton said he was on board when approached by Apex Labs, a pharmaceutical company that develops psilocybin-based drugs, to help treat participants with PTSD.
“I’m excited for what this means for the patients,” he said. “Free access to this type of support is huge, especially because of how costly it can be.”
More trials needed, Health Canada says
The main focus of the trial being to treat people with PTSD is borne partially from the expertise of Dr. Mark Johnston, a psychiatrist and Apex Labs’s chief medical officer.
He’s spent over 20 years treating PTSD, and said there’s a lack of treatment options that are purpose-built.
“We’ve taken most of them from anxiety or depression treatments because there’s a lot of overlap, and they kind of work,” he said. “There’s a lot of anecdotal evidence to support psilocybin being part of that solution.”
However, regulators need to see the results of clinical trials before the therapy can become more widely available, he said.
Psilocybin is prohibited in Canada by the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and has been illegal since 1975. Health Canada says the drug shows promising results in clinical trials, but still says evidence is limited, as few trials have been completed.
Amid “increasing interest” in the drug’s potential, Health Canada posted a warning to its website, reiterating the drug is currently unapproved. That warning comes with the backdrop of illegal psilocybin dispensaries opening across Canada.
In the trial, which will include a total of 160 patients across four Canadian cities, Johnston hopes to prove that psilocybin is an effective medicine by giving participants either a placebo, or Apex’s psilocybin product.
“I suspect there will be a difference between the two groups, but the proof is in the pudding,” he said.
Alongside multiple doses of either placebo or psilocybin medication, trial participants will go through psychotherapy sessions before, during and after doses — an essential part of treatment, Johnston said.
That’s where Dalton comes in.
“Rewiring” the brain
According to him, psychedelics have a way of making human brains malleable, and allowing long-entrenched connections to be adjusted.
“The brain is efficient. It does the same thing the same way, over and over again. Psychedelics let us harness our ability to rewire our brains and make new connections,” he said, adding that the “neuroplasticity” psychedelics promote means psychotherapy can be more effective in treating severe problems.
“There’s a state of expansion, and you get to decide what pathways you want to create.”
Still, it’s hard to describe a psychedelic experience to someone who hasn’t experienced one, he said. While most people experience them as meaningful in some way, the way that manifests can be different.
“It could be spiritual, or transpersonal, or a feeling of rebirth,” he said.
Dalton said he’s confident the trial will be helpful not only to the mental health of participants, but the future of psychedelic medicine as well.
“I hope we can move to a place where between a patient, their doctor, and their therapist, they can make decisions about treatment that don’t have to go directly through Health Canada’s [lengthy approval process],” he said.
The trial is set to begin in the coming weeks, however screening for potential participants has already begun.
Typically, after clinical trials are complete and prove the drug’s benefits outweigh its risks, drug companies can apply to Health Canada for approval to market that drug.
Story from – CBC News
Vancouver to reinstate business licence of illegal magic mushroom dispensary
The decision effectively makes The Medicinal Mushroom Dispensary on West Broadway the first store licensed to sell magic mushrooms and other psychedelic drugs in Canada.
Vancouver city councillors have voted to reissue the business licence of a dispensary that has been selling mushrooms illegally but openly since February 2023 — a decision store operator Dana Larsen described as “cracking the door open” for regulation of psilocybins in the city.
The Medicinal Mushroom Dispensary at 247 W. Broadway had its licence suspended last May for “gross misconduct” for selling prohibited and controlled substances in defiance of federal laws and for misrepresenting itself on its licence application as a business selling party supplies and novelties.
At a business licence hearing Tuesday, a three-person panel approved a motion asking staff to reinstate the licence with terms that clarify the business is involved in education and advocacy of medicinal psychoactive substances.
“I’m very pleased with the decision,” said Larsen after the hearing. “We are now the only shop in Canada licensed to sell entheogens, mushrooms, peyote, LSD and DMT, but I really hope we are not the last.
“We opened the door now, just a crack, but it’s only going to get bigger.”
The city’s lawyer, Robert LeBlanc, told councillors Adriane Carr, Pete Fry and Mike Klassen at the hearing that the store’s intention has always been to sell illegal substances in contravention of federal law and the city’s licence bylaw.
He recommended the panel defer to the findings of chief licence inspector Sarah Hicks.
Green party councillors Carr and Fry rejected the findings of gross misconduct, saying they believe the licence-holder didn’t intend to deceive, but applied under the most suitable category available.
The use of psychedelic substances among Indigenous people and for spiritual or religious reasons is well-established, said Carr, adding she doesn’t believe they cause harm.
Some research suggests psilocybins can ease anxiety, depression, PTSD symptoms, and can help curb or eliminate addictions to opioids and other substances. Health Canada has approved about two dozen clinical trials, and has allowed personal exemptions for some patients to buy the drugs legally.
The drug remains a controlled substance, but that hasn’t stopped magic mushroom stores popping up across the country, including about 20 in Vancouver, by Larsen’s count.
The proliferation is similar to the tactics employed by the cannabis legalization movement, which saw illegal marijuana dispensaries operate storefronts before the drug was legalized by the federal government.
In 2015, the City of Vancouver allowed the legal sale of cannabis in the city before legalization, noted Carr.
“Our ability to be proactive, thoughtful, brave made a big difference and obviously ultimately resulted in the legalization of the sale of cannabis,” she said.
Fry, who supported Carr’s motion, said there is a trend toward the use of psychedelic therapy and medicines.
“Everyone from Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop to online resources, mushrooms are literally exploding everywhere, and we see that as a cultural trend,” he said, adding Carr’s motion should serve as a “catalyst” for a new licensing framework similar to how the city dealt with medical marijuana.
ABC Vancouver Coun. Klassen disagreed, saying advocacy isn’t the purview of the business licence hearing.
In a statement, Mayor Ken Sim said he was “extremely disappointed” by Carr and Fry’s decision to use their role at the hearing to “engage in activism on matters” beyond the city’s jurisdiction.
“The sale of psilocybin products (hallucinogenic mushrooms) is not permitted by the federal government,” he said. “All business licence-holders are obligated to adhere to both federal and provincial laws in addition to municipal regulations.”
The panel’s decision is limited only to the business licence for the West Broadway storefront, but Larsen said it sets a “political precedence” for other mushroom dispensaries operating in the city to seek a business licence, and for council as a whole to explore establishing bylaws permitting the regulation and retail sale of the products in the city.
Adding mushrooms and psilocybins to the medicinal cannabis bylaw the city adopted in 2015 would be a “simple and elegant” solution, he said.
Such a proposal, however, has to come before council as a whole, not a subcommittee.
“The whole city council is not that same makeup (as the business licence hearing panel) and they might take a different attitude,” he said. “It’s hard to say. I don’t know where it is going to go.”
Larsen operates two other stores in the city.
A second store on East Hastings had its business licence approved in 2021, 2022 and 2023, he said. But the city had refused to grant a licence for 2024. The store is seeking a judicial review of the decision.
A third store in Marpole on Granville Street is operating without a licence.
All three stores were raided last November by Vancouver police. They have since reopened.
“This is a growing movement,” said Larsen. “If there’s an opportunity to be licensed and regulated I assure you that our dispensary and, I think, many others would be more than happy to comply with any reasonable bylaws that are in place.”
Story from – Vancouver Sun
Dana Larsen’s Store – Mushroom Dispensary
Canadian firms in line to supply psychedelics for Australia’s Authorized Prescriber Scheme
PharmAla Biotech – January 29, 2024
Australia is ramping up its Authorized Prescriber Scheme for psychedelic medicines, presenting a significant opportunity for Canadian biotechnology firms to supply it with safe and standardized good manufacturing practice-grade substances.
The Australian organization responsible for the regulation of therapeutic goods including drugs and medical devices, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), last year changed the classification of psilocybin and MDMA within the country’s Poisons Scheme to allow for them to be prescribed by authorized psychiatrists.
For this purpose, they are considered Schedule 8 Controlled Drugs but for all other purposes remain Schedule 9 Prohibited Substances.
Since July 1, 2023, specially authorized psychiatrists have been able to prescribe psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression and MDMA for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Earlier this month, the co-founder of outpatient psychiatrist-led mental health organization Monarch Metal Health Group Ted Cassidy became the first doctor to prescribe MDMA psychedelic-assisted therapy for PTSD to a female patient under the Authorized Prescriber Scheme.
“I am proud that Australia has taken world leadership in translating psychedelic research into clinical reality,” he wrote in a post on LinkedIn.
Several Canadian psychedelics-focused biotech companies have already overcome the significant regulatory and logistical challenges surrounding the export of controlled substances like MDMA and psilocybin into Australia, paving the way for them to supply the nation’s scheme as more patients are prescribed these drugs to treat mental health conditions.
British Columbia-based Filament Health Corp earlier this month completed its first export of its botanical psilocybin drug candidate to its partner Reset Mind Sciences located in Perth, Western Australia.
The company is a longtime supplier of Canada’s Special Access Program, a framework which allows healthcare professionals to request access to non-marketed drugs not available for sale such as psilocybin or MDMA for patients with a serious or life-threatening condition on a case-by-case basis.
While Filament’s drug product will be used by Reset for research purposes, the export, which is believed to be the first export involving botanical psilocybin into Australia, demonstrated the company’s regulatory capabilities.
Reset is advancing a GMP licence application to manufacture psilocybin products from botanically sourced psilocybin for human consumption as it awaits the publication of the TGA’s order governing psilocybin production in Australia, Filament highlighted.
“We are closely monitoring the Authorized Prescriber Scheme, and we commend the TGA for including botanical products in their draft guidance for the products,” a Filament Health spokesperson told Proactive.
Another Canadian firm working to supply Australia’s scheme is PharmAla Biotech, a company focused on the manufacturing of novel MDXX class molecules including MDMA.
In November, PharmAla announced it had completed its first shipment of MDMA and psilocybin to Cortexa, its Australian joint venture with Vitura Health Limited.
This marked the first time that these drugs have been brought into Australia specifically to be used under the Authorized Prescriber Scheme rather than for clinical trial purposes, the company said.
Drug manufacturer Optimi Health Corp through a partnership with Mind Medicine Australia (MMA), an Australian mental health charity and provider of psychedelic-assisted therapy training, is positioned to be another supplier of the scheme.
Through this partnership, announced in March 2023, Optimi is contracted to supply its MDMA formulation PTI-MHCL and GMP psilocybin capsules to MMA on an ongoing basis.
In a November 2023 shareholder update, Optimi said it continues to collaborate with MMA to navigate intricacies related to the scheme.
It noted that once a psychiatrist has received approval from the TGA to become an authorized prescriber it can apply for an import permit for Optimi’s drug candidates. The approval of such a permit can take up to 45 days after which Optimi will initiate the shipment of the drugs to Australia.
Story from – Proactive Investors
CASE NUMBER: 23-771501
Hamilton October 6, 2023
Two Illegal Psilocybin Store Fronts Closed Permanently the Mushroom Cabinet and Shroomyz …
Hamilton Police have permanently closed the doors on two illegal psilocybin businesses that were the subject of previous police warrant executions.
On Friday, October 6, 2023, Hamilton Police shut down two illegal psilocybin stores permanently. The Mushroom Cabinet and Shroomyz are now closed, with cooperation from landlords, the locks have been changed and Hamilton Police signage installed indicating that any entry could result in Break and Enter or other applicable charges.
Hamilton Police have charged, a 35-year-old male in relation to the Mushroom Cabinet with CDSA 5(2) Psilocybin and Proceeds of Crime Under $5000.
The following was seized from the Mushroom Cabinet;
- 1.3 kilograms of dried Psilocybin
- 33 bottles containing 20 capsules of Psilocybin in each (660 capsules total)
- 30 Psilocybin chocolate bars
- 25 Psilocybin chocolate squares
Hamilton Police have also charged, a 50-year-old female in relation to Shroomyz with CDSA 5 (2) and Proceeds of Crime Under $5000.
Shroomyz
The following was seized from Shroomyz;
- 404 packages of dried Psilocybin (2.83 kilograms total)
- 308 chocolate cars 3.5 grams each bar (1.08 kilograms total)
- 713 bottles containing 14260 capsules total (3.5 kilogram total)
- 19 jars of Psilocybin butter
- 228 packages of gummies each containing 4500mg (1 kilogram total)
In total, Hamilton Police have seized 9.71 kilograms of dried psilocybin with a street value of $97,100.
A third store, Shroom Godz, opened yesterday directly across the street from the Mushroom Cabinet. Police have since informed the owner of Shroom Godz of the recent measures implemented on the two neighbouring businesses and the owner has made a decision to cease operations.
Hamilton Police remind the public that psilocybin remains a schedule III drug and a restricted substance under the Controlled Drugs and Substance Act (CDSA). Psilocybin is illegal to possess and at this time, there are no legal licensed options available, under which psilocybin dispensaries are allowed to operate.
If you have any information that you believe could assist Police with the investigation into this crime, please contact Detective Sergeant Greg Slack at 905-546-3810.
To provide information anonymously call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or submit your anonymous tips online at http://www.crimestoppershamilton.com
MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!
Story from Hamilton Police website
I Went to Rehab for Alcoholism 18 Times. Only Psychedelics Helped
“Using [psilocybin] four to six times has managed to achieve what the other therapies didn’t do in years.”
A version of this article originally appeared on VICE Germany.
I met Amanda at a pain therapy clinic in Zurich last December. She was sitting on a chair, hands folded neatly in her lap – she’d come here with her husband Tim for one of her regular visits to neurologist Livia Granata, one of the few specialists in Switzerland offering psychedelic therapy.
For the past seven years, Amanda hasn’t lived in her flat with her partner and their children, but outside on the balcony. She stays in an improvised shelter her husband made for her, only going in to use the toilet – and the pandemic only further tightened the grip her anxiety disorders have on her life.
A year ago, Amanda probably wouldn’t have shown up for this appointment at all, either cancelling at the last minute or simply letting it pass. Over the years, she’s been through too many treatments – experimental therapies that brought little to no relief. But in April 2022, she found her way to the clinic – and to the first treatment she felt ever truly worked.
The first studies looking at psychedelic therapy date back to the 50s and 60s, but research projects were shut down in the two decades that followed as psychedelics became increasingly criminalised. One of the countries that contributed most to this research is Switzerland, where psychedelic therapy was briefly legalised between 1988 and 1993 and used to treat almost 200 private patients.
“I was a functional alcoholic,” said Amanda, recalling the first years of her addiction. “I only drank in the evenings, but I drank way too much and it was starting to affect my family life.” In the beginning, alcohol helped her escape unwanted thoughts, but that soon stopped being effective. She kept drinking anyway.
In 2007, Amanda realised she had a problem and decided to seek help. But her children were little at the time and she couldn’t bear the thought to leave them for long stretches of time. Over the intervening years, she’s visited rehab centres and psychiatric clinics over and over again – 18 times in total, some for a few weeks, others for months. She was often institutionalised with people with severe and diverse mental health conditions, and that made her feel unsafe. Sooner or later, she’d relapse. “Even though I was there voluntarily and I could ask to go out, it was just the feeling of being locked in [that scared me],” she remembers.
As time went on, Amanda became suicidal because she “couldn’t beat this thing”, as she puts it. Her attempts at suicide – 12 in total – caused her to be forcibly committed, fuelling the cycle of failed therapies and making her sicker and sicker.
Her last hospital stay in the summer of 2021 made it clear to her she never wanted to go back to a psychiatric ward again. “I’d lost a lot of weight, it went down to 50kg,” she says. “I’d just had enough.” Then, she came across a documentary about a study in Switzerland where alcoholics are treated with psychedelics. She signed up to participate and was referred to Livia Granata.
Initially, the two tried a course of therapy involving ketamine IVs. Ketamine is an anaesthetic used in emergency care and as a recreational drug, but has psychedelic effects. It’s also been shown to be an effective antidepressant and anti-suicidal drug, and particularly good with cases of treatment-resistant depression.
Then Granata decided to try administering her psilocybin – 20 milligrams per session at first, then 30 because she “tolerated it extremely well”, Granata says. They did six sessions of about eight hours, or until the psychedelic high was over. Granata and her team are not therapists – they simply supervise Amanda while she listens to music, lies down on the couch or the carpet, puts a mask over her eyes and just gives in to the feeling.
Many patients cry during treatment, says Aisha Savdi, a medical assistant in the team. Some want to be held, others want to be left alone. The sessions often bring up past memories and emotions that have been repressed. Many report that they look at their lives like an outsider. Things become clearer; perspectives change.
For Amanda, the hallucinogenic effect was weaker than with ketamine. The lights were slightly blurred, but above all, she felt good: relaxed, anxiety gone. “Tim had trouble getting me back to the car, because I was looking at all the bright colours like a kid,” she says. “It certainly changed my attitude a bit, I feel the weight lifted.”
Since then, she and the people in her life have observed a huge improvement in her severe depression and anxiety. Although she still can’t bear to move out of the balcony, she’s been able to leave her house, visit the hairdresser, go on a walk or to see a friend. She can watch some videos explaining childhood trauma without shutting down. “My mind seemed more open so I could really take it in,” she explains.
And something else is different, too – her urge to drink is gone. She has been abstinent since April 2022 – her longest time without alcohol in 20 years. Granata has prescribed a ketamine nose spray to help with the cravings, which sometimes still happen, especially when something changes in her life. The holiday was challenging, for instance – but so far, she’s been able to swerve drinking.