A single high dose of psilocybin alters brain function up to one month later

Authored by psypost.org and submitted by savvas_lampridis
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New research provides evidence that the active ingredient in so-called magic mushrooms can affect brain processes related to emotional functioning long after the substance has left one’s body. The findings, published in Scientific Reports, shed new light on the long-term effects of psilocybin.

Rather than examining the brain while it’s under the influence of psilocybin, the researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine were interested in the enduring impact of the substance.

“Nearly all psychedelic imaging studies have been conducted during acute effects of psychedelic drugs. While acute effects of psychedelics on the brain are of course incredibly interesting, the enduring effects of psychedelic drugs on brain function have great untapped value in helping us to understand more about the brain, affect, and the treatment of psychiatric disorders,” said Frederick S. Barrett (@FredBarrettPhD), an assistant professor and the corresponding author of the study.

In the study, 12 volunteers received a single administration of a high dose of psilocybin. One day before, one week after, and one month after psilocybin administration, the volunteers completed three different tasks to assess the processing of emotional information (specifically, facial expressions) while the researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to record their brain activity. During these three sessions, the volunteers also completed various surveys about their emotional functioning.

The researchers found that self-reported emotional distress was reduced one week after psilocybin administration, but returned to baseline levels at one month after psilocybin administration. Barrett and his colleagues also observed decreases in amygdala responses to emotional information one week after psilocybin administration, but this also returned to normal at one month post-psilocybin.

In addition, the researchers found increases in resting-state functional connectivity, which measures how blood oxygen level-dependent signals are coordinated across the brain, at both one week and one month after psilocybin administration.

“A single high dose of psilocybin, administered to properly screened individuals in a carefully controlled setting, can have lasting positive effects on emotional functioning in healthy individuals. These effects were reflected in transient changes in the function of brain regions that support emotional processing,” Barrett told PsyPost.

Because of the small sample size and lack of a control group, however, the findings should be considered preliminary.

“This study needs to be replicated in a larger sample with proper experimental controls, and we need to determine whether psilocybin exerts the observed effects by directly acting on emotional brain circuits, or by acting on brain circuits that control attention and cognition that may have down-stream effects on emotional brain circuits,” Barrett explained.

The study, “Emotions and brain function are altered up to one month after a single high dose of psilocybin“, was authored by Frederick S. Barrett, Manoj K. Doss, Nathan D. Sepeda, James J. Pekar, and Roland R. Griffiths.

tgraham4444 on April 7th, 2020 at 16:24 UTC »

With psychedelic research coming up more and more on Reddit, I wanted to give some answers to common questions in these threads.

What's the difference between psilocybin therapy and when I took mushrooms in college? (How does it work?)

FDA approved psychedelic research is controlled and has strict rules. In most psychedelic trials, the process is led by a male-female therapy team. Patients are carefully screened for mental health disorders (bipolar, schizophrenia, and similar diseases) and go through preparatory psychotherapy. During the prep period, patients build rapport with the team of therapists and are briefed on what to expect. When sufficiently prepared, patients are given a controlled moderate-high dose of psilocybin(~20-30mg, equivalent 3-5gr dry).

During the session, patients are encouraged to put on eye-shades and "go inside". Therapists are there to support and encourage the "Inner Healing Intelligence" of the patient, they are not guiding the experience. I realize that might be hard to believe, but it is literally written in the research papers and training procedures. Patients are free to leave 8 hours later when the effects wear off completely. In the days following, patients follow up with "integration" sessions after are essential for lasting change

Why are we hearing about mushrooms now if they've always worked well?

Nixon's DEA unjustly placed all psychedelics into Schedule 1 following media hype after the psychedelic 60's. Schedule 1 is meant for drugs with "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse". What the DEA ignored at the time were the thousands of research articles at the time about LSD, psilocybin, and other psychedelics. Additionally, the US government ignored the long historical use of psychedelics throughout America and the world.

What about bad trips?

Often researchers will refute the idea of a "bad trip" in interviews, instead using words such as "challenging". While that might be good to tell new patients, it's not completely true.

When psychedelics are used with the wrong people, in the wrong spaces, without proper preparation, bad things can happen. Psychedelics are tools, and just like other tools such as knifes, cars, and pharmaceutical drugs, they can be used improperly.

Set. Setting. Dose. These are the three variables that effect a psychedelic experience.

Set refers to your mindset going into the experience. How are you feeling that day? Did anything bad happen to you recently? Is there something you are afraid to confront?

Setting is the environment that you take the drugs in. Are you in a space where you feel physically safe? Is the space aesthetically pleasing?Are you with people that you feel safe around? Is there someone to help you if you need help?

Dose refers to the amount of drugs you take. Are your drugs tested? What is the potency of the drugs? Are you prepared for this high of a dose?

Fortunately, you can't overdose on classic psychedelics. Despite this, psychedelics still deserve the utmost care when using them. If you don't control set/setting/dose, you risk potential hospital visits, confronting your worst fears, or in extreme cases, psychotic breaks.

Even when controlled, the psychedelic experience can still be scary. The difference is that you are prepared and you have people to help you along the way.

To date, there have been no injuries or adverse psychological reactions during the FDA trials for both psilocybin and MDMA.

Is psilocybin safe enough to be used for novel therapy treatments?

The 2017 Global Drug Survey stated "Magic mushrooms were the safest drugs to take in terms of needing to see emergency medical treatment".

In a 2010 Lancet study of the 20 most popular drugs ranked by harm, psilocybin was found to be the least harmful.

There has been a long history of indigenous psilocybin use, most notably in Central America.

tehbored on April 7th, 2020 at 14:17 UTC »

It's already been fast tracked for approval by the FDA. Iirc, it's in phase 2 trials now. Psilocybin will likely be available for prescription by 2027.

Edit: I shouldn't have said prescription. It will most likely be administered in clinics.

savvas_lampridis on April 7th, 2020 at 12:06 UTC »

Here is a link to the open access journal article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-59282-y

Abstract: Psilocybin is a classic psychedelic compound that may have efficacy for the treatment of mood and substance use disorders. Acute psilocybin effects include reduced negative mood, increased positive mood, and reduced amygdala response to negative affective stimuli. However, no study has investigated the long-term, enduring impact of psilocybin on negative affect and associated brain function. Twelve healthy volunteers (7F/5M) completed an open-label pilot study including assessments 1-day before, 1-week after, and 1-month after receiving a 25 mg/70 kg dose of psilocybin to test the hypothesis that psilocybin administration leads to enduring changes in affect and neural correlates of affect. One-week post-psilocybin, negative affect and amygdala response to facial affect stimuli were reduced, whereas positive affect and dorsal lateral prefrontal and medial orbitofrontal cortex responses to emotionally-conflicting stimuli were increased. One-month post-psilocybin, negative affective and amygdala response to facial affect stimuli returned to baseline levels while positive affect remained elevated, and trait anxiety was reduced. Finally, the number of significant resting-state functional connections across the brain increased from baseline to 1-week and 1-month post-psilocybin. These preliminary findings suggest that psilocybin may increase emotional and brain plasticity, and the reported findings support the hypothesis that negative affect may be a therapeutic target for psilocybin.