Despite the fact that the U.S. government deems many hallucinogenic or psychedelic substances to be dangerous, classifying them as Schedule I drugs with “no currently accepted medical use,” various scientists have dared to study their effects. What they’ve found over the years paints a startling, promising and powerful picture of potentially game-changing medicines.
The government’s “war on drugs” policies severely limit research on psychedelics. Before scientists can complete any federally sanctioned studies, they have to jump through an expensive tangle of hoops and red tape. Restrictions aside, over the years researchers have collected a database of research showing that many psychedelics have an unprecedented potential to treat cancers, addictions and psychological traumas, among other things.
Here are some of the coolest things scientists have discovered about psychedelics over the years.
1. LSD can mitigate end-of-life anxiety.
The results of the first clinical study of the therapeutic use of LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) in humans in more than 40 years were published in
the peer-reviewed Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease in March. They
show that LSD can promote statistically significant reductions in
anxiety for people coming to terms with their own impending demise.
Swiss psychiatrist Peter Gasser and
his colleagues conducted the double-blind, placebo-controlled study,
sponsored by the non-profit Multidisciplinary Association for
Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). They tracked 12 people who were near the end
of life as they attended LSD-assisted psychotherapy sessions. In his report, Gasser concluded that the study subjects’ anxiety “went down and stayed down.”
2. Psilocybin, aka magic mushrooms, actually calms, rather than stimulates, certain brain functions.
The common conception is that
psychedelics do something extra to cause their effects—increase
activity, add hallucinations, promote awareness, etc. A study that
examined brain scans of people under the influence of psilocybin found
that it reduces activity in certain areas of the brain. That reduction
of activity leads to the drug’s effect on cognition and memory.
Psychedelics, and psilocybin in particular, might actually be
eliminating what could be called the extra “noise” in the brain.
3. The drug MDMA (aka ecstasy, or Molly)
promotes release of the “love” hormone oxytocin, which could help treat
severe anxieties like PTSD and social anxiety resulting from autism.
Before the federal government
classified it as a Schedule I substance, therapists experimented with
MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxyrnethimphetarnine) beginning in the 1970s to
help reduce moderate depression and anxiety among their adult patients.
After widespread recreational use in the rave scene caught the attention
of authorities, MDMA was criminalized in 1985. However, research
primarily supported by the MAPS has continued to turn up positive
results for the drug’s potential therapeutic use. Various clinical trials and
statistical research have confirmed that MDMA can successfully treat
post-traumatic stress in military veterans and others. One example is the clinical trial led by Michael Mithoefer, which used MDMA-assisted psychotherapy to treat chronic PTSD.
A 2009 study offers a plausible
explanation for MDMA’s effectiveness treating PTSD. The double-blind,
randomized, placebo-controlled study of 15 healthy individuals confirmed
that MDMA causes the brain to release oxytocin, which is the human
hormone linked to feelings of love and compassion.
MAPS recently received government approval to launch a new study examining MDMA’s potential for treating social anxiety in autistic adults. Based on the known effects of MDMA, as well as individual reports, this exploratory study will focus on enhancing functional skills and quality of life in autistic adults with social anxiety.
4. Psilocybin could kill smoking addiction.
Psychiatry professor Matthew Johnson, who works at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, presented the preliminary results of
a pilot feasibility study looking at the ability of psilocybin to treat
smoking addiction at the 2013 Psychedelic Science conference in
Oakland, Calif. For the study, five cigarette-addicted participants
underwent placebo-controlled psilocybin treatment with a psychiatrist.
All five completely quit smoking after their first psilocybin session.
At all followup visits, which occurred up to one year later for the
first four participants, it was biologically confirmed that the
participants had abstained from cigarettes.
Ayahuasca is a brew prepared with the Banisteriopsis caapi
vine, originally used for spiritual and healing purposes in the Peruvian
Amazon rainforest. The vine is usually mixed with leaves containing the
psychedelic compound DMT.
Gabor Mate, a medical doctor from Vancouver who is a prominent ayahuasca researcher,contends that
therapy assisted by psychedelics, and ayahuasca in particular, can
untangle complex, unconscious psychological stresses. He claims these
stresses underlie and contribute to all chronic medical conditions, from
cancer and addiction to depression and multiple sclerosis.
The results of
the first North American observational study on the safety and
long-term effectiveness of ayahuasca treatment for addiction and
dependence were published in June 2013 in the journal Current Drug Abuse
Reviews. All of the participants in the study reported positive and
lasting changes, and the study found statistically significant
improvements “for scales assessing hopefulness, empowerment,
mindfulness, and quality of life meaning and outlook subscales.
Self-reported alcohol, tobacco and cocaine use declined, although
cannabis and opiate use did not.” The reported reductions in problematic
cocaine use were also statistically significant.
6. DMT occurs naturally in the human body, and taking it could simulate death.
The drug DMT (diemethyltryptamine),
which causes hallucinogenic experiences, is made up of a chemical
compound that already occurs within the human body endogenously (as
well as in a number of plants). This means our brains are naturally set
up to process the drug because it has receptors that exist specifically
to do so. Cannabis is another illegal drug that occursendogenously.
Some research based
on near-death experiences points to the fact that the brain releases
DMT during death. Some researchers have also conjectured that DMT is
released during other intense experiences, including orgasm.
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