The prohibition on psychedelics was memorably described as “the worst case of scientific censorship since the Catholic Church banned the works of Copernicus and Galileo” by former UK Drugs Czar David Nutt, and despite the ban, there has been a consistent, determined, very promising (sometimes surprising) drumbeat of scientific papers about the use of psilocybin (“magic mushrooms”) and other psychedelics in treating a range of chronic illnesses, including mental illnesses.
Now, a pair of new papers from an Imperial College London team (including David Nutt) detail the promising outcomes of a small-scale (20 subject) study in treating moderate to severe depression with psilocybin, in which the subjects report significant improvement without the “emotional dulling” associated with mainline antidepressants (this dulling effect is a major contributor to the cessation of medication), and in which fMRI imaging offers some clues to how psilocybin is mitigating depression.
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Please note that this is not about trying to treat yourself with illegal substances but a report about serious study of the effects of using certain psychedelic drugs under controlled conditions.
And it was only a small sample.
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