Studies show that some hallucinogenic substances can be used to treat depression, anxiety, and addiction – and stop spiralling negative thoughts.
Rebooting the brain
Researcher says there are two main ways that psychedelic substances can help people with long-term, treatment-resistant mental illnesses.
One is that they reset your brain functioning. So, a bit like rebooting the computer.
When someone is suffering from a mental illness for an extended period, their brain can become stuck in certain negative thought patterns. The longer the brain stays in these thought patterns, the more they can become ‘hardwired.”
Psychedelics enable rigid thought patterns to shift, enabling new thoughts, insights and perspectives to emerge.
Previous research shows that when people suffer from depression, their brain cells can shrink and become less connected, with significant impacts on mood and cognition.
We know when people have been depressed for months and months that some cells in some parts of your brain actually shrink. The brain cells become a bit sickly.
“We know that both ketamine and other psychedelics actually promote growth of the brain cells. They become nice and plumped up again and with lots of connections.
Psychedelics and Mental Health
Recent clinical trials suggest the active ingredient in magic mushrooms — psilocybin — help people with treatment-resistant depression.
MDMA has been shown to be effective in treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
In July 2023 , the US state of Connecticut authorised the country’s first pilot program to offer MDMA and psilocybin to veterans, frontline healthcare workers, and retired first responders, including police who suffer from depression and PTSD.
Australia’s national scientific research is aiming to help people with a variety of mental health issues including depression, addiction, end of life anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The psychedelic experience – how does psilocybin affect the brain?
Psilocybin is a naturally occurring psychedelic substance found in so-called “magic mushrooms.” Many recent clinical trials have reported positive effects of psilocybin in treating psychiatric disorders, including major depressive disorder (MDD) and treatment-resistant depression (TRD).
Evidence suggests that therapeutic responses to psilocybin stem from, or at least go hand-in-hand with, an intense emotional or mystical experience,.
Studies suggest that psilocybin leads to increased “openness to experience” and psychological flexibility – enabling patients to “reconsider stereotyped perspectives and move beyond accustomed patterns of thinking.”
Research into psilocybin’s biological effects suggest increased activity between brain networks, without corresponding increases within single networks. Greater changes in brain network flexibility have been linked to lasting reductions in depression symptoms six months later.
Mind-blowing mood shifts
Based on professionals experiences treating patients with ketamine, they anticipates rapid mood shifts for patients treated with MDMA and psilocybin. These can be transformative in a positive way, but also dangerous.
“With ketamine, you can be catapulted from being severely depressed to being completely well in one day. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s an incredibly powerful treatment, both in terms of how effective it is and how rapidly it works,”
Magic Mushrooms
Psilocybin has been shown to:
- Improve measures of cancer-related anxiety
- Treat depression by improving emotional responsiveness
- Elicit mystical experience that result in increased well-being
- Improve emotional and brain plasticity
LSD
LSD has been shown to:
- Decrease anxiety related to life-threatening illness
- Improve short and mid-term well-being
- Increase many neurochemical markers of well-being
- Improve alcoholism across 11 studies
Ketamine
Ketamine has been shown to:
- Show promise against treatment-resistant depression
- Induce rapid short-term improvements in depression
- Have robust anti-depressive effects .
- Improve depression in about 30% of patients
- Assist in Eating Disorder Recovery
MDMA
MDMA has been shown to:
- MDMA demonstrated Safety and efficacy for treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Show significant efficacy for depression and anxiety disorders.
- Improve for social anxiety in autistic adults.
- Sleep regulation
- Accuracy in perceiving mental states of others
- Coping strategies
- Emotion regulation
- cognitive insights.
Psychedelics are under the spotlight for their potential to treat various mental health disorders. Recent studies reveal promising outcomes using psychedelics for major depressive disorder (MDD) and treatment-resistant depression (TRD) and other major mental health issues.
