Peace and Love at Woodstock

DISCLAIMER: The blog post below is not medical advice but rather simply informative and interesting. Note this is NOT currently an FDA-approved treatment.

There have been some new studies and findings that have started to catch my attention regarding a compound called Psilocybin. For those of you unfamiliar with this compound, you might be familiar with its other name: Magic Mushrooms. Perhaps, now we have a good explanation for all of the “peace and love” in 1969.

I’ve been following this development over the past few weeks actually. I had an encounter with a friend’s brother who was visiting town and started telling me that he was doing magic mushrooms on a consistent basis and claimed that it “changed his life.” He told me about how his anxiety and depression had become markedly better since “doing mushrooms.” Often I encounter folks that anecdotally swear by non-traditional practices that they claim to cure their various ailments, and by in large, it is usually nothing more than a placebo-effect.

Subsequent to this, I listened to a podcast where the interviewer was interviewing one of my favorite comedians named Ron White. Part of Ron’s stage presence had always been that he would drink nearly a bottle of scotch while doing his show. I had always thought it was just part of his schtick without realizing that Ron was battling alcoholism. Ron humorously provided the interviewer a story about his experience using magic mushrooms (psilocybin) to cure his alcohol addiction. While the story was quite funny (in his nature), the reality is that he is no longer drinking. This perked my interest in the substance a bit more.

Last week, I watched an episode of the PBS documentary series NOVA. They featured an episode on the medicinal uses of psilocybin. It was being used in clinical trials to treat depression, alcoholism, end-of-life anxiety, and PTSD. Again, the stories were anecdotal. I don’t base medical decisions from anecdotal stories. That’s a very dangerous game. But now, this compound psilocybin had started to really gain some credibility with me.

However, I was still extremely skeptical. Until yesterday. The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) which is the most prestigious medical journal in existence, and has been the authority in medical literature since medical literature has existed, published an article suggesting an excellent response in a phase 2 clinical trial using 25mg psilocybin to treat depression that had been refractory to treatment with other standard medications. The positive results are very interesting and could lead to new treatment avenues for this, currently outlawed, psychedelic recreational drug. The major side effects associated with the 25mg psilocybin were headache and nausea. It should be noted that the NEJM also published a study in April of 2021 that tried to compare the efficacy of psilocybin to Lexapro which is a common drug used to treat depression. There was not enough statistical evidence to say that one was better than the other, but the psilocybin treatment group did have slightly better outcomes than the Lexapro treatment group.

While the jury is still out on the benefits/harms of psilocybin, I find it rather interesting to follow this development. For many struggling patients, they may be a “good trip” away from curing their disabling mental health disease.