Hallucinogenic Psilocybin Offers Relief For Cancer Related Depression and Anxiety

Summary: According to researchers, a single large dose if psilocybin, the active hallucinogenic compound found in magic mushrooms, helped provide relief for people suffering from cancer related depression and anxiety for up to six months.

Source: Johns Hopkins University.

Hallucinogenic drug found in ‘magic mushrooms’ eases depression, anxiety in people with life-threatening cancer.

In a small double-blind study, Johns Hopkins researchers report that a substantial majority of people suffering cancer-related anxiety or depression found considerable relief for up to six months from a single large dose of psilocybin—the active compound in hallucinogenic “magic mushrooms.”

The Johns Hopkins team released its study results, involving 51 adult patients, concurrently with researchers from New York University Langone Medical Center, who conducted a similarly designed study on 29 participants. Both studies are published today in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

The Johns Hopkins group reported that psilocybin decreased clinician- and patient-rated depressed mood, anxiety, and death anxiety. The compound increased quality of life, life meaning, and optimism. Six months after the final session of treatment:

  • About 80% of participants continued to show clinically significant decreases in depressed mood and anxiety, with about 60% showing symptom remission into the normal range
  • 83% reported increases in well-being or life satisfaction
  • 67% of participants reported the experience as one of the top five meaningful experiences in their lives
  • About 70% reported the experience as one of their top five spiritually significant lifetime events

“The most interesting and remarkable finding is that a single dose of psilocybin, which lasts four to six hours, produced enduring decreases in depression and anxiety symptoms, and this may represent a fascinating new model for treating some psychiatric conditions,” says Roland Griffiths, professor of behavioral biology in the Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Griffiths notes that traditional psychotherapy offered to people with cancer, including behavioral therapy and antidepressants, can take weeks or even months, aren’t always effective, and in the case of some drugs, such as benzodiazepines, may have addictive and other troubling side effects.

Image shows magic mushrooms.
The Johns Hopkins group reported that psilocybin decreased clinician- and patient-rated depressed mood, anxiety, and death anxiety. NeuroscienceNews.com image is adapted from the Johns Hopkins University press release.

For the study, the investigators recruited 51 participants diagnosed with life-threatening cancers, most of which were recurrent or metastatic. Each participant had two treatment sessions scheduled five weeks apart, one with a psilocybin dose too low to produce effects taken in a capsule and meant to act as a “control” placebo. In the other session, participants received a capsule with what is considered a moderate or high dose.

The researchers assessed each participant’s mood, attitude about life, behaviors, and spirituality with questionnaires and structured interviews before the first session, seven hours after taking the psilocybin, five weeks after each session, and six months after the second session. Immediately after the sessions, participants completed questionnaires assessing changes in visual, auditory, and body perceptions; feelings of transcendence; changes in mood; and more.

“Before beginning the study, it wasn’t clear to me that this treatment would be helpful, since cancer patients may experience profound hopelessness in response to their diagnosis, which is often followed by multiple surgeries and prolonged chemotherapy,” Griffiths says. “I could imagine that cancer patients would receive psilocybin, look into the existential void and come out even more fearful. However, the positive changes in attitudes, moods, and behavior that we documented in healthy volunteers were replicated in cancer patients.”

About this psychology and cancer research article

Source: Vanessa McMains – Johns Hopkins University
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is adapted from the Johns Hopkins University press release.
Original Research: Full open access research for “Psilocybin produces substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer: A randomized double-blind trial” by Roland R Griffiths, Matthew W Johnson, Michael A Carducci, Annie Umbricht, William A Richards, Brian D Richards, Mary P Cosimano, and Margaret A Klinedinst in Journal of Psychopharmacology. December 2016 doi:10.1177/0269881116675513

Cite This NeuroscienceNews.com Article

[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]Johns Hopkins University. “Hallucinogenic Psilocybin Offers Relief For Cancer Related Depression and Anxiety.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 1 December 2016.
<https://neurosciencenews.com/psilocybin-cancer-anxiety-5641/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]Johns Hopkins University. (2016, December 1). Hallucinogenic Psilocybin Offers Relief For Cancer Related Depression and Anxiety. NeuroscienceNews. Retrieved December 1, 2016 from https://neurosciencenews.com/psilocybin-cancer-anxiety-5641/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]Johns Hopkins University. “Hallucinogenic Psilocybin Offers Relief For Cancer Related Depression and Anxiety.” https://neurosciencenews.com/psilocybin-cancer-anxiety-5641/ (accessed December 1, 2016).[/cbtab][/cbtabs]


Abstract

Psilocybin produces substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer: A randomized double-blind trial

Cancer patients often develop chronic, clinically significant symptoms of depression and anxiety. Previous studies suggest that psilocybin may decrease depression and anxiety in cancer patients. The effects of psilocybin were studied in 51 cancer patients with life-threatening diagnoses and symptoms of depression and/or anxiety. This randomized, double-blind, cross-over trial investigated the effects of a very low (placebo-like) dose (1 or 3 mg/70 kg) vs. a high dose (22 or 30 mg/70 kg) of psilocybin administered in counterbalanced sequence with 5 weeks between sessions and a 6-month follow-up. Instructions to participants and staff minimized expectancy effects. Participants, staff, and community observers rated participant moods, attitudes, and behaviors throughout the study. High-dose psilocybin produced large decreases in clinician- and self-rated measures of depressed mood and anxiety, along with increases in quality of life, life meaning, and optimism, and decreases in death anxiety. At 6-month follow-up, these changes were sustained, with about 80% of participants continuing to show clinically significant decreases in depressed mood and anxiety. Participants attributed improvements in attitudes about life/self, mood, relationships, and spirituality to the high-dose experience, with >80% endorsing moderately or greater increased well-being/life satisfaction. Community observer ratings showed corresponding changes. Mystical-type psilocybin experience on session day mediated the effect of psilocybin dose on therapeutic outcomes.

“Psilocybin produces substantial and sustained decreases in depression and anxiety in patients with life-threatening cancer: A randomized double-blind trial” by Roland R Griffiths, Matthew W Johnson, Michael A Carducci, Annie Umbricht, William A Richards, Brian D Richards, Mary P Cosimano, and Margaret A Klinedinst in Journal of Psychopharmacology. December 2016 doi:10.1177/0269881116675513

Feel free to share this Neuroscience News.
Join our Newsletter
I agree to have my personal information transferred to AWeber for Neuroscience Newsletter ( more information )
Sign up to receive our recent neuroscience headlines and summaries sent to your email once a day, totally free.
We hate spam and only use your email to contact you about newsletters. You can cancel your subscription any time.