Pubdate: Tue, 11 Jul 2006
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright: 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wsj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Author: Ron Winslow
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/psilocybin
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hallucinogens.htm (Hallucinogens)

GO ASK ALICE: MUSHROOM DRUG IS STUDIED ANEW

In a study that could revive interest in researching the effects of 
psychedelic drugs, scientists said a substance in certain mushrooms 
induced powerful, mind-altering experiences among a group of 
well-educated, middle-age men and women.

Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions researchers conducted the study 
following carefully controlled, scientifically rigorous procedures. 
They said that the episodes generally led to positive changes in 
attitude and behavior among the 36 volunteer participants and that 
the changes appeared to last at least two months. Participants cited 
feelings of intense joy, "distance from ordinary reality," and 
feelings of peace and harmony after taking the drug. Two-thirds 
described the effects of the drug, called psilocybin, as among the 
five most meaningful experiences of their lives.

But in 30% of the cases, the drug provoked harrowing experiences 
dominated by fear and paranoia. Two participants likened the episodes 
to being in a war. While these episodes were managed by trained 
monitors at the sessions where the drugs were taken, researchers 
cautioned that in less-controlled settings, such responses could 
trigger panic or other reactions that might put people in danger.

A report on the study, among the first to systematically assess the 
effects of hallucinogenic substances in 40 years, is being published 
online today by the journal Psychopharmacology. An accompanying 
editorial and commentaries from three prominent neuroscientists and a 
psychiatrist praise the study and argue that further research into 
such agents has the potential to unlock secrets of consciousness and 
lead to new therapeutic strategies for depression, addiction and 
other ailments.

In one of the commentaries, Charles R. Schuster, a neuroscientist and 
former head of the National Institute for Drug Abuse, called the 
report a "landmark paper." He also expressed hope that it "renews 
interest in a fascinating and potentially useful class of psychotropic agents."

Still, the research is likely to stir controversy. Though psilocybin 
mushrooms, which can be found growing wild throughout the world, have 
been used for centuries in some societies during spiritual rituals, 
they also were agents, along with such hallucinogens as LSD and 
mescaline, that fueled the "Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out" 
counterculture of the 1960s personified by Timothy Leary.

Researchers acknowledge that the study's positive findings may 
encourage inappropriate use of the agents. Roland Griffiths, the 
Hopkins neuroscientist who headed the research, warned against 
viewing the results as a green light for consuming the mushrooms. "We 
don't know all their dark sides," he said. "I wouldn't in any way 
want to underestimate the potential risks" of indiscriminate use of the drugs.

The National Institute for Drug Abuse, which co-sponsored the study 
as part of its support for research into drugs of abuse, also warned 
against eating psilocybin mushrooms. They "act on serotonin receptors 
in the brain to profoundly distort a person's perception of reality," 
the institute said, possibly triggering psychosis, paranoia and anxiety. [art]

It was widespread abuse in the 1960s that led to hallucinogens 
becoming illegal, effectively shutting down then-burgeoning corporate 
and academic research programs that had suggested the agents might be 
valuable research and therapeutic tools. One of the last influential 
studies was the Good Friday Experiment in 1962 in which 20 seminary 
students were given either psilocybin or nicotinic acid during a 
religious service. The 10 who got psilocybin reported intense 
spiritual experiences with positive benefits; one follow-up study 
suggested those effects lasted 25 years.

"It's remarkable that we have a class of compounds that has sat in 
the deep freeze for 40 years," Dr. Griffiths said. "It seemed to me 
scientifically it was high time to look again" at psychedelic agents.

Known colloquially by such names as magic mushroom or sacred 
mushroom, psilocybin is considered a Schedule I substance under the 
U.S. Controlled Substances Act. That puts it in the same class as 
heroin and LSD, drugs that have a high potential for abuse and no 
known medical use. It isn't considered addictive. The psilocybin used 
in the study was synthesized by David E. Nichols, a professor of 
medicinal chemistry at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., under 
a special permit.

After getting approval from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the 
Food and Drug Administration and an institutional review board at 
Hopkins, Dr. Griffiths and his colleagues circulated a flier seeking 
volunteers for a "study of states of consciousness brought about by a 
naturally occurring psychoactive substance used sacramentally in some 
cultures."

 From among the 135 people who responded, 36 were eventually 
selected, based in part on their lack of a history of psychedelic 
drug use or family history of serious psychiatric disorders such as 
schizophrenia. The 36 -- 14 men and 22 women -- ranged in age from 24 
to 64 years old, with an average age of 46; 97% were college 
graduates, and 56% had post-graduate degrees. All 36 participated at 
least occasionally in religious or spiritual activities. (Dr. 
Griffiths declined to make any participants available for interviews, 
citing privacy issues.)

Thirty of the participants were randomly assigned to receive either 
psilocybin or Ritalin (known generically as methylphenidate) as a 
control for the first eight-hour session; two months later, they were 
given the other drug in another session. Neither the participants nor 
the monitors who were present during their sessions knew which agent 
was being taken. To further reduce chances that participant responses 
would be affected by expectations they were getting psilocybin, a 
third group of six participants was randomly assigned to receive 
Ritalin in both sessions, followed by a third session when they knew 
they were getting the psychedelic agent. Ritalin was selected as the 
control agent in part because it can cause mood-changing effects 
similar to those of psilocybin, researchers said. It also takes 
effect at about the same time and lasts for about as long.

Participants were given the drug in individual sessions in a 
living-room environment with two experienced monitors. They were 
blindfolded, given headphones to listen to classical music and 
encouraged to lie down and direct their thoughts inward.

Researchers provided participants with a battery of questionnaires 
and mysticism scales, some of which were developed based on research 
from more than four decades ago, to measure their impressions of 
their experience at the end of the session and again two months later.

A third of the participants said the experience with psilocybin was 
the single most significant experience of their lives, and an 
additional 38% rated it among their top five such experiences -- akin 
to, say, the birth of a first child or the death of a parent. Just 8% 
of the Ritalin episodes were reported to be among the top five 
meaningful occurrences. Two months after the sessions, 79% of the 
participants indicated in questionnaires that their sense of 
well-being and satisfaction increased after the psilocybin episodes, 
compared with 21% for Ritalin.

Researchers hope the findings will spur other studies that will, for 
instance, compare the effects of other hallucinogens and use MRIs to 
observe how such drugs affect the human brain. Other efforts are 
expected to test the value of psilocybin as a therapy. Charles Grob, 
a researcher at UCLA, is heading a small study to see if the drug 
relieves anxiety, depression and pain among patients with advanced cancer.

Dr. Griffiths said another goal is to understand the consequences of 
spiritual experiences -- both drug-induced and spontaneous -- and to 
determine how long they last and whether they lead to personality changes. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake