Download Psilocybin Mushrooms are Effective in the Treatment of Obsessive

Psilocybin Mushrooms are
Effective in the Treatment of
Obsessive Compulsive
Disorder
By: Annie Gillis
IDS 3303
April 2nd 2009
• Effects about 10 % of the entire population
• 4th most common disorder in the world after phobias,
substance abuse, and major depression.
• Characterized as “either obsessions (recurrent and
persistent ideas, thoughts, or images) or compulsions
(repetitive behaviors performed according to certain
rules or in a stereotyped fashion)…both have the inability
to inhibit or delay repetitive behaviors” –Goodman,
Rudorfer,and Maser.
• Psychologists have concluded that OCD is due to
serotonin abnormalities in the brain.
• Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that
is located in the central nervous
system
• Serotonin controls anger,
aggression, mood, appetite,
metabolism, human sexuality, and
sleep.
• Psychologists believe that a
chemical imbalance in serotonin
cause psychosis.
• Serotonin Transport Inhibitors
(SRIs) are used to treat OCD
through their ability to block
serotonin and then replicate it.
• Cognitive Behavioral
Treatment – therapy involving
a patient and psychologist in
different behavioral activities.
While this treatment can work,
it has a high drop out rate
because many patients find the
directions too hard to follow
• Medical Treatment - SRIs are
the most common drug used to
treat OCD, as well as the most
effective. Clomipramine is a
common SRI used. SRIs
usually take six to eight weeks
to start working and 40 to 60 %
of patients are unimproved
after an adequate trial with
SRIs.
• Psilocybin is the active ingredient found in
“magic mushrooms.”
• Psilocybin Mushrooms are found in tropical and
sub-tropical regions such as South America,
Mexico, and the U.S.
• Symptoms of psilocybin include hallucinations
that include magical thinking, altered sense of
time, “feeling of one-ness”, a changed meaning
of percepts, thought disorder, anxiety and panic,
and motor abnormalities.
• Psilocybin is ingested orally and can be put in
food or brewed in tea for better taste.
• Psilocybin is dated back to 1000
BC. The Aztecs used the drug in
rituals believing that they could cure
the sick, talk to the Gods, and talk
to the deceased while hallucinating.
• The drug was introduced to the
general public in 1957 after Life
magazine issued an article on it,
causing many people to journey to
Mexico in search of the “magic
mushroom.”
• Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert, two Harvard
psychologists started the “Harvard Psilocybin Project”
after their personal experimentation with the drug.
• Leary and Alpert were interested in the emotional and
behavioral aspect of the drug on humans with a thesis
that it would have a very positive effect in a clinical
setting
• After two years of experimentation, the state of
Massachusetts investigated the “Harvard Psilocybin
Project” concluding that the two men were not fit to run
human experiments because they were not doctors, but
psychologists. Leary and Alpert were fired from Harvard,
and the project was stopped.
• In 1970 the U.S.
government passed the
“Drug Abuse and
Prevention Control Act”
placing Psilocybin
mushrooms under the
Schedule 1 drug class.
• According to the FDA
Schedule 1 drugs are any
drugs that have a high
potential for abuse, no
accepted medical use,
and a lack of safety for
use of the drug in a
medical setting.
• The drug psilocybin is able to successfully block
serotonin when entering the brain and then imitate the
neurotransmitter, creating hallucinations and an altered
sense of perception (Gahlinger, 2004).
• A study done by several psychologists supports the idea
concluding “The hallucinogenic activity of psilocybin and
psilocin is believed to be largely due to activation of 5HT2A receptors, while the anti-OCD activity is
associated with agonist activity at 5-HT2C” (2005).
• Therefore, psilocybin blocks serotonin when entering the
brain and then mimics it, creating hallucinations that lead
to altered sense of perceptions.
• Molecular make
up of serotonin
and psilocybin.
• This chart came
from the National
Institute on Drug
Abuse
• The recent study done by Dr. Francisco Moreno
called ““Safety, Tolerability, and Efficacy, of
Psilocybin in 9 Patients with Obsessive
Compulsive Disorder” showed the safety of
psilocybin in a controlled setting and also
showed positive results.
• The study used 9 OCD patients with moderate to
severe symptoms, who all failed at least one
type of OCD treatment before.
• Psychologists monitored patients for eight hours
and asked them questions after 1, 4, and 8
hours.
• A 23-100% decrease of symptoms occurred in all nine
patients according to the Y-bocs scale (a scale used to
measure severity of OCD).
• Most of the patients symptoms gradually came back
between 24 hours to 3 days, although Dr. Moreno did
follow one man who had a remission of symptoms for six
months.
• The conclusion of the experiment was “In a controlled
clinical environment, psilocybin was safely used in
subjects with OCD and was associated with acute
reductions in core OCD symptoms in several subjects”
(Moreno, Delgado, Taitano, Wiegand, 2006).
• Dr. Moreno states “Currently, there is no treatment that
eases symptoms of the disorder as fast as psilocybin
appears to” (2006).
• An article written by Linda
Marsa in Discover
Magazine provided a
picture of the brain and
what psilocybin does
when in it.
• Marsa explains the
thalamus as the “base” of
the brain in which it is the
“gateway of sensory
information – taste, touch,
vision, and hearing”
(2008)
• A study done by Dr. Roland Griffiths used 36
healthy volunteers with no psychotic disorders to
prove the “mystical-type” experience that many
people experience when hallucinating.
• The study claims that “no volunteer
rated…psilocybin experience as having
decreased their sense of well-being or life
satisfaction” (Griffiths, 2006).
• The former National Institute on Drug Abuse
director Charles Schuster described the study as
a landmark.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCM6ldfeCag
•MAPS or Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic
Studies funds much of psilocybin research along with the
Heffter Institute.
•Randolph Hencken a spokesperson for MAPS stated
“Our studies can cost anywhere from $100,000 to $1
million dollars and more depending upon what we are
studying, how many people we study, which
bureaucracies we have to pay and other factors”
•The government does not help fund experiments that
involve psychedelic research.
• The term “magic mushroom” or “shrooming” often comes
with negative connotations, an article written by Ben
Sessa in the British Journal of Psychiatry states “the
image of psychedelics, severely damaged by the 1960s
drug culture, is further spoiled by drug use in today's
‘rave’ scene. Finding unbiased information about
psychedelic research is often difficult.”
• Dr. Paul Blenkiron of New York stated “I’m concerned
that the study only measured effects up to 24 hours and
OCD is a chronic condition” (2006).
• Swiss Psychologist Franz Vollenweider states “Now we
want to use the tools we’ve developed to see what is
going on in real patients. If we could convincingly
demonstrate hallucinogens alter these receptors, then
we can find other compounds that have similar
mechanisms but are less frightening” (2008).
• There has not been an abundance of studies on
psilocybin and OCD, but the studies that have been
done show promising results, and could lead to a new
breakthrough for OCD treatments.