The Future of Psychedelic Drugs

Psychedelic drugs, such as magic mushrooms and LSD, are being explored as potential treatments for mental illnesses like PTSD. These drugs work by interacting with the serotonin systems in the brain, leading to changes in perception and mood. Indigenous communities have used psychedelic plants for thousands of years for religious and spiritual purposes. Microdosing, ingesting small quantities of these compounds, has gained attention as a performance enhancer. However, more research is needed to determine the effectiveness and potential risks of these drugs. Clinical trials have shown promising results with classical psychedelics like psilocybin and LSD, as well as MDMA and ketamine, in treating PTSD. These drugs can help reduce fear, shame, and traumatic memories. However, there are also risks and negative side effects, such as mania and psychosis. Further study and research are necessary to fully understand the potential benefits and risks of psychedelic drugs. It is known that there are few medications and treatments available for individuals diagnosed with PTSD. According to PubMed Central, treatment for other mental illnesses, such as depression and anxiety disorders, can only be found effective 30 to 50 percent of the time. The search and development for new kinds of treatment has turned towards an unconventional and nuanced medicine, psychedelic drugs. When you hear the words psychedelic drugs, your mind may pull up the image of Woodstock 6-9 with hippies dressed in flowy clothing and dancing strangely to music in a grassy field. Or maybe you think back to middle or high school, being educated about drugs and alcohol by your local police officer. Over time, the way society has viewed drugs, such as magic mushrooms and LSD, has changed. In order to understand the significance of how our society and other societies have viewed these drugs, you must know about the lawn's history. Ancient cultures and indigenous communities today have been using psychedelic plants for thousands of years. In Mesoamerica, archaeological evidence such as stone figurines with mushroom-human-like characteristics can be found. However, in order to understand the past usage of these medicines, you can look at the practices of indigenous communities that still carry out these traditions today. For example, consumption of peyote, a small, soft, blue-green spineless cactus native to Mexico and the southern United States, is still used by the Native American church today. This medicine is typically chewed or soaked in water to make tea, and like many cultures with a history of using psychedelics, ingestion is used for religious or spiritual sacraments, oftentimes producing a familiar hallucinogenic effect. At this point, you may be wondering just how psychedelics work and how they make you feel. The most famous or well-known psychedelic compounds are mescaline, coming from the peyote plant, lysergic acid diethylamide, a man-made drug otherwise known as acid or LSD, psilocybin, which is found in certain varieties of mushrooms, or DMT, that can be found organically or being man-made. Hallucinations, vivid images, intense sounds, and greater self-awareness are just a few examples of how one may feel while using them. But according to an article written by a researcher who has a PhD in psychopharmacology, classical psychedelics can be defined most concretely by their pharmacology. These compounds work specifically by interacting with the serotonin systems in the brain, binding to and activating 5-HT2A receptors, which leads to changes in perception, mood, and cognition. For further information, they alter the default mode network for regions of the brain that are active when we are not focused on the external world, such as daydreaming or mind wandering. The author goes further into detail, concluding that psychedelics may start a chain reaction of biological changes within the brain. This proposes the use of these drugs in therapy, as it could pose as an opportunity to revise healthy pathological beliefs. Microdosing with psychedelics, ingesting small quantities of these compounds, has also gained significant media attention, for it has been portrayed as a performance enhancer in everyday life. An article written by a team of researchers in the Netherlands used an online questionnaire for those 18 years and older in having an experience with psychedelics. The questions were geared around their motives to microdose, how much they were consuming, how often, and if or why they had stopped. The researchers had found that the majority of respondents microdosed to enhance performance. Negative effects were mostly reported shortly after consumption, and the reason why some had stopped microdosing was because it was not or no longer effective. It is important to note that there was no test in order to determine if enhanced performance, better focus, or the other reasons for microdosing had been proven to be true. However, another group of researchers from the Netherlands and Germany investigated several types of drugs for the treatment of PTSD. They explained the rationale, setting in which administration is being executed, and the current potential for treating certain illnesses. The complexity of post-traumatic stress disorder makes pharmacology targeting of stress reactivity challenging. Most of the psychotherapies available are exposure-based, which rely on imaginal visualization of the traumatic events, with the goal of triggering these fear responses and training the brain to distinguish that fear. Unfortunately, 40-60% of patients do not respond adequately, and as the processing of traumatic memories can be an emotionally challenging experience, for some patients this means emotional detachment and the inability to complete sessions, leading to dropout. Within the past two years, the Food and Drug Administration has recommended two compounds for resistant treatment therapy, psilocybin being one of them. Specifically looking at the psychedelic experimental treatments, the researchers administered these drugs to the patients in a clinical yet aesthetically pleasing setting, under the guidance of a therapist team. The approach of the team is non-directive and interaction was kept to a minimum. The patients were encouraged to lie down, close their eyes, and go inwards while listening to selected music. It was found that classical psychedelics such as psilocybin and LSD have shown promising results, but clinical trials focusing on the treatment of PTSD are still lacking. In this experiment, MDMA and ketamine, and a pathogen and its associative, were studied along with the classical psychedelics. MDMA was found to allow patients to experience reduced fear and shame and, at the same time, invoke feelings of trust and safety, which is of great importance in complex PTSD. This would allow them to revisit and process traumatic memories. Integrated within a psychotherapeutic treatment, two to three sessions with MDMA have shown the ability to reduce PTSD symptoms. Ketamine, on the other hand, a powerful anesthetic, has shown the ability to rapidly reduce PTSD symptoms from just one use. Its ability to alter memory processes offers an opportunity for application in combination with exposure therapy. It is important to recognize all sides of this argument. An article published by the American Journal of Psychiatry gives a general overview of a woman who consumed psychedelic mushrooms and had a prolonged period of mania and depressive episodes. The authors of this article call attention to the risk that psychedelics can impose on patients and give recommendations for the future of research and clinical applications based on the experience of the patient. I believe that this article does a great job of attempting to separate the potential for this form of psychiatric treatment from broader cultural movement. Particularly, there is biased information that does not encapsulate the wide range of experiences of others. With all the information said, you can see the complexity of our world's future with psychedelic drugs. It has shown that they can be beneficial in the treatment of certain illnesses and those in late life or suffering from terminal illnesses. The negative side effects, such as mania and psychosis, are not to be overlooked. That is why further study and research should be carried out. And it is important to note that the topic of recreational use adds another dimension to this argument. Fantastic Fungi, a film that can be found on Netflix, documents and features the experiences of those who have experienced psychedelic mushrooms. It truly is a fantastic film and I encourage you to watch it if you are interested to know more about mycology. This documentary concludes that mushrooms may offer potential benefits to people who have mental health issues and who struggle with the idea of death. This film detects psychedelics in a positive light. And here is a quote from somebody diagnosed with terminal cancer and their takeaway from the psychedelic experience. In the intense part of this journey, this world and things that matter to most people, family and all that, that wasn't even what it was about. They say anything mystical can't be explained. It's something like that. It's a feeling of such immense power that you can't even imagine. I've never felt anything like it before. It was about being in a place of infinite space and just being there.