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Two papers looked into the effects on the brain of psilocybin, the active compound in magic mushrooms, and its potential for use in treating depression.
Nick Craddock, Professor of Psychiatry, Cardiff University, said:
“Functional imaging has a great deal to offer for understanding brain mechanisms underlying mental illness, normal emotions and the actions of drugs and psychological treatments.
“These findings are very interesting from the research viewpoint, but a great deal more work would be needed before most psychiatrists would think that psilocybin was a safe, effective and acceptable adjunct to psychotherapy.”
Dr Kevin Healy, Chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Faculty of Medical Psychotherapy, said:
“This small study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry is an interesting piece of research but we are clearly nowhere near seeing psilocybin used regularly and widely in psychotherapy practice. Although this study found that psilocybin enhanced autobiographical recollection in 10 healthy volunteers, we have no evidence that it would enhance a therapeutic response in patients, where the experienced relationship between patient and therapist is central to the therapeutic work.”
‘Neural correlates of the psychedelic state: functional MRI scans with psilocybin’ by Robin L. Carhart-Harris et al., published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday 23rd January. ‘Implications for psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study’ by Robin L. Carhart-Harris et al. published in the British Journal of Psychiatry on Thursday 26th January.