In an attempt to combat a growing mental health crisis, Imperial College London is reviving decades old studies into the effect of hallucinogenic mushrooms.
This article was written as an assignment during my time at City, University of London.
Ten minutes. According to clinical psychologists, Dr Rosalind Watts, that is the average time an NHS-employed therapist gets to spend in session with each patient. And as the average waiting time at UK hospitals continue to increase that time is likely to become even less. “The time spent in therapy is not enough to get to the root of the problem,” says Dr Watts. As a former NHS employee on the receiving end, she should know.
According to her, “anti-depressants, and sometimes talking sessions too, act merely as a sticking plaster.” While she agrees that anti-depressants can help combat symptoms in people with depression, the drug also tends to dampen our brain’s process of intense emotions. And whilst that effectively turns down patients’ hypersensitivity to negative feelings, it can also numb the positive ones. Which is why, according to Dr Watts, alternatives should be explored. “Much like the Eskimos have 100 words for snow,” she says, “we need more treatment options readily available."
What Dr Watts and several other psychologists and psychiatrists at Imperial College of London’s Psychedelic Research Group suggest, is that one of those treatments could be psilocybin mushrooms – also known as magic mushrooms, a Class A drug under the UKs Misuse of Drugs Act from 1971. Led by Dr Robin Carhart-Harris, Imperial has already conducted a number of studies seeking to determine psilocybin’s effect on our brain. And although consuming psychedelics are still illegal in the UK, Imperial has been granted a special license to conduct experiments. And so, this Spring, a new group of mental health patients will hallucinate in the name of science.
Ian Roullinger, 49, is a former freelance journalist and one of 20 people who participated in Imperial’s most recent experiment. “Depression leaves you isolated and detached,” Ian explains. “In my experience, anti-depressants only fuelled that.” Unable to return to work, he didn’t know what else to do. “My GP simply told me, ‘I don’t know what else you expect from me’.”
After a lifetime's struggle, Ian, like the rest of the participants, had become what Dr Watts refers to as treatment-resistant. Although Ian admits anti-depressants created a numbness to the negative emotions he felt, he says they “never got the root of the problems.” What psilocybin did was force him to face his demons - literally.
“In life, often we run away from negative things; but here, you are forced to face them,” says Ian, recalling his experience during the session. “It was there, in front of me: A demon horse, on its bag legs, fully dressed in a military uniform. It gazed out from underneath its helmet, landing its cold stare right to the left of me. I was frightened, and as always, I wanted to run away,” he says.
But in his hallucination, Ian decided to do something anxiety-ridden Ian would never have done; he took a step to the left and looked his demon in the eyes.
“In an instant, it hit me. How ridiculous it is; a horse on two legs. I started laughing. It was the most freeing sensation,” says Ian. In his experience, opening to up to his fears enabled him to feel like himself for the first time in years. “One week after the session, I was genuinely able to say I was free of depression,” he says.
Imperial’s studies into psychedelics are focusing on drugs’ effect on the amygdala, a part of the brain which controls key parts of our emotions. “Psychedelics share a chemical structure similar to that of serotonin,” says Dr Robin Carhart-Harris, leader of the research group. “’Magical’ is quite out of term though,” adds Dr Carhart-Harris. “It has a simplicity to it that appeals to the magical and metaphysical feeling during the experience.” Yet, as Dr Carhart-Harris explains, the hypothesis is that the metaphysical feeling magic mushrooms induce can help open up the emotional barriers that depression has shut down.
Dr Carhart-Harris defines the ‘state’ patients are in during the experiments as the primitive human; what Freud called ‘the it’. The theory is that depressed minds disconnect from ‘the it’ as a way of protecting ourselves; resulting in an almost complete disconnectedness from the world around us. It is psychedelics' ability to reconnect our outer mind with “the it” in our brain, which has put it at the forefront of Imperial's new medicinal studies.
According to Dr Watts, like Ian, other patients too spoke of a ‘disconnectedness’ before the sessions. In the weeks to follow, 15 patients confessed to being cured of their depression. “In my depression the lights were off,” Ian explains. “But during the session, lights were fully on.” The effect is short-lived though. For Ian, he became depression-free for a full three months before experiencing backlash. However, although he is now back on anti-depressants, Ian’s recollection of his experience has enabled him to not only get back to work, but also to reengage with his local community. “It almost acts like a cushion at the very bottom of my depression. I am able to recollect the experience and climb back up,” he says.
It is not the first time psilocybin experiments has looked into treating mental health conditions. Magic mushroom rituals were a common part of healing and medicinal practice in Oaxaca, Mexico, and had been for centuries. But it had always been closed off to outsiders. Then, in 1955, amateur ethnomycologist (the study of mushroom history and sociological impact), Robert Gordon Wasson became the first Caucasian to take part in a psilocybin mushroom ritual. Three years later, LIFE magazine featured Robert Gordon Wasson’s photo essay, Seeking the Mushroom, and psilocybin mushrooms became a medicinal reality. By the 1960s, 40.000 mental illness patients had been treated with psychedelics, and medicinal company Sandoz was selling psilocybin pills.
So, what made a prescription medicine become a Class A drug? Much of the scrutiny surrounding the drug is not aimed at psilocybin itself. According to Dr Watts, it is the psychedelic tripping and bad seeds sowed in the 60s, which continues to dominate the public debate on hallucinogenic' medicinal potential up until today.
The Harvard Psilocybin Project, conducted by Dr Timothy Leary and Dr Richard Alpert, ran studies into psilocybin’s effect on recidivism in criminals, as well as enhancement of profound religious experiences. But as the studies went more extreme, both Leary and Alpert started using psilocybin more and more for recreational use. Then, in 1963, Harvard fired them both and closed the project. Leary and Alpert went on to promote the psychedelic experience rather than the medicinal one, to scores of young hippies in America protesting the Vietnam War. Psilocybin quickly went from being the 20th-century's new miracle drug to becoming the main culprit behind anti-war sentiments.
But today, the medicinal industry is experiencing a psychedelic renaissance. Yet, much like the debate on cannabis, it is hard to ignore the complications recreational psilocybin use. And this is often where the argument arises.
Under current UK laws, all drugs proven to have a psychoactive affect are illegal. “It is quite incoherent, as sugar also has a psychoactive affect,” says Alex from the Beckley Foundation. The foundation believes that even recreational usage should be permitted, and sales regulated in the same manner as alcohol and tobacco. “It would mean we could mitigate the damage of recreational drugs by controlling and educating on usage.” Both Imperial and Beckley hope that more scientific research proving the benefits of magic mushrooms, could finally put an end to the stigma left behind by previous incidents. “They could help a lot of people, and it is crucial we get them regulated as legal treatments as soon as possible.”
Surprisingly, David Raynes, Political Affairs Director at the National Drug Prevention Alliance (NDPA) agrees. “I don’t think they are controversial,” he says about the trials. But he doesn’t see a valid case for legalising psilocybin recreationally like in The Netherlands. “Psilocybin for clinical use has potential, but I can’t see how one who has admitted to smoking marijuana recreationally himself and another who drilled a whole in her skull are helping the case.” Raynes is referring to Professor David Nutt, former advisor to the government, and Amanda Fielding, head of the Beckley Foundation, who both represents and supports Imperial in the research. Nutt got fired over his stance that tobacco is more harmful than heroin. He is also the inventor of ‘alcosynth’, a synthetic alcohol that doesn’t give you hangovers. Fielding on the other hand, rose to fame by testing trepanation on herself – the act of drilling a small hole in your skull to lighten mood and help mental wellbeing.
According to Raynes, the excessive media attention towards psychedelics is an attempt to support the argument for recreational legalisation. "But," says Raynes, "it is counterintuitive and will only end up turning the support for the real purpose of the trials sour."
Back at Imperial, the aim remains fixed at finding a valid treatment for depression. Their belief is that psilocybin has the potential, together with holistic treatments and therapy, to cure the growing number of people with mental illness; and possibly, lighten the pressure on the NHS. “We’re not calling magic mushrooms a ‘miracle cure’”, says Dr Watts. "But maybe it can help turn our mental health crisis around."