American authorities have legalized the use of psychedelics for further research on the treatment of mental disorders.
Treatment with psilocybin was recognized as a “breakthrough therapy” by the Food and Drug Administration of the United States Department of Health.
Now in the States, the active substance of hallucinogenic fungi can be legally used for further research on the treatment of mental disorders. Correspondent.net tells the details.
Legalization of psychedelic therapy
The US authorities have assigned the status of “breakthrough therapy” (breakthrough therapy) to the use of the hallucinogenic fungi psilocybin for the treatment of depression. This means that now this psychedelic can be legally used for further research on the treatment of mental disorders, according to N + 1 on October 29.
This status is assigned to the Office of the non-medical drugs and methods that have already passed clinical trials and have the status of the newest means that deserve special attention, and it means permission to use it in active clinical studies.
They will receive priority in further approving the use and acceleration of distribution as a drug.
So far, psilocybin is still on the list of illicit drugs in the US, but if scientists can prove its effectiveness in treating depression and other mental disorders, the status will be revised.
In 2016, US authorities authorized large-scale clinical trials of MDMA, known as Ecstasy. As a legal and effective treatment for psychiatric disorders, Ecstasy can be used in the coming years.Depression is a common disease.
The most common mental illness is depression. WHO estimates that it affects more than 300 million people from all age groups in the world. In the United States with depression about 30 percent of Americans. In Ukraine, 6.3 percent of the population suffer from depression.
However, this is only official data. Due to stigmatization, which is still often associated with depression, many do not recognize that they are sick and do not seek treatment.
However, despite half a century of research, widespread advertising and incredible sales, antidepressants are not always effective. They treat depression as if it was caused by a chemical imbalance.
A recently emerging rival theory says that mental illness is caused not so much by chemical imbalances as structural changes in the brain - and that psychological stress is the main cause of these changes.
"I really think that stress leads to mental illness, like cigarettes to heart disease," says Gerard Sanakora, a professor of psychiatry at Yale University.
In accordance with this theory, stress gradually grinds off individual neurons, just as showers sharpen the roof. This, in turn, leads to a change in the nature of their mutual connections and brain structure.Psilocybin treatment
The serotonin receptor agonist psilocybin is a psychoactive substance found in hallucinogenic fungi. Its effectiveness in treating severe depression was shown two years ago, and last year, scientists were able to show that psilocybin can affect brain activity even with resistant depression.
The study of the psychotherapeutic use of psilocybin was popular as early as the 1960s of the last century, but so far has remained controversial in terms of legality.
Two years in a row, the American research organization COMPASS Pathways has been studying the potential use of psilocybin for treating depression, especially resistant (this is how depression is called, which did not succumb to two consecutive treatments).
They were the ones who applied for the use of psilocybin in clinical trials: its FDA commission approved this summer. At the same time, COMPASS also applied for the status of “breakthrough” therapy for psilocybin therapy: they received it in a few months.
The effect of psilocybin on the serotonin system (serotonin - "the hormone of happiness") is the same as after eating hallucinogenic mushrooms: a person may feel that all the colors around are unusually bright; fantastic visions may occur to him, for example, that walls “breathe”.
This substance enhances the positive mood and generates feelings of "unity with the world" and well-being.Last year, Scientific Reports published an article by neuroscientists from Imperial College London, in which scientists reported on a successful preliminary study of the effect of psilocybin on patients with clinical depression who were not amenable to other types of treatment.
The study involved 19 people. All of them received a small dose of psilocybin, and a week later the dosage increased.
Before and after the course, patients went to the MRI scanner to find out how much blood rushes to different parts of the brain.
Symptoms of depression - depression, lack of motivation, suicidal thoughts - are associated with the activity of the amygdala (part of the brain that is responsible, among other things, for the processing of emotions).
Patients received more blood before the course of psilocybin amygdala, which means it was more active than after. The drug gave the opposite effect on the so-called network of the passive mode of the brain - a complex structure of interacting groups of neurons that works when a person is resting.
All subjects noted relief after the treatment, half the effect lasted five weeks.
About such studies psychedelics with a positive result, European and American scientists say the last few years
