Extensive research and investigations were conducted with hallucinogens in the 1950s and 1960s. By the early 70s political and cultural pressure forced an end to all related projects. However in more recent times there is a growing awareness that the psychological, spiritual and existential crises encountered by patients with cancer and their families need to be addressed more effectively.
Studies done between the early 1950s and late 1970s showed
powerful and sustained improvements for critically ill individuals. Despite
these promising results and findings due to political pressure there was no
follow-up research until recently. One particular substance under investigation
is psilocybin. Commonly known as the ‘magic mushroom’ scientifically known as 4-phosphoryloxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine.
Effects are known to be similar to that of Lysergic acid
diethylamide LSD, but considered to be more strongly visual and less
emotionally intense. Recent clinical examinations of psilocybin have found that
it is not hazardous to physical health. In one recent study 36 healthy
volunteers were given a high dose of psilocybin with no sustained harmful
physiological or psychological effects. Investigators verified previous findings that psilocybin
could reliably cause mystical experience leading to significant and lasting
improvements in their quality of life. This was also found in another study
done on patients with severe OCD which resulted in a major reduction in their
core obsessive-compulsive symptoms.
Universities around the world are reviving studies into the
area of psychedelics including, ibogaine extracted in a root bark in Western Africa, psilocybin a
naturally occurring compound found in more than 200 species of mushroom, ayahuasca
or yage found in the amazon rain forest and nicknamed ‘vine of the soul’.
In
another massive study published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology last year, scientists at Norwegian university for Science and Technology at Trondheim
concluded that there is no link between the use of LSD and psilocybin and
mental-health problems. The study selected 130,000 participants at random- including
19,000 who had used psychedelic drugs and found no evidence linking such drugs
to the onset of any mental disorders. There is a common perception
that drugs like LSD put users in danger, but as Charles Grob, Professor of Psychiatry told Nature, "This
study assures us that there were not widespread 'acid casualties' in the 1960s” this opinion was vehemently used as propaganda.
Another great story coming to light this year is that of Ryan LeCompte a former Marine
who believes something like Ayahuasca, pronounced, ah-yuh-wah-skuh, may be able
to help cure PTSD. After finding one of his sergeants dead from suicide, and
becoming aware of the fact that 22 veterans kill themselves every day, he
decided to take action into his own hands and over the course of the next
couple of years spoke to over 100 veterans about their meds, dosages and
therapies.
His findings soon found what we know to be an all too common fact, that
we are too drugged up, overdosed and over diagnosed. “The vets who actually respond
to FDA approved drugs are less than 10 percent. The rest come in looking like zombies”
said Dr. Sue Sisley, an expert on PTSD in veterans. LeCompte soon stumbled
across Ayahuasca therapy, a psychedelic treatment attracting many westerners far
and wide to the land of Peru for a deeply cathartic experience with a shaman.
Brain experts J. L. Nielson and J. D. Megler wrote “Ayahuasca
opens the limbic pathways of the brain to affect the emotional core of the
trauma in a way similar to affective psychotherapy for trauma, and also impacts
higher cortical areas ... to allow the patient to assign a new context to their
trauma,”. LeCompte said after his trip to Peru “You’re a changed person and
there’s no doubting or denying that.” With the sponsorship of MAPS, the
non-profit research and education organization into psychedelics, founded in
1986, LeCompte is now planning to do an official study in 2016 looking into how
ayahuasca could treat PTSD. For more information on his crowdfunding project and
studies into ayahuasca visit the site below.
By Callum Golding
Research
