Magic mushrooms as medicine? Johns Hopkins scientists launched a center for psychedelic research, and say psychedelics could treat Alzheimer’s, depression and addiction
. The first of its kind in the U.S. and the largest research center of its kind in the world, the center is being funded initially by a $17 million donation from a group of private donors to advance the emerging field of psychedelics for therapies and wellness. The center will house a team of six faculty neuroscientists, experimental psychologists and clinicians with expertise in psychedelic science, as well as five postdoctoral scientists.
Although research with these compounds began in the 1950s and 1960s in America, Griffiths said it was the “cultural trauma” of the psychedelic 60s—which included some adverse effects of the compounds—that ended it in the early 1970s. The unfavorable media coverage that ensued resulted in misperceptions of the risks of the drugs and highly restrictive regulations.
“There is much work to be done,” Griffiths said, adding that researchers want to next study the effects of psychedelics in people with early Alzheimer’s disease. “To the extent that these drugs produce neuroplasticity, there may be some enduring effects on cognitive process,” he said. That is in the future, he said, but for now, at least they know they can help the depression that comes with an Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
“Some would hold that we were evolutionarily selected for such experiences because it results in some survival advantage." Griffiths says that some people interpret the experience as an encounter with ultimate reality or with God. And some 80% of patients who have been treated for nicotine addiction are still smoke-free six months later, he said. There are other investigators looking at alcohol and cocaine addiction.
Griffiths said volunteers for Johns Hopkins’ studies have been thoroughly screened, and he discourages people from attempting to self-medicate with psychedelics on their own. The center’s studies are done under carefully controlled circumstances, with known doses and trained therapists at participants’ sides for after care.
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