Psychedelics have become a potential pharmacological development in the evolution of treatment for mental disorders.
LSD, psilocybin and MDMA are just a few potential psychedelics which could replace or supplement conventional drugs in treatment-resistant mental health issues, including anxiety, depression, PTSD and alcohol or drug addiction.
“There are huge unmet medical needs in treating anxiety, depression, and addiction,” Patrick Owens, a chemistry professor at Winthrop, said. “Small-scale testing in recent years – particularly at Johns Hopkins [University] – [has] yielded impressive results in treating these afflictions.”
The psychedelics considered in recent testing and studies are referred to as serotonergic psychedelics, or agonists of serotonin receptors. This means that they mimic the structure of serotonin, one of the main neurotransmitters which influence emotions, causing increased response from serotonin neurons.
“Psychedelic substances have molecular structures very similar to serotonin which is also known as 5-Hydroxytryptamine (5-HT). They are thought to be agonists or partial agonists of 5-HT 2A receptors in certain areas of the brain and activate these in such a way as to cause hallucination,” Owens said.
By activating serotonin receptors, serotonergic psychedelics show evidence of decreases in depressed mood and anxiety. Many participants in clinical testing and studies have also reported an overall increase in life satisfaction.
“From MRI studies, it appears that psychedelics lower the activity of the brain’s default mode network, the part of the brain that controls our conscious thoughts. Other parts of the brain appear to increase in activity,” Owens said. “People with anxiety worry about the future, those with depression obsess about the past… and psychedelics may free the brain to think differently.”
However, psychedelics remain classified as Schedule I drugs by the DEA. Schedule I drugs are unacceptable for medical purposes and are regarded as substances that pose a high risk for addiction.
Despite being a potential treatment option for addiction, could the medicinal use of psychedelics lead to substance dependence?
“Unlike stimulants — amphetamines & cocaine — and opioids, psychedelics are not generally addictive and not particularly lethal. They earned a poor, undeserved reputation in the 1960s and 1970s due to the misbelief in this. This has resulted in little to no medical research being done until the past decade or so,” Owens said.
Psychedelics are not unique to the modern world, as the use of psilocybin mushrooms and peyote (mescaline) dates back hundreds of centuries. After the discovery of LSD in 1938, psychedelics were researched with the intent to treat various mental disorders — until they were restricted by the Controlled Substances Act in the 1970s.
As of 2018, one in five Americans experience mental illness each year and 50 percent of individuals are likely to be diagnosed with a mental illness sometime in their life, according to the CDC.
With relatively minimal research and a lack of expansive clinical trials or studies, many professionals regard psychedelics to be a promising, yet evolving development in treating individuals with mental illnesses. Before psychedelics can be applied in the field of medicine, further research and studies will need to be conducted.
“These are very potent substances that affect individuals differently,” Owens said. “Much is still unknown. There are also concerns with human abuse of these [psychedelics] if they become more prevalent. Administration [of psychedelics] needs to be carefully controlled and studied in controlled settings.”
Photo by Marisa Fields-Williams
