News Article: Medicine hope for psychedelic drugs

BBC News UK Edition Aug 15th, 2004

Could illegal hallucinogenic drugs like LSD and psilocybin ever become credible prescription medicines?

It might sound far-fetched, but just a decade ago it seemed unlikely that the prohibited and mildly hallucinogenic drug cannabis would become a mainstream pain-killing medicine.

But it is happening: Cannabis pain-killing pills and sprays are being developed to help people with multiple sclerosis, cancer and Aids.

Now some scientists and psychotherapists think more powerful psychoactive drugs like psilocybin, found in 'magic mushrooms', could have a future as medicinal agents for a number of conditions.

In the US, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved, but not funded, a pilot study aiming to see if the euphoria and insight of a mild psychedelic 'trip' can ease the physical and emotional pain experienced by thousands of terminal cancer patients each year.

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Full article here


Thanks to bee jsorex

Well I think it's awesome news and my opinion is that with guided psycheatric help and hallucinogens such as mushrooms, alot of people could be helped...

Pretty bloody dangerous though...I don't think theres many people out there that would say psilocybin should be taken lightly. Theyll have to devise some kind of broad ranging psychological test to decide if the patient has a disposition to go awol on this sorta thing...cos some people and mushrooms eh...

Actually psilocybin is quite safe, especially when appropriate medical care is on hand. Part of the reason why people do not cope on psilocybin is due to set and setting, as well as the dose of the drug they take. Both these are mitigated in a medical setting; the psilocybin is pharmaceutical grade and dosing is exact. The person is also monitored and the medical care and facilities are there if need be.

Before anyone has a psychedelic drug like psilocybin they must be passed to ensure their bodies will be able to cope, which includes blood pressure tests etc. If you read the literature there have been many studies involving psilocybin used as possible treatments for humans, hopefully we will see the positive medical applications develop over the next decade.

There are very few documented cases of people going crazy psylocybin. There are a few reports that excess use can lead to mild short-term depression. Can't seem to find the paper.

However monthly use of ayahuasca and magic mushrooms is quite common in religious ceremonies throughout the world.

Have a look at
Stan Grofs - LSD Psychotherapy

Good book on how LSD can be used for various disorders including alcoholism.


Cheers,

Interesting read, seems that some of the studies more than two decades ago are being given more credit and investigated further.

As long as it isn't like Room 531 (DMT: Spirit Molecule), then this would be really good. If they are able to get out of bed, then a trip in a controlled park or something like that, would be really, really nice.

I highly doubt they would be able to trip out in a park after they have had the drug, Rick Strassman had enough problems getting permission to conduct his psilocybin research (following his DMT research) at a fully equipped medical location that wasn't in a hospital. The study would not be approved unless they had all the medical facilities available if they required them.

Yeah, it's a dream!

Well... most definately sounds a good idea to be researching various compounds for the treatment of mental illnesses, as mentioned above... I would be more than certain that the facilities for the drug to be researched/administered/tested will be provided (or... at least required.)

Also... I dunno why. But, I'm kind of doubting it that whoever will test these on human patients, that the patients will be taken out into the outside environment.

I'd say the patient will most probably be lying down on couch/bed, getting asked slow questions on how they're feeling and the patient would be administered with a dosage that he/she probably wouldn't even comprehend the "Psychedelic experience" off.

Dunno... it's definately a good idea to be doing these tests, but... I think alot of people have mis-interpreted how the whole set and setting would be. I don't think the end experience would involve the "trippiness", that has been known to be experienced amongst recreational users of Psilocybin.