The drugs do work

29 December 2016 By Dominic Elliott

That was the cost of mental illness in 2010, an expense set to double by 2030, says the World Economic Forum. Psilocybin, magic mushrooms’ active ingredient, has alleviated suffering in clinical trials. Illicit stigma aside, high returns on investment could make it worth a trip.

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Psilocybin, the active ingredient found in magic mushrooms, produces sustained reductions in anxiety and depression among cancer patients, the findings of two clinical studies published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology on Dec. 1 show.

One of the trials, conducted by scientists at Johns Hopkins University, studied 51 cancer patients with life-threatening diagnoses and reported that 80 percent of participants showed clinically significant decreases in depressed mood and anxiety six months after a single dose.

Another separate study of 29 patients with cancer-related anxiety and depression, mainly carried out by scientists from New York University, found that 60 percent to 80 percent of participants continued with clinically significant improvements six and a half months after taking a single dose.

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