2023-07-01 13:30:14
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Magic mushrooms contain psilocybin, which is used as a treatment for severe depression
Article informationAuthor, Gary Nunn. Role, Sydney
6 hours ago
To researchers’ surprise, earlier this year, the drug regulator approved the use of psychedelic hallucinogens to assist in therapy sessions.
The decision would include the use of psilocybin, found in magic mushrooms (or psychedelic mushrooms), in severe cases of treatment-resistant depression. The decision will also allow the use of “MDMA” drugs, also known as “ecstasy”, in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder.
The new changes will take effect from Saturday, making Australia the first country to classify narcotic drugs as medicines at the national level.
While initial access to these drugs will be limited and costly, many experts and patients have described the decision as a historic moment.
But major health organizations have called for caution.
“rise again”
Marjane Bogoa, 49, was diagnosed with severe depression in 2017. “Within two months, I lost my mother, my grandmother, my beloved dog, and my romantic relationship,” she recalls.
She couldn’t eat, shower or leave her home in Melbourne – but she says antidepressants made her “like a zombie, unable to cry, calm down or feel better”.
“I still go to bed and pray not to wake up,” she adds.
When her search for an alternative treatment led her to a psilocybin clinic in Amsterdam, she was hesitant.
image copyrightMarjane Bougeois
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Marjane Bogoa (center) resorted to an Amsterdam clinic after failing antidepressant treatment
“I don’t have a history of drug or alcohol use,” says Marjan. “As an addictions counselor, I’ve always been very against it.”
But she was desperate and wanted to escape her antidepressant treatment, so she booked herself an appointment in 2018.
She was taking psilocybin in a cup of tea. She says that “the colors became brighter. I felt reconnected with the world so strongly, warm and hazy. I moved just talking about it. It was massive, a beautiful experience of unconditional love.”
She felt recovered after three subsequent sessions. “I was able to smile, be happy and clearly go about my daily routine,” she says.
“When I got home, my friends said they saw my eyes shining again,” she adds.
When ex-soldier Glenn Boyes, 33, suggested taking low doses of narcotics to treat his severe depression, his attending physician was skeptical.
He said his doctor explained to him not to, “but he couldn’t stop me, and he did a brain scan to track my progress.”
He added that he began suffering from “post-traumatic stress disorder” while working with the army during the coronavirus lockdown in Sydney.
But after 10 weeks of low doses and therapy, scans showed that the blockages in the red areas of his brain had cleared up. “The fog cleared from my brain,” he says. “I can now think clearly again.”
Because no other country has scheduled these substances for therapeutic use at the national level, the group that has tested narcotic therapies is still small.
image copyrightGlen Boyes
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Glenboys felt a quick improvement after ten small doses of MDMA.
Professor David Nutt, Head of Neuropsychopharmacology at the British Imperial College University, congratulated Australia for its “world leadership in this vital therapeutic innovation”.
Narcotics researcher, psychotherapist Dr. Ben Sessa, described the decision as groundbreaking. “This is where the spotlight is now on drugs in the world,” he told the BBC.
Dr Sessa has resigned from his job running Britain’s main drug treatment organisation, and will spend the next 18 months traveling to Australia to deliver a tailored training program in prescribing narcotic drugs.
Other countries have explored narcotic drugs for compassionate use, including Canada, Switzerland and Israel – where regulators have resorted to similar decisions, although they have not been formally adopted at the national level as Australia has done. Narcotic clinics also operate legally in countries such as Jamaica and Costa Rica.
But all eyes will be on how Australia releases prescriptions for the two drugs, and at what price.
Ecstasy was developed as an appetite suppressant in 1912, and was used in therapy sessions in the United States until the mid-1970s, when it was banned. Ecstasy entered Australia as a drug used in parties, due to what was said about its effect on increasing energy, empathy and pleasure, and its use was criminalized in 1987.
However, research on these drugs has slowly returned after 2000 – recent tests have shown that MDMA and psilocybin can quickly improve symptoms of severe depression, although little is known about how they work.
To be licensed to prescribe these therapies, psychotherapists must apply to an ethics committee and the Medicines Regulatory Authority of Australia. And then they have to get a source to supply them with the two materials.
Once all expenses are accounted for – including the cost of the drugs themselves, supervision by multidisciplinary teams, psychiatrists’ sessions and hiring a private clinic – costs can rise to A$30,000 ($20,000) per treatment, according to one psychiatric expert.
Given the high costs, senior lecturer at Edith Cowan University in Australia, Dr. Stephen Bright, doubts that these treatments will be “available on a very wide scale”, in the period between the first year and a year and a half.
Although the president of Mind Medicine Australia – an association that promotes drug treatment – disputes the estimate, saying the cost is lower, he expects the costs will remain prohibitive for most patients, especially in the absence of planned government support.
‘Not a magic cure’
Major medical and mental health authorities have joined the vocals against drug treatment.
“There is a great deal of caution in the scientific and medical community,” said Christine Morelli, a professor of addiction medicine at the University of Sydney.
According to Mind Medicine, “the weight of applications from thousands of Australians whose psychiatric treatments are not working” contributed to the regulator’s approval.
But the Australian Medical Association and the Royal Australian-New Zealand College of Psychiatrists have expressed serious concerns. They called for large-scale studies, warning of unknown risks, long-term side effects, and “very limited benefits” from using them in treatment.
Professor Richard Harvey, Chair of the Psychedelic Treatment Steering Group at the Australian Medical Association and the Royal Australian-New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, cautioned that “Narcotic-assisted treatment may offer hope to a small number of people where other treatment attempts have failed. But it is not a panacea”.
He urged a “cautious, thoughtful and informed” approach because of “the potential for narcotic substances to cause fear, panic and trauma”. It is also unclear, he said, whether the results of narcotic treatments stem more from the substances themselves or the psychotherapy.
He added: “Simply anaesthetic-assisted treatment is in its early stages. There is more we need to know.”
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